Attention commercial drone operators, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently announced that pilots can now renew their Part 107 drone license online for free. On April 6, 2021 the friendly folks at the FAA restructured how Part 107 drone pilots re-up their commercial sUAS certification. Instead of physically going to a PSI testing center and paying money, the new protocol requires you to visit a couple of websites, take a two-hour-ish study course and then pass a 45-question exam. The entire process takes about three hours to complete from start to finish. Best of all, you will have to pay zero dollars and zero cents for everything!

Note: All commercial drone pilots must renew their certification every 24 months.

I went through the re-cert process on April 7th and discovered that while it’s kind of goofy, it’s very doable and a lot easier than in years past.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to renewal instructions:

Step 1: Go to: https://www.faasafety.gov/login/reg/Register.aspx and create an account. Verify your account via your email and login to the FAA Safety Website.

Step 2: Go to: https://faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?cID=677 and enroll in the “ALC-677: Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Non-Part 61 Pilots” course. Read everything carefully and watch all the silly videos.

Step 3: Take the 45-question exam and score 100% within one 90-minute test session. If you have test-taking anxiety, you’ll be happy to know that you can take the test as many times as you need to pass.

Step 4: Print your re-certification documents without ever taking out your credit card and do a little dance!

For those wanting more info, I made a YouTube video detailing my Part 107 re-test experience.