How to get a Drone License if you’re a current pilot

The FAA has made it easy to add a Drone License (officially a “Small Un-manned Aerial System“, or sUAS, Certificate) if you hold a sport, recreational, private, commercial pilot, or ATP certificate.

You must be current, meaning that you must have had a flight review less than 24 months ago.

Lots of people have asked about this process and, although I really tried to provide good information and guidance, I knew I was not completely accurate because I hadn’t gone through the “ropes”.

Because of this, I decided to complete the process in order to be able to explain it more accurately.

And now I have an sUAS Pilot Certificate!

If you don’t have an FAA account on https://www.faasafety.gov/ you’ll need to create one.

Then, you’ll need to complete the course (Click on the blue box labeled “Hot Topics” Part 107…), and take the exam at the end.

Then, after you’ve saved a PDF of your completion certificate, you’ll need to go to IACRA
