FAA Announces Regulatory Relief Updates for Part 107 Recurrence Exam Testing

Update; This was filed to day and is scheduled to be published in the Federal Registry on May 4, 2020.

April 29, 2020

The FAA has published a wide-ranging Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) (PDF) that provides regulatory relief to pilots, crew members and other FAA certificate holders who have been unable to comply with certain training, recency-of-experience, testing, and checking requirements due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

In Summary; Under the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, eligible remote pilots who would normally establish recency of knowledge in accordance with §107.65(a) or (b) may complete online training as an alternative if required to establish recency between April 2020 and June 2020. The remote pilot may complete the FAA-developed initial or recurrent online training courses at www.faasafety.gov one time to establish knowledge recency for six calendar months.

However, because the courses do not include all of the knowledge areas that a remote pilot is required to be tested on every 24 calendar months, the remote pilot will need to establish knowledge recency in accordance with §107.65 at the conclusion of the six calendar months.

Here is what you will need to do;

Register at www.faasafety.gov.

Enroll in either;

ALC-451 Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft System (small UAS) Initial
ALC-515 Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (small UAS) Recurrent

It will take approximately 2 hours to complete this material, to include; introduction, course content, downloadable reference materials, course review and the take the test.

Remember, this test is for drone pilots that need to take their recurrent knowledge test between April 2020 and June 2020 only.  The renewal is only temporary and will authorize you to operate a small unmanned aircraft system under Part 107 for a duration of six calendar months from the month in which the you completed the online training course.  You must take and pass your standard Unmanned Aircraft General (UGR) test before those 6 months are up.   

Please review the complete text from the FAA’s COVID-19 Relief if you have further questions.