FAA Issued Important Clarification on Registering Commercial and Recreational Drones

Many of us have multiple drones and typically have one or two birds we typically fly. Good news is you do NOT need to register your recreational or commercial drones if they are being operated only indoors OR they are not being operated at all. This means you can save $5 and not register your Phantom 2 vision sitting in the back of your attic, closet, or garage. Remember recreational drone operators get one registration they apply to all their drones while commercial operators register each drone.

The FAA explained this in a recent letter dated March 2, “A small unmanned aircraft owner need only register aircraft operated in the national airspace system (NAS). See 14 C.F.R. §§ 47.3(b) and 48.15. Thus, you need not immediately register those small unmanned aircraft that you do not anticipate flying for two to three years. As long as you complete the registration process provided by either, 14 C.F.R. part 47 or 14 C.F.R. part 48 prior to operation of your small unmanned aircraft in the NAS, you will be in compliance with aircraft registration requirements. See 14 C.F.R. §§ 47.3(b), 48.5(a) and 48.15.”

Keep in mind that if you are going to register at some point in the future, you should consider going the Part 47 paper based method as the Part 48 registration process is currently being challenged by John Taylor in a lawsuit in the D.C Circuit Court of Appeals. (I’m helping him).  There is a good chance the drone registration regulations will be struck down as violating the Administrative Procedures Act and Section 336. A more detailed analysis is here. Save yourself the potential headache of re-registering your drone under Part 47 if the Part 48 registry is struck down as invalid and just register via Part 47.

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