Part 107 operating limits: altitude, speed, visibility and cloud clearance

The core limits in 107.51

These apply to every Part 107 flight unless a waiver says otherwise:

• Altitude: no higher than 400 feet above ground level (AGL).
• Speed: no faster than 87 knots (100 mph) groundspeed. Groundspeed, not airspeed, is the trap.
• Visibility: at least 3 statute miles of flight visibility from the control station.
• Cloud clearance: at least 500 feet below a cloud and at least 2,000 feet horizontally from it.

The structure exception

You may fly higher than 400 feet AGL if you stay within a 400-foot radius of a structure and no more than 400 feet above the structure's immediate uppermost limit. Inspecting a 600-foot tower, for example, allows flight up to 1,000 feet AGL while within 400 feet of it.

Cloud clearance sets its own ceiling

The 500-foot rule can lower your maximum altitude. With a cloud base at 700 feet AGL, the highest you may fly is 200 feet AGL, even though 400 feet would otherwise be allowed. Test questions often give a ceiling from a METAR and ask for the highest legal altitude.

Other rules that sit beside the numbers

The limits above are not the whole story. The rules most often tested alongside them:

• Yield right of way to all other aircraft, manned or unmanned.
• At night and in civil twilight, anti-collision lighting visible for at least 3 statute miles is required.
• No flying within 8 hours of drinking alcohol, or with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.04 percent or more.
• Report to the FAA within 10 calendar days any operation causing serious injury, loss of consciousness, or more than $500 of damage to property other than the aircraft.