the commercial drone industry is one of the fastest growing Industries in the world but in order to fly drones for money or business use you have to have something called a remote pilot certificates in this video I'm going to show you exactly how to get it I've broken the process down into nine steps for you the process involves creating some accounts on government websites taking a 60 question test at a testing center and you guessed it filling out a ton of government forms we'll cover it all in this video my name is David Young I'm a licensed FAA Advanced ground instructor and the founder of drone launch Academy let's Dive In the first step out of all the steps is to make sure that you are actually eligible to become a remote pilot in command and get your remote pilot certificate as far as what a remote pilot certificate is you can think of it like a commercial driver's license for a drone there are three requirements that the FAA has for you to become a commercial drone operator number one is you have to be at least 16 years old I guess they think if you're old enough to safely operate a car that they think you're old enough to safely operate a drone the second one is that you have to read write understand and speak English and this one Tri trip some people up especially if they're from another country coming to the US and wanting to get the remote pilot certificate but the reason for this is is that English is actually the international language of civil aviation so anytime you're going to be communicating with the FAA or maybe even talking to the air traffic control Towers or someone else involved in the aviation process everything is done in English even if you're in a foreign country and the third and final requirement is that you have to be mentally and physically fit to be able to safely operate a drone that's a bit subjective but I think you'll probably know it when you see it for instance if you can't see anything and blind it's going to be hard to safely operate a drone because you're not going to know where it is also if you had the unfortunate event of having both your hands chopped off it's also going to be hard to operate a drone unless you can figure out some type of other method to do it safely so you have to be mentally and physically fit to fly a drone they're going to ask you that question when you go to do your application to get their certificate so they just want you to know that upfront if you're not sure about your specific situation you could always book a time to speak to an FAA medical examiner I'll put a link in the description below where you can go and find a medical examiner near you now the second thing you need to do is get an fa fa a tracking number or something called an ftn you can think of this like your student ID or social security number for everything that relates to the FAA now to get an FAA tracking number you have to create an account on the aakra website iacra stands for integrated Airman certification and rating system yes that is a huge mouthful but hey wouldn't be the government without some crazy acronyms right all right I'm going to fly through this next part because it is pretty boring but I will put detailed instructions down in the description below if you really want to dig in but let's go through this you want to go to the homepage and at the top right click register after that you're going to see like a thousand check boxes and the one you want to click is called applicant then you're going to want to fill out all of your personal information in the first section where it says certificate information you're going to leave that blank for now since you don't have one so for the rest of it you're going to put in your name your email your date of birth create a username password and then register now on the next screen you should see your FAA tracking number along with your username for the iacra system now make sure you take a screenshot of this number your FAA tracking number or write it down somewhere because you're going to need it to sign up for your test and to register and get your licens once you pass your test so make sure you don't lose it make sure you have this number all right on to step three after you have your ftn the next thing you're going to want to do is start studying for the faa's part 107 exam this test is technically called the unmanned aircraft General small UAG exam quite a mouthful but everyone else in the world generally calls it the part 107 exam now this exam is 60 Questions all multiple choice and you're going to have to pass it with a 70% or higher to actually get your remote pilot certificate so that means you need to answer at least 42 of the 60 Questions questions correctly this test is taken at a testing center where you're not allowed to bring in any cell phones or anything else I'll dive into scheduling the test here in just a sec but let's first talk about what's on the exam here's a list from the fa as to what is actually on the exam but having taken this exam several times myself and having trained over 25,000 other people to take and pass it let me tell you what's really on the exam and what you actually need to focus on the main types of questions that always trip people up are sectional chart and airspace questions you're going to get these sectional chart questions and what sectional charts are they're basically just like Aviation Maps uh you're going to need to know how to interpret them how to read them what the different symbols mean and be very familiar with how to know if you can or can't fly somewhere so from what I've seen these types of questions about airspace sectional charts typically make up about 40% of the test sometimes half the next biggest area you're going to want to focus on is drone regulations you need to be very familiar with the part of the federal code that deals with drone laws this is 14 CFR part 107 which is where the test name part 107 comes from you're going to need to know everything from how fast you can go all about drone regist if you're coming from a foreign country accident reporting all these different rules that are specific to drones that they're going to ask you questions on for the test after regulation I would focus on weather you're going to need to know all about how different types of weather impact drone flight and drone operations you're also going to need to know how to read certain weather reports that Pilots use something called a mear which isn't really that useful as a drone pilot right now which is basically a series of letters and numbers that tells you about the weather at a certain location this is like deciphering one of those codes that you used to get in the cial box when you were a kid so will you use this in your day-to-day Life as a commercial drone pilot probably not but the FAA still wants you to know how to read it since it is an aviation weather related information item after that you're going to need to know all the other stuff that makes up the exam the Lesser portion like Weight and Balance physiology emergency procedures crew Resource Management radio communications airport