How to Take the Free FAA Part 107 Recurrent Exam Released in April 2021

After a few minor delays, the FAA Part 107 free online recurrent exam is now available. It includes a few questions about new regulations for possibilities like Remote ID, flying over people, and flying at night.

I originally got my FAA Remote Pilot Certificate in 2017, and took the recurrent exam in 2019. Both of those tests cost around $150 and had to be done at an FAA-authorized testing center. Fortunately for us drone pilots the new recurrent training & testing is all free, and can be done from the comfort of home!

I found the new exam, which is referred to as “ALC-677 - Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Non-Part 61 Pilots,” to be much easier than the initial Part 107 Remote Pilot exam or the previous $150 recurrent exam. It is now basically an online training course with little quizzes during the training and an exam at the end. It’s all open book, so you can refer to your notes or other FAA resources.

In order to take this new recurrent training course & exam in April 2021 you will have to create an account on faasafety.gov.

If you’ve already completed the initial FAA Remote Pilot Exam you can say “Yes” to the Airman Certificate question, and you’ll be asked to enter your certificate number shortly after.

Once you verify your email and get logged into the website, you can navigate to the “ALC-677 - Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Non-Part 61 Pilots” course by using the tab at the top labeled “Activities, Courses, Seminars & Webinars” and clicking on “Courses.” On the “Courses” screen, click the button labeled “View All Available Courses.” From there you can scroll down to “ALC-677 - Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Non-Part 61 Pilots.”

Once you begin the course, it will show up under “In-Progress” courses. Once you complete the entire training course and the exam, it will be listed under “Completed Courses.”

The exam is EXTREMELY relevant to the training course, so taking notes might be a great idea. The only exam questions I found a little tricky was the various regulations for 4 categories of sUAS that might be used for flying over people.

And that’s about all for that… happy flying!