Part 107, Plain English

Part 107 certification, registration, waivers, airspace, and the operational rules for commercial drone cleaning.

Send me the playbook

Every cleaning drone job is a commercial drone flight, and every commercial drone flight under 55 pounds total takeoff weight in the United States runs on FAA Part 107. Heavier aircraft fall outside Part 107 and need a different FAA authorization path. This is not legal advice. It is the practical version: what the rules say, what they mean when your aircraft is spraying a facade, and what you need in place before the first job.

Do I really need a Part 107 certificate to clean buildings with a drone?

Yes. An unmanned aircraft under 55 pounds at takeoff, including everything onboard and attached, flown for work is a commercial operation, and that requires a Remote Pilot Certificate with a small UAS rating. Bare-aircraft weight is not the number that counts: tanks, hoses, and payloads all weigh in. No cleaning exemption exists. The FAA path is three steps: learn the rules, get certificated, register the aircraft.

What does getting the certificate actually involve?

You must be at least 16, able to read, write, speak, and understand English, and fit to fly safely. Pass the Unmanned Aircraft General knowledge test at an FAA-approved testing center, then complete your application through the FAA's IACRA system. Register each aircraft at FAADroneZone for 5 dollars, good for three years, mark it with its registration number, and you are legal to fly. Recurrent training keeps the certificate current.

The test covers airspace, weather, loading, emergency procedures, and the operating rules. It is a real exam, but working operators pass it every week. Treat studying as week one of your training program.

My drone is on a tether. Does Part 107 still apply?

Yes. This is one of the most common misunderstandings in the industry. A tethered drone is still an unmanned aircraft, and tethered operations under Part 107 are still Part 107 flights. The tether changes your power logistics, not your regulatory status. You need the certificate, registration, and Remote ID, and you fly under the same operating rules. The one airspace situation where Part 107 genuinely does not apply is fully indoor operations, since the FAA's rules govern the National Airspace System. A courtyard with open sky above it is outdoors.

How high can I legally fly on a building?

The headline rule from 14 CFR 107.51 is 400 feet above ground level. The second sentence matters more for cleaning work: within a 400-foot radius of a structure, you may fly up to 400 feet above the structure's uppermost limit. If the building is 200 feet tall and you stay within 400 feet of it, you can legally work up to 600 feet to clean the top. That provision is what makes tall-facade cleaning possible under Part 107 without a waiver.

The rest of 107.51 applies to every flight: 100 mph maximum groundspeed, 3 statute miles minimum visibility from the control station, and no closer than 500 feet below or 2,000 feet horizontally from a cloud. The visibility rule sneaks up on operators. Three statute miles is a clear day. Haze, wildfire smoke, and low marine layers can put you below minimums without you realizing it.

Can I fly at dawn, dusk, or after dark?

Daylight needs no explanation. The rule also covers civil twilight, the 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset, with anti-collision lighting. Night operations are allowed without a waiver since the 2021 rule update, with anti-collision lighting visible for 3 statute miles, kept on during the flight.

Early morning and evening flights are often when buildings are least occupied, which helps with the over-people rules below. But night operations in controlled airspace still require airspace authorization, and working a facade in the dark brings safety questions the FAA does not cover. Legal and smart are not always the same flight.

What about flying near airports?

Operations in controlled airspace, the surface areas around most towered airports, require prior authorization from air traffic control. For Part 107 operators, the standard path is LAANC, the FAA's Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, which provides near-real-time authorizations at participating airports, or a manual authorization request through the FAA's portal. Check airspace for every job site before the job. Plenty of commercial buildings sit inside controlled airspace, especially in metro areas. Finding that out on job morning is an amateur mistake.

Can I fly over people on the sidewalk or in the parking lot?

This is the rule that shapes cleaning operations more than any other. Under 107.39, flying over human beings is restricted, and the 2021 rule created four categories of compliant operations. A purpose-built cleaning aircraft weighs far more than 0.55 pounds with exposed rotors, so the easy categories do not apply to it. Your compliant options are: fly only over people directly participating in the operation, fly over people under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that would protect them, operate within a closed or restricted-access site where everyone present has been notified a drone may fly over them, or obtain a waiver.

In field terms: cones, barriers, signage, a crew member on the perimeter, and occupancy coordinated with the property manager. Flying a 50-pound spray aircraft over an open sidewalk because it will only take a minute is exactly the kind of operation that ends businesses.

What about cars driving past the building?

Separate rule, 107.145, and it is strict. You may not fly over a human being inside a moving vehicle unless the operation stays within a closed or restricted-access site where everyone is on notice, or the overflight is transient, meaning you pass over without sustaining flight there. Loitering, hovering, or making repeated passes over a road with moving traffic is prohibited. For facade work along a street, plan transits so the aircraft crosses traffic corridors quickly and never parks over them. If the building fronts a busy road, solve that with the property manager before the job, not mid-flight.

What is Remote ID, and does my cleaning drone need it?

Remote ID is the FAA's requirement that drones broadcast identification and location information during flight, essentially a digital license plate. Since September 16, 2023, any drone that requires FAA registration must broadcast Remote ID unless flown within an FAA-recognized identification area. Every commercial cleaning drone requires registration, so every commercial cleaning drone needs Remote ID, built in or added as a broadcast module. When you buy an aircraft, confirm which one you are getting.

What happens if something goes wrong?

You are the remote pilot in command. The operation is your responsibility, and 107.9 requires you to report to the FAA within 10 calendar days any operation causing serious injury or property damage over 500 dollars, excluding the aircraft itself. Keep flight logs, maintenance records, and incident notes as a habit. If the FAA or an insurer asks what happened, "I do not remember" is not an answer.

So what goes on the compliance checklist?

Before the first paid job, check every box:

• Remote Pilot Certificate in hand, with recurrent training current
• Aircraft registered at FAADroneZone, registration number marked on the airframe
• Remote ID broadcasting, confirmed before flight
• Airspace checked per job site, LAANC or FAA authorization where required
• Work-zone setup: barriers, signage, a perimeter crew member, occupancy coordinated with the property manager
• A written flight plan per site: where the aircraft will and will not go, especially near roads and pedestrians
• Preflight inspection completed every flight, including control link check
• Anti-collision lighting on the aircraft and functional, for twilight and night work
• Flight logs and maintenance records kept as a habit, not as an afterthought
• Incident reporting procedure understood: serious injury or property damage over 500 dollars gets reported to the FAA within 10 days

None of this is exotic. It is the boring, repeatable discipline that separates a business from a hobby with invoices. If you want to understand how the aircraft, the regulations, the insurance, and the job economics fit together before you spend anything, that is what the needs interview is for. The book covers the full operating picture in one place.

What I could not verify from a primary source: the FAA pages confirm the certificate process, registration, Remote ID date, and waiver list, and the eCFR text confirms the operating rules cited. State and local permits vary too widely to summarize; check the rules in every jurisdiction where you fly.

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