How high can you fly a drone under Part 107?

400 feet above ground level, or within a 400-foot radius of a structure and no higher than 400 feet above that structure’s immediate uppermost limit — § 107.51(b).

What is the maximum speed under Part 107?

87 knots groundspeed, which § 107.51(a) also expresses as 100 miles per hour.

What visibility do you need to fly under Part 107?

At least 3 statute miles of flight visibility, observed from the location of the control station.

How far do you have to stay from clouds?

500 feet below and 2,000 feet horizontally. The rule states no distance above a cloud.

Can these limits be waived?

Yes. § 107.51 appears on the list of waivable sections in § 107.205, and the FAA has issued waivers for operations above 400 feet. Carriage of hazardous material under § 107.36 is not waivable.

The Part 107 operating limits

Five numbers carry a disproportionate share of the Regulations questions, and all five sit in one short section of the regulation. They are worth knowing not as trivia but because they are the boundary of what you can do without a waiver.

§ 107.51, in full

Limit	Figure	Measured how
Maximum groundspeed	87 knots (100 mph)	Groundspeed, not airspeed
Maximum altitude	400 feet AGL	Above ground level, not MSL
Minimum flight visibility	3 statute miles	As observed from the control station
Minimum distance below cloud	500 feet	From the aircraft to the cloud
Minimum distance from cloud, horizontally	2,000 feet	From the aircraft to the cloud

14 CFR § 107.51, read from eCFR on 27 August 2026 (title 14 current to 25 August 2026).

There is no minimum distance ABOVE a cloud in the rule. With a 400-foot ceiling the situation rarely arises, which is why the regulation does not address it — and why an option offering you one is always wrong.

The structure exception is narrower than people remember

§ 107.51(b) lets you exceed 400 feet AGL, but only on two conditions held together: the aircraft must be flown within a 400-foot RADIUS of a structure, and it must not go higher than 400 feet above that structure’s immediate uppermost limit.

So a 900-foot tower gives you 1,300 feet — while you stay within 400 feet of it laterally. Step outside that radius and the ordinary 400-foot AGL ceiling applies again, at whatever altitude you happen to be.

Where the visibility is measured from

The three-mile minimum is observed from the location of the control station, not from the aircraft — and the regulation defines flight visibility for this purpose as the average slant distance from the control station at which prominent unlighted objects can be seen and identified by day, and prominent lighted objects by night.

That definition is doing real work. It ties the legal minimum to what the person flying can actually see, which is the same thing § 107.31 does for visual line of sight.

Almost all of it is waivable

§ 107.205 lists the sections the FAA will consider waiving, and § 107.51 is on it — as are night operations, visual line of sight, visual observer requirements, operating multiple aircraft, yielding the right of way, operations over human beings and moving vehicles, and operations in certain airspace.

What is not on the list is instructive. § 107.36, carriage of hazardous material, cannot be waived at all.

A waiver request must contain a complete description of the proposed operation and a justification that it can be conducted safely under the terms of the waiver. The FAA may attach further limitations, and the holder must comply with every one of them.

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Frequently asked

How high can you fly a drone under Part 107?: 400 feet above ground level, or within a 400-foot radius of a structure and no higher than 400 feet above that structure’s immediate uppermost limit — § 107.51(b).
What is the maximum speed under Part 107?: 87 knots groundspeed, which § 107.51(a) also expresses as 100 miles per hour.
What visibility do you need to fly under Part 107?: At least 3 statute miles of flight visibility, observed from the location of the control station.
How far do you have to stay from clouds?: 500 feet below and 2,000 feet horizontally. The rule states no distance above a cloud.
Can these limits be waived?: Yes. § 107.51 appears on the list of waivable sections in § 107.205, and the FAA has issued waivers for operations above 400 feet. Carriage of hazardous material under § 107.36 is not waivable.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, with the date it was read and what the document says about its own currency. Regulations change by amendment; where a source has moved on since the date shown, the source is right and this page is out of date.

14 CFR part 107 — Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (eCFR) Read August 27, 2026· eCFR reports title 14 up to date as of 2026-08-25 The regulation itself, and the only acceptable source on this site for an operating limit, a category, an eligibility rule or a recency rule. Amendment 107-8 (86 FR 4381, 15 January 2021) is the one that rewrote night operations and added operations over human beings.
FAA — Certificated Remote Pilots including Commercial Operators Read August 27, 2026· Page states “Last updated: Tuesday, March 25, 2025” Registration at $5 for three years, the Remote ID broadcast requirement from 16 September 2023 unless flown within a FRIA, and the list of sections that may be waived under § 107.205.

Page facts last verified August 27, 2026.

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Part 107 Drills is independent practice material. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration, PSI Services LLC, or any knowledge testing centre. Every question here is original and none is taken from any actual FAA knowledge test. Regulatory text and FAA publications are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain; where this site states a rule, it cites the section it came from and the date that section was read.