Background of UAS Regulation

Your Instructor

Your instructor for the Regulation portion of the course is Andrew Zimmitti. He is a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips, in Washington, DC. You can read more about Mr. Zimmitti on our About Us page.

Former UAS Regulations

Before August 29, 2016, if you wanted to fly drones for commercial purposes, you were required to obtain a special exemption from the FAA which was commonly referred to as a "Section 333" exemption. All of those special approvals from the FAA required drone operators to have a license to fly a manned aircraft, such as a private pilot or sport pilot certificate.

Part 107 Regulations

As of August 29, 2016, new rules apply to drone operations. The new rules are referred to as "Part 107", after their location in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is officially 14 CFR 107. Under the new Part 107 rules, prospective commercial drone pilots no longer need a regular, manned aircraft license (as mentioned above). Rather, a commercial drone pilot needs to obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate with a Small UAS rating. One of the requirements for obtaining the Remote Pilot certification is passing the Unmanned Aircraft FAA Knowledge Exam.

(Helpful Link: You can sign up for the exam HERE)

Part 107 Regulation Updates

Since the Part 107 regulations were created, there has been a number of updates over the years. We are working to make sure that our course is up to date with any new Part 107 updates that are released, and you have access to all of our updates. The latest updates occurred on April 21, 2021. New content has since been added into our course and you will find most of those updates in our regulations section below.