FAA rules for recreational drone flyers
These rules apply in every state, on every flight made for fun. They cover the air; permission to use the ground is a separate question.
Who counts as a recreational flyer
You fly under the FAA’s “Exception for Limited Recreational Operations” when the flight is purely for personal enjoyment. The FAA points out that payment is not the only test: taking photos to help sell a house or inspecting a roof as a favor is not recreation, even if nobody pays you. Flights like those fall under Part 107, which has its own certificate and rules and is outside the scope of this guide.
The ten rules, in the FAA’s sequence
Fly only for fun. The flight has to be for personal enjoyment.
Follow a community-based organization’s safety guidelines. The FAA recognizes several such organizations and lists them on its website.
Keep the drone in sight. Either you can see it with your own eyes, or a visual observer standing next to you and talking with you can.
Give way to other aircraft. Never interfere with crewed aircraft.
Get authorization in controlled airspace. In Class B, C and D airspace and surface Class E around airports, fly only with prior authorization through LAANC or FAADroneZone, at or below the authorized altitude.
Stay at or below 400 feet in uncontrolled (Class G) airspace.
Pass TRUST — The Recreational UAS Safety Test — and carry proof that you passed.
Register and mark your drone if it weighs 250 grams (0.55 lb) or more, and carry proof of registration.
Broadcast Remote ID if your drone has to be registered, unless you fly inside an FAA-recognized identification area.
Do not endanger the national airspace system. Reckless flying can lead to FAA enforcement.
Source: FAA — Recreational flyers (page updated March 18, 2026). As of October 2026.
TRUST: the safety test
Every recreational flyer has to pass The Recreational UAS Safety Test, whatever the drone weighs. The FAA describes it as free and online; it is offered through approved test administrators listed on the FAA website. Keep the completion certificate — you must be able to show it if law enforcement or the FAA asks.
Registration: $5 for three years
Registration happens on FAADroneZone, the FAA’s own portal. For recreational flyers it costs $5, lasts three years and covers every drone in your inventory, so you register yourself once rather than each aircraft. You must be at least 13; for a younger owner, someone 13 or older registers. Mark the registration number on the outside of each drone.
Drones that weigh less than 250 grams and are flown only for recreation do not need to be registered. Every other rule on this page still applies to them.
Source: FAA — How to register your drone. As of October 2026.
Remote ID: three ways to comply
Remote ID is the ability of a drone in flight to provide identification and location information that others can receive through a broadcast signal. It applies to drones that are registered or required to be registered. There are three routes:
- A Standard Remote ID drone — built by the manufacturer to broadcast its identity and the location of the drone and its control station.
- A broadcast module — an add-on that retrofits an older drone. You must keep the drone in sight for the whole flight.
- An FAA-recognized identification area (FRIA) — a defined place, often a model-aircraft field, where drones without Remote ID may fly as long as they stay inside it and within sight.
Source: FAA — Remote identification of drones. As of October 2026.
Checking the airspace with B4UFLY
B4UFLY is an FAA service that shows where recreational flyers can and cannot fly. Since February 2024 it has been delivered through several FAA-approved providers rather than a single app. The FAA currently lists Airspace Link, Aloft, AutoPylot, Avision, FlightLoop (desktop only) and UASidekick. Their maps show controlled airspace, airports, special use airspace, national parks, military training routes and temporary flight restrictions.
One limit is worth remembering: these maps describe the air. They do not reliably tell you whether a park agency lets you take off from the ground below.
Source: FAA — B4UFLY (page updated August 25, 2026). As of October 2026.
What the FAA does not decide
The FAA has nothing to say about whether you may stand in a particular park with a controller in your hand. That belongs to the land manager. Continue with state park rules or with national parks and other federal land.