operations and maintenance procedures I know it feels like a lot so in order to help I put together this 7-Day study plan PDF and I'll link it down below in the description if you want to go download it but it shows you all the specific topics you need to study it shows you how to register for the exam how to break it down which topics you should study on which day uh that way you can pass the exam in s days and have kind of a good plan going forward so if you want that it's down below once you've done enough studying to feel like you're ready for your test it is time to register for and schedule a time for your exam right now all the part 107 exams are administered by a company called PSI they have a direct relationship with the FAA and they do all of the testing now their fee to take this test is $175 every time you take it and it goes directly to them it doesn't go to the FAA so don't complain about that so if you fail you have to pay $175 to take the test over so make sure you're prepared and ready for it the very first time you go into it all right if you're wanting a walkthrough of exactly what to do on the PSI site I'm going to go through that really quickly so if you're trying to follow along in detail just slow the video down but I'm going to go fast in case you are bored to Tears by this section all right you're going to go to fa. psi exams.com then you're going to create an account now do you remember that FAA tracking number you got in step two the ftn you're going to need that here so create an account with PSI using your ftn and your first and last name then you're going to click through some user terms and it's going to bring you to a screen where you have to give them your email address and then create another username and password for the PSI site specifically then it's going to ask you for even more information like date of birth phone number address citizenship and Military status all right now you finally have an active PSI account now on the next screen you're going to see a list of like 50 different tests you can sign up for you're going to want to find the one at the very bottom of the list that is called unmanned aircraft General small with the abbreviation UAG that is the official FAA name of the part 107 exam you're going to select that one it's going to double check check with you twice that that's the exact exam you want to take because after you take it you can't get a refund for it then they're going to ask you about the number of times you've attempted the exam including the one you're currently registering for so if you've never taken this test before you're going to put one because this is your first attempt if you've taken it once in the past you're going to put two because this is your second attempt and so on and so forth now the next part might confuse you a little bit it's going to ask for authorization category you are going to select none because you don't need any authorization for your first attempt on the FAA 107 exam now if you fail the exam and you go to take it again you're going to have to wait at least 14 days to do a retake and you're going to need to bring your score report with you to the testing center so if that's you for the authorization you're going to select failed Airman Knowledge Test report they are really rubbing it in that you failed and you're coming back again for another one all right and then on the next screen it's going to ask you if you need any test accommodations so answer that move on all right then it finally takes you to a screen where you can select a testing center and book and register for a specific time slot now if you want to see the location of testing centers in your area without having to go through all this rig roll of signing up for a PSI account and all this nonsense you can just go to that main PSI FAA homepage that we went to at the beginning of this step and click find a testing center right there in the middle make sure to put a link down in the description of the video Below in case you want to go directly to it all right after creating an account on PSI booking a testing center date and time and paying for your test you are ready to go to the next step step five is to actually go and take your test most of these testing centers are at airports or flight schools so sometimes they can be a little bit tricky to find make sure you give yourself a few extra minutes to get there so you can get checked in know where you're going and get settled in before your test the only thing you're going to need to bring with you on test day is your ID it needs to be some type of government issued ID like passport or a driver's license now you can also bring a magnifying glass with you if you want that might sound a little ridiculous but one complaint I have heard from people is that the charts that they give you to read on test day can get a little fuzzy and the resolutions not that it so a magnifying glass might help you be able to see charts Al these I've never had that problem in my experience taking tests but I've heard other people complain about it so it's up to you uh there really shouldn't be anything complicated on this test math wise so you really shouldn't need a cal you can add and subtract numbers you're smart enough to do math on this test in your head or on a scratch piece of paper you just going be really simple arithmetic questions like hey if you're going to fly over this Tower and you go 400 feet above it how high can you fly above the tower so you're just going to take the height of the tower add 400 feet and that's literally all the math of test but with that said technically you can bring a simple calculator with you onto the test but there's also a calculator function on the computer that you're going to be using so you really don't need one but it's up to you as well but you cannot bring with you into the test is your cell phone or an iPad or some other type of electronic device when you go to take your test is going to give you little Packy which are your test supplements that's going to have all stuff in there like the maps we've been talking about uh some of the weather charts some other graphs that you're going to to use reference while you take your inil it will also give you a scratch sheet of paper and some pencils for jotting things down taking notes doing and anything they give you you have to leave with them when you leave the testing so you make notes thinking you're going to take those home with you to study for next time not going to happen give everything that they give you give it back to them at the end of the testing you're going to have 120 minutes so 2 hours to finish all the questions you only have to answer 60 Questions on multiple choice so that's about 2 minutes per question honestly that is way more than enough time uh out of 255,000 people that we've traded to take this test I have yet to hear one person complain they ran out of time most people said they finish in way less time they thought they would one nice thing is after you finish your test and you hit submit you will instantly find out if you passed or failed