FAA Part 107 for Surveyors: The Drone Certificate Survey Firms Require

Part 107 is the FAA's Small UAS Rule — Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 107 — the federal rule that governs how small unmanned aircraft are operated.

To fly a drone under Part 107, the pilot must hold a Remote Pilot Certificate issued by the FAA.

This is the rule the FAA uses for commercial drone work such as survey mapping.

Search "drone surveying certification" and one phrase covers three different credentials: the FAA's remote pilot certificate, voluntary mapping certifications from professional societies such as ASPRS, and the state license that governs surveying practice.

Part 107 is the first of the three — the certificate the flying itself runs on.

The rule sets the operating envelope for small UAS flights.

Under 14 CFR 107.51, a small drone flies at a maximum of 100 mph (87 knots) groundspeed and no higher than 400 feet above ground level, unless it stays within 400 feet of a structure.

The rule also requires at least 3 statute miles of visibility and cloud clearance of at least 500 feet below and 2,000 feet horizontally from clouds.

Part 107 also requires the remote pilot — or a visual observer — to keep the aircraft in unaided visual line of sight for the whole flight; flying beyond visual line of sight needs an FAA waiver.

Night flying carries its own conditions instead of a waiver requirement: a pilot who completed the initial test or training after April 6, 2021 can fly at night when the drone carries anti-collision lighting visible for at least 3 statute miles.

What Part 107 is not matters just as much for a survey career.

It is an aviation credential — it qualifies you to operate the aircraft, and it is not a surveying license.

For the job itself, the duties and the firm setting, start with the drone surveyor career guide.

The certificate attaches to the flying, not to a job title.

Whoever pilots the aircraft for the firm's mapping work needs one: a dedicated drone surveyor, a survey technician who also flies, a party chief covering layout and aerial capture, or the licensed surveyor who takes the controls.

The rule asks whether you are operating the aircraft, not what your business card says.

Office-side and ground-side roles are different.

Processing point clouds, drafting, GIS work and setting ground control are not Part 107 flying, so the certificate requirement reaches the pilots, not those roles.

One rule worth knowing for anyone who flies: the FAA says the certificate must be easily accessible during all UAS operations.

The rule also names the visual observer role.

The line-of-sight duty sits on the remote pilot, and a visual observer can help keep the aircraft in sight; the certificate requirement itself stays with the pilot.

Treat the FAA baseline as the floor.

The rule requires the certificate for the flying; whatever a firm layers on top — internal training, checked-out hours on the firm's aircraft — is that employer's own hiring decision.

The FAA publishes the process as a sequence: establish eligibility, pass the UAG knowledge test at an approved testing center, then apply and clear the security vetting.

The steps below follow that sequence.

Topics on the UAG include regulations, airspace, weather, loading and performance, emergency procedures, airport operations and night operations.

Two practical notes before you book.

The FAA's eligibility list contains no required training course: commercial drone-mapping courses are optional, skills- or employer-driven, not an FAA requirement.

And the FAA pages we read that lay out this process do not publish a test fee, so check the current fee with the testing center when you book rather than relying on a number from a prep site.

One detail the regulation itself leaves open: under 14 CFR 107.67, the minimum passing grade is specified by the FAA Administrator rather than written into the rule.

The number to plan around is the one on the FAA's current testing matrix.

The certificate itself does not expire.

What the rule polices is recency: under 14 CFR 107.65, a remote pilot may not exercise Part 107 privileges unless, within the previous 24 calendar months, they passed the initial knowledge test or completed recurrent training.

Current Part 61 pilots with a flight review have their own route under the same rule: completing the Part 107 training rather than the initial test.

The FAA's recurrent requirement is online training, not a retest, and the agency's own Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent course on FAASafety.gov costs nothing.

The practical read for a working pilot: if your 24-month window lapses, complete the recurrent training before your next Part 107 flight.

The certificate stays in your pocket the whole time; what comes back is the currency, not the certificate.

Part 107's limits are not the ceiling on what the FAA permits.

Under 14 CFR 107.200 and 107.205, the FAA can waive specific Part 107 rules.

The waivable list includes the rules mapping projects run into: visual line of sight (107.31), the operating limits (107.51), operations over people, operations over moving vehicles, multiple small UAS at once, and operation in certain airspace.

For survey work, the case to plan around is beyond visual line of sight.

A corridor or site that extends past what the pilot or a visual observer can see cannot fly under the standard rule; it needs a BVLOS waiver from the FAA.

Night work sits inside the base rule when its conditions are met: anti-collision lighting visible for 3 statute miles and an initial test or training completed after April 6, 2021 mean no night waiver is needed.

The bigger BVLOS picture is in motion.

The FAA's proposed Part 108 rule — "Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations" — had not been finalized as of October 9, 2026.

The proposed rule was published August 7, 2025, comment periods reopened in January–February 2026, and eCFR's Title 14 had no Part 108.

Check the Federal Register for the current status before you plan work around it.

Waiver decisions rest with the FAA.

Whatever a project needs from that waivable list — BVLOS, flights over people or moving vehicles, operating limits beyond the standard values — the request goes to the FAA, not to a state board, and the FAA's decision governs the flying alone.

No. The certificate authorizes aircraft operation under FAA rules; it does not authorize the practice of land surveying.

Surveying licensure is state law: each state licenses land surveyors through its own board, and the board defines what the practice includes.

NCEES's Model Rules — a model that states adapt, not a federal law — put authoritative mapping work on the professional surveyor's side of the line.

The listed activities include creating maps or georeferenced databases showing authoritative boundary, fixed-works or topographic locations, certifying positional accuracy, adjusting raw survey data, and GIS parcel mapping used to define authoritative boundaries.

Original data acquisition for orthoimagery and elevation themes used for authoritative location is listed too.

The model draws exclusions as well: transcribing previously georeferenced data into a GIS, maintaining it, and tax-map or zoning cadastres stay outside surveying so long as the data are clearly not intended to show authoritative boundaries, earth shape or fixed works.

The line runs through the word "authoritative" — deliverables that locate boundaries or certify positions are the licensed side.

The voluntary-credential piece of the phrase has an answer too.

ASPRS — the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing — certifies individuals at two levels, Mapping Scientist and Technologist, in specialty areas that include photogrammetry, remote sensing, lidar and UAS.

That is a professional credential in mapping science, distinct from the FAA certificate and from any state license.

Career information, not legal, tax or licensing advice. Confirm current Part 107 requirements with the FAA, and surveying practice rules with the board that licenses land surveyors in your state.