This morning, after weeks of studying and preparation, I scored 95% and passed my FAA Part 107 sUAS Knowledge Exam!

So, what does that mean?

I am now licensed with the Federal Aviation Administration as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Pilot and can provide commercial Drone Photography and Videography services to clients anywhere in the country!

This license is required to do any commercial drone work in America's airspace, and as a freelance videographer and photographer it's something I'm excited to add to my repertoire.

About the FAA Part 107 Test

This test is no joke. It's packed with aviation lingo, aeronautical charts, and complicated (antiquated) weather reports. I was even asked about topics like airport runways and airplane weight balance, issues I'll never need to know while using my quadcopter.

They even throw some trick questions and misleading information at you just to make sure you're paying attention. If you have no interest in taking the test, feel free to skip over the next section of this blog post. But I hope it can help those of you who are considering getting your license and earning some money as a commercial drone pilot.

How I Passed the FAA Part 107 sUAS Knowledge Exam

I didn't pay for any courses or books, though that may help some studiers. For me, most of the best resources I found for studying for this test were YouTube videos, which I watched while jotting my own notes in an Evernote document.

• I first started studying over a month ago. The website UAV Coach provided a nice overview to get started, though I didn't pay for their course.
• From there I moved on to FAA's website to study for and pass their small video course and test on Drone Safety. It only covers a small part of the overall test knowledge, but by the time I took the test I was totally confident in the material covered in this little course.
• Altitude University's free video study guide was probably the biggest help I got, as it's the series I watched while taking most of my notes. If you do nothing else to study, at least watch through their program and pay particular attention to the aeronautical chart section.
• The practice exams at https://free-faa-exam.kingschools.com/drone-pilot gave me confidence and pointed out some areas of further study.
• The Drone Coach YouTube channel offered some in-depth information that provided me with at least 1 or 2 correct answers for the exam. Here's one of his videos that I watched.
• And Tony Northrup's 5-year-old study guide provided a helpful review this weekend.

In the end I finished with a 95%, correctly answering 57 out of 60 questions. This was well above the 70% (42) correct answers needed to pass. But I don't regret the time I spent studying because it'll stick with me better as I fly on the job (and come back to me quicker in 2 years when I need to pass a review).

The Questions I Saw in the Test

Those of you considering taking this test may be curious what I was tested on and challenged by. And don't be fooled by my score; I was challenged. The test took me approximately an hour and a half, but that included a slow and methodical review.

• My first question was about landing a plane on a runway at night—a topic I hadn't studied at all and had no knowledge of. Gave me a little scare to start off the test, but I just guessed the most cautious answer and hoped for the best. I likely got that wrong but it won't affect my ability to do my job safely, so I can't feel bad about that.
• Fortunately, the test quickly shifted to topics I was more comfortable answering: reading aeronautical charts, weather reports, and pilot safety procedures.
• My test was packed with questions about aeronautical charts. Fortunately, I studied them thoroughly beforehand. And the Legend is provided to you while you take the test, so memorization isn't necessary for every icon. I'm pretty confident I didn't miss any of the 20+ questions about the charts.
• The most challenging of these was a question about inspecting a tower near Dallas Airport. It asked what Class of airspace you'd be in if you flew as high as you were legally allowed to fly. I had to know that i can fly 400ft above the top of the tower, putting me just shy of 3000 feet, the floor of class B airspace, so Class B wasn't the answer. It required knowledge of about 4 different rules and markings.
• I was worried I'd get a lot of highly detailed questions on types of fog, air movement in particular weather patterns and geographies, and weather charts. Fortunately, I didn't have many of those and those that I did have weren't very tricky. So I felt like I got pretty lucky with the 60 questions I was presented with.

I hope this information gives you confidence that you can pass it too! The resources above worked great for me, but everyone benefits from a different type of studying so they may not be right for you. Good luck!

My Drone Services

Now that I have my license, I'm happy to use my drone for a variety of projects. Maybe I'll simply need 1 or 2 wide aerial establishing shots to aid a promotional video. Perhaps a drone can show a hard-to-capture angle of an interior space. Or maybe you'd like aerial imagery or 4k video of your farm land, college campus, or business. Here are just a few ideas of footage we can shoot together.

• Aerial farm imagery
• Beauty shots of college or corporate campuses
• Large inside spaces like gyms or concert halls
• Overhead shots of products
• Before and After shots of renovations or new construction
• Inspecting or capturing beautiful shots of solar panels or wind turbines

No matter which idea piques your interest, I look forward to getting to work. Call me up and invite me out for a shoot. Let's go flying.