Do You Need A License To Fly A Hobby/Recreational or Toy Drone In The U.S?

All these drone laws can be extremely overwhelming to new hobby drone pilots. When I first started out flying drones, I was blown away at how many blog posts couldn’t give me a straight answer.

So do you need a license to fly a hobby drone? No, you do not need a license to fly any hobby, recreational, or toy drone in the U.S, as long as you’re not using them to make money. As soon as you try to make money with your drone, you’ll fall under Part 107 which means you’ll need to get a drone license.

If you’re not planning on trying to use your drone to make any money and you’re just flying for fun, then you don’t have to worry about any licence.

That being said you still need to make sure you follow FAA hobby or recreational drone laws, and you need to make sure you register your drone with the FAA, (which is extremely easy if you follow my steps.) I’ll cover all this in this article, so keep reading!

Important Recreational/Hobby, and Toy Drone Pilot Laws

Just because you’re flying as a hobby, doesn’t mean you get a pass to do whatever you want while flying your drone. According to the FAA, (Federal Aviation Administration,) all hobby drone pilots have to follow these laws in the United States while they’re flying a drone under “The exception for recreational flyers.”

So make sure you pay attention before taking to the skies, these drone laws are very important!

• Don’t fly at night unless you have full visibility of your drone. And I mean FULL. If you think you might lose sight of your drone even for a few seconds, then don’t risk it.
• On that note, keep your drone within line of sight at all times. That means you’re not allowed to fly your drone to a point where you can’t see it.
• Don’t get in the way of any other air traffic. And when there are any emergency services close by, land the drone a get out of their way.
• Don’t ever fly over vehicles or persons. This could get you a serious fine.
• Don’t drink or do drugs and fly. This includes any medication that can have some of the same effects.
• Don’t fly your drone recklessly. This includes spying on people, being a nuisance to anyone, and flying in and around buildings and people. If you’re trying to race your drone close to buildings or people, then this would be considered flying recklessly.
• Don’t fly over 400 feet above ground level. Any airspace above 400 feet is controlled airspace. If you fly here, you’ll be putting other aircraft and lives at risk so just don’t do it!
• Don’t try to make money with your drone. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, as soon as you try to make money with your drone then you’ll be considered a commercial drone pilot and you’ll be flying under part 107 instead of “exception for recreational flyers.” Now this includes even if you’re trying to sell the images or video you took as stock footage online.

If you do break any of these laws you could get a fine and in extreme cases you could even be sent to jail. Drone fines are generally around $1000, but if you want to see some real life cases where people got fines, I wrote a full article on it.

That being said, don’t let this scare you away from flying a drone. If your intentions are honest and sincere, and you’re trying to fly your drone as safely as possible, you won’t have any issues with the law.

NEW UPDATE FOR 2020: The FAA has recently announced that there will be a big update that will affect all hobby pilots in the near future.

An aeronautical knowledge and safety test will be released and all recreational drone pilots will need to take it. Once the test is passed, you’ll need to carry “proof of test passed” documents with you whenever you fly your drone. The test has not been released yet, but please view this FAA page regularly to see when they publish updates. You can also get these updates on their social media platforms here.

How To Register Your Hobby/Recreational or Toy Drone With The FAA

Registering a drone is pretty damn easy. If you’re worried at all, don’t be. It’s a simple online application that can be done in just a few minutes.

Just to be clear, you’re actually registering yourself with the FAA and not your drone. There’s a common misconception that each drone serial number is registered with the FAA, which is not true at all. Once you register YOURSELF with the FAA, you’ll get a registration number that you have to write or paste on any drone you own. This is the only way that the FAA knows that your drone belongs to you.

That being said, there’s another misconception that you need to register multiple drones. Well, you don’t need to register multiple drones with the FAA. Frankly, I don’t even think it’s possible if you tried. You do this process once, then you can paste or write this registration number on as many drones as you decide to buy.

Before you get stuck in, there’s a few things you need to know before registering your drone.

• You’ll need to make sure you have $5. If you don’t I’m not sure how you afford a drone…
• Your registration number will only last for 3 years. After that, you’ll have to do this again. This is to make sure they constantly have your updated details.
• No minors younger than 13 can register drones themselves, so you need to be over 13 years old. If you are a minor, your parents will have to register the drone for you. Just keep in mind that when you fly it to make sure they accompany you.

Ok now its time to get started. Here’s how you can register your recreational/hobby or toy drone.

1. The first step is to go to the FAA drone portal by clicking here.
2. See the “I fly under the exception for recreational flyers” text? That’s what you’ll be applying for. So click on the “register” button to the right of that.
3. It’s now going to ask you to create an account. Simply use a valid email address and choose a password you won’t forget.
4. Next, check the email that you provided. You should have an email from the FAA.
5. Once you find the email, open it and click the LOOOONG link that’s in the body of the email. This will confirm your account.
6. Now it’s time to fill in all your personal details. These are the details that will attach your drone to yourself, so make sure you use the right details.
7. Once done, click on the big blue button at the bottom.
8. Read through all the safety information. I covered most of it in the article already under the subheading “Important Hobby Drone Laws” above. Notice that this is where they mention the  “knowledge and safety test,” as a reminder it’s not released yet, but you need to make sure you keep an eye out for a notice on the FAA’s social media platforms here to be alerted when the test is released.
9. Once you’re happy, click through.
10. Now it’s time to pay that $5 I spoke about earlier. They have quite a few payment options so choose once that is the easiest for you.
11. Once payment has been completed, you’ll receive your own registration number. This number will start with “FA.”
12. The final step is to write this number on your drone as eligible as possible. Make sure you don’t skip this step, flying a drone without a registration number on the body of the drone is illegal. Here’s an infographic that shows the best way to mark your drone.

Remember that the above steps are to register a hobby drone. If you are planning on making money with your drone you’ll have to register it a bit differently. Go to the FAA’s drone zone to find more information.