and you'll also get to see all the questions that you now it's not going to tell you the right answers but at least you can get an idea of what topics that you were weak on once you're all finished and hopefully the testing center is going to print out something called your Knowledge Test report this is going to have your score on it a little bit of info about the questions you missed but most importantly it is going to have your exam ID and your FAA tracking number which you are going to need for the next step and a quick side note if you do happen to fail your test make sure you hang on to this Knowledge Test report because you're going to need that when you schedule your exam retake you have to bring that same paper back with you and hand it to the people at the testing center that brings us to our next step step six which is where you will fill out a form to officially get your license the exact form is FAA form 8710-1 3 awesome government numbering system basically you're just going to log on to the iacra system that you set up in step two and request that the FAA process your test that you just took so I'm going to run through this real quick in case you are at that step and you want to do this and in case you're interested in seeing how the process works you're going to see what you need to do when you get here so number one you're going to go to the iacra homepage you're going to log into the account that you created earlier in step two then you're going to click Start new application the system might prompt you to add new information like eye color weight height and some other personal details now this may seem like a bit of a stretch for data but the FAA actually requires this information for all Airmen which are regular Mand Aviation pilots and drone operators so once you update that it might bring you back and you might have to click start application again but once you do that and you get to where your need to be it will look like this you're going to select pilot then you're going to select remote pilot and then the rest of those sections should just automatically fill then continue on and it'll prompt you about some questions on if you can read write speak and understand English and also ask you if you have any type of criminal drug history then in the basis of issuance section this is where you're going to enter that exam ID that you got from the testing center report you're going to need that exam ID along with your driver's license or some other type of identification then the last set of questions they're going to ask you is if you've been denied an Airman certificate before and if you are mentally and physically capable and fit to have a remote pilot certificate once you answer those you can go ahead and review and submit once that's submitted the FAA will check that stuff against the score report from the testing center and then send it to the next step which is the TSA background check step seven there's really nothing for you to do except wait the TSA is going to do a quick background check to make sure you're not a terrorist or a spy you know since terrorists and spies typically comply with government rules once they make sure you're not a terrorist or a spy they're going to make sure you haven't committed any other major crimes and then they're going to issue you a temporary Airman certificate now if you're wondering what types of other major crimes would disqualify you from getting a remote pilot certificate put a link below in the description to the TSA website where they talk about disqualifying offenses waiting periods and all that stuff most of the ones that are on the disqualifying list are like serious felonies like arson murder stuff like that but it generally takes TSA about 48 hours to do this check it can take longer if they've got a big backlog but everybody I know has had it in about 48 hours it's been done then they can move on to the next step once your background check is clear you can log back into iacra look on that main page you should see the status of your application right there and be able to view and print your brand new temporary Airman certificate after you have this temporary certificate you're now officially a certified remote pilot and can operate as a remote pilot in command basically you're a commercial drone operator one thing to note make sure you keep this paper with you anytime you flying your drone this is your license so if you're out there flying and a law enforcement officer or someone else comes up to you and they need to see proof of your license this sheet of paper is what you're going to give them all right in Step nine the FAA is going to mail you your physical remote pilot certificate in the mail this little card right here this can take several weeks sometimes up to like six weeks so be patient with it now honestly this doesn't really change anything for you other than just feeling more official by having this card you can put in your wallet and carry around with you uh you still have all the same rights and privileges that you had before when you had your temporary paper certificate uh but now you're just official you can sign the back and uh you have the little hologram on there feels nice to have so once you have this card don't lose it put it somewhere safe um I usually put mine in my wallet or sometimes I'll put it in my drone case if I'm only operating with one drone so if you have one drone you can slip in that drone case that way you always have it on you when you're flying your drone uh or put it in your wallet the very last thing you need to keep in mind is Step 10 one of the requirements for having a valid remote pilot certificate is that every 2 years you have to do something called recurrent training and it used to be that you had to go to a testing center and take another test and pay for fees and all that crap but the FAA has changed it to now all you got to do is go on to their website take a free training that will update you on any new drone laws regulations anything else they want you to know take a short little quiz and then they'll issue you a certificate and now you are good to go and you are valid for another two years so if you followed all 10 of those steps congrats you are officially a certified remote pilot in command with your remote pilot certificate now I know that might feel like a ton of steps and a bunch of Hoops to jump through but remember the whole point of these regulations is to hopefully keep the skies friendly and safe for everyone now if you want help studying for the part 107 exam check out our prep course that has been used by over 25,000 people we have an over 99% pass rate on it we've got tons of reviews we even guarantee that you will pass on your very first time where we will completely refund all the money you paid us plus we'll reimburse you $175 for your testing center fees it's truly the most painless and fastest way to pass there's a link for that down below along with the discount code in case you want to check that out but otherwise good luck out there fly responsibly and enjoy the view from above happy droning