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I’m happy to report I passed the FAA Part 107 test for commercial drone pilots, Unmanned Aircraft General – Small (UAG). I scored a 90% but I know I missed a dumb question or two. I can now utilize my incredible drone flying, photography and video skills to make some money safely and legally.
Comments on the FAA 107 Test
Below are the general categories I missed questions in. I missed 6. I kind of remember some of them. I can’t believe I missed something on a METAR but I did.
One question asked if you can fly in prohibited or restricted areas. Everything I saw online said you can’t fly in prohibited (i.e. Camp David). I believe you can fly in restricted. But it said the restricted needed permission from the org that operates the restricted area, not ATC. It was a confusing question. Maybe you can fly over prohibited with permission. I’ll have to look that up.
The prior authorization required question may have been just a mistake on overlapping airspace on the sectional charts. I do remember one that I had to look at for a bit. The scenario was inspecting railroad tracks that started in G airspace and went through I believe E airspace, and back to G. I said yes on needing ATC permission, but perhaps that was wrong.
The balance, stability, gravity question was on that asked about the turbulence behind a climbing airplane and what angle or length that turbulence is. (I guess I won’t be trying to fly in the turbulence of an airplane anytime soon).
The balance/stability question may have been regarding the stall speed of an airplane which is overloaded.
“Performance data to calculate the effect on the aircraft’s performance”…. I don’t remember. If it comes back to me I’ll edit this.
Final Thoughts
I’m satisfied with a 90% but mad I didn’t get closer to a 95% because I know a question or two were probably just dumb on my part.
That said, I’m happy to now be able to take some commercial drone piloting gigs here in Utah, for money!
There are many different categories and styles I can cover with my various flying skills and 25 different drones. I can do anything from real estate to sports action. Below is a short list for SEO and reader purposes:
Related: Utah Drone Services
I just finished building a GepRC GEP-CX3 Pro recently. I haven’t built a 3″ for awhile and was itching to add another fun but small ripper to the fleet. This one I decided to put in a Caddx Vista Nebula as I have no desire to add anything analog to the fleet except for larger long range FPV quads.
The frame is an H style, so there are no props in the view of the camera. The rounded front and back make the body look like a Hebrew National, so I’ve named this on “The Hebrew National Quad.”
There was not much space for both 20×20 stacks to fit. One stack was the Vista Air Unit and the other a Mamba F405 mini stack. Wiring sticking out from either stack meant issues, but I did fit it in.
Parts List
The build went fine and the maiden flight was successful. The only issue I’ve had is the motors are hot and the battery life is not as high as I’d like. I’ve been in Betaflight messing with the gains and may have to also adjust the flight controller dampening.
I tried my 2nd Skydio 2 test flight today at a local bike park. It was quite muddy around so when I saw the park police officer there I thought I’d check in with him so make sure I was about to ride trails that were okay to ride. I had already launched my Skydio 2 and it was hovering about 30 feet front-right of me.
The cop was annoyed by the drone and asked me to move down 50 yards to talk. He didn’t realize the drone was tracking me. So after we moved I explained to him I was in control of the drone. That’s when the entertaining, but sad conversation took place.
Me: “I’m controlling that drone.”
Officer: “You can’t fly that thing under 400 feet.”
Me: “No. Drones can’t be flown OVER 400 feet.” (see pic where I’m motioning with my hand, 400 feet)
Officer: “You can’t fly that thing under 400 feet AGL.”
Me: “No. Above 400 feet. This drone won’t even fly above 400 feet. It’s programmed not to.”
Officer: “You can’t fly that thing over people.”
Me: “I’m not flying over people.”
Officer: “You can’t fly that thing over houses.”
Me: (He’s wrong, but I didn’t tell him) “I’m not flying over houses.”
Officer: “Do you have a license for that?”
Me: “Yes.”
Officer: “What’s your question?”
Me: “I just want to know what trails are okay to ride here, given the muddy conditions.”
So this officer was damn sure you can’t fly a drone under 400 feet. I didn’t ask him, but how would one launch the drone, since you know, the ground is under 400 feet AGL (above ground level). I suppose one could fly a helicopter up to 400 feet then hand launch it from there. It sounds to me like the officer had one briefing on drones and all he could remember was 400 feet.