I looked and didn't see anything on this so I'm posting my experience. Maybe it will help someone else in the future.
I currently hold a private pilot's license and got myself a drone. My buddy egged me on to get the Part 107 cert, "It will be easy for you", he said. Uh huh. So...about a week ago I searched and found the requirements and the online course on the FAA's site. It's free and all. They accurately said that it would take about two hours. I always hated school so it was a grinding two hours and they don't have a meter that shows progress through the course. It went on forever. Then...at last...that 'Finished course' tab showed up and it was test time. 44 multiple choice questions, three options on each. You need a 100 on this test to pass but they send you back to the test with your wrong answers highlighted and you get to correct them. I got about six wrong the first round and two wrong the second round. Third round was easy because I already chose the wrong two. Voila, we have a winner! Download and print out my prize, saved to folder labeled 'Drone' on the laptop. Then open an IACRA account and fill in the blanks on the application. They do a good job of ensuring that you don't miss anything on that application too. Save to folder marked 'Drone' and print. Now we're grooving, all I need is an official to finish it up.
In the course of my research, I read that a certified flight instructor (CFI) could finish me off and I don't need to go to the FSDO in Allentown. Being a pilot and hanging around at the airport, I know a CFI or two but my neighbor who is a commercial pilot, also has a couple of CFI certs and we help each other out, so I hit him up. He knows nothing about this so I call the FSDO in Allentown and they verify that I read correctly and his credentials are sufficient. He doesn't need to be a drone instructor, he just needs to have the right credentials to check my credentials. He is already familiar with certifying multi-engine and instrument pilots so this should be easy. It could have been easier but he's pretty smart (I like my commercial pilots to be smart) and he figured it out. It took a little bit of figuring but once again, the FAA did a good job of ensuring that he couldn't do it wrong. According to the FAA and from what I read, the only downside to having a CFI perform this task is that he cannot issue the temporary Part 107 certificate and I'd have to wait for it to be mailed.
We chat a little, I give him some homemade bacon and some steaks that I've aged as gratuity for his help and he goes home. Just to see what my IACRA account looks like now, I logged on and it showed me as Part 107 certified. It even had a tab to press to 'view certification'. Sure enough, there it was, my shiny new temporary Part 107 certification.
So...here I sit, a shiny new Part 107 sUAS pilot. Now to figure out what I can do with it.
I currently hold a private pilot's license and got myself a drone. My buddy egged me on to get the Part 107 cert, "It will be easy for you", he said. Uh huh. So...about a week ago I searched and found the requirements and the online course on the FAA's site. It's free and all. They accurately said that it would take about two hours. I always hated school so it was a grinding two hours and they don't have a meter that shows progress through the course. It went on forever. Then...at last...that 'Finished course' tab showed up and it was test time. 44 multiple choice questions, three options on each. You need a 100 on this test to pass but they send you back to the test with your wrong answers highlighted and you get to correct them. I got about six wrong the first round and two wrong the second round. Third round was easy because I already chose the wrong two. Voila, we have a winner! Download and print out my prize, saved to folder labeled 'Drone' on the laptop. Then open an IACRA account and fill in the blanks on the application. They do a good job of ensuring that you don't miss anything on that application too. Save to folder marked 'Drone' and print. Now we're grooving, all I need is an official to finish it up.
In the course of my research, I read that a certified flight instructor (CFI) could finish me off and I don't need to go to the FSDO in Allentown. Being a pilot and hanging around at the airport, I know a CFI or two but my neighbor who is a commercial pilot, also has a couple of CFI certs and we help each other out, so I hit him up. He knows nothing about this so I call the FSDO in Allentown and they verify that I read correctly and his credentials are sufficient. He doesn't need to be a drone instructor, he just needs to have the right credentials to check my credentials. He is already familiar with certifying multi-engine and instrument pilots so this should be easy. It could have been easier but he's pretty smart (I like my commercial pilots to be smart) and he figured it out. It took a little bit of figuring but once again, the FAA did a good job of ensuring that he couldn't do it wrong. According to the FAA and from what I read, the only downside to having a CFI perform this task is that he cannot issue the temporary Part 107 certificate and I'd have to wait for it to be mailed.
We chat a little, I give him some homemade bacon and some steaks that I've aged as gratuity for his help and he goes home. Just to see what my IACRA account looks like now, I logged on and it showed me as Part 107 certified. It even had a tab to press to 'view certification'. Sure enough, there it was, my shiny new temporary Part 107 certification.So...here I sit, a shiny new Part 107 sUAS pilot. Now to figure out what I can do with it.
