Making The Grade

How to study for and pass the FAA’s Part 107 Exemption exam.

- John Reid

When I tell fellow drone pilots that I have my remote pilot’s license, the first question they usually ask is “Was the unmanned aircraft test hard?” This is a subjective question, and much will depend on your background and experience with full-size aircraft. If you’ve never had any experience with any type of aircraft and have never heard the term “controlled airspace,” then the test may be somewhat difficult, even after you take a class and study for it. But if you have any experience with flying and airspace, that knowledge will make it much easier to understand the concepts that relate to the questions on the test. If you already have a pilot’s license, of course, then this should be an easy test. So my answer is always “It depends.”

As a magazine editor, I am used to deadlines, so my first task was to schedule the test two weeks out. Once that was done, I had a study timeframe in which to find all the information I needed to learn it and pass the test.

Getting Ready

In this article, I will cover the ways I studied for the test and some tricks I have learned over the years to successfully pass any test. The first piece of advice—and this may seem obvious—is that you must know the material. This means you need to understand the material, not just be aware of it. Knowing that there is a difference, for example, between Class B and Class D airspace is not enough; you need to understand the difference between them and the exact definition of each. My objective was to learn and know the definitions of all the items that might be included on the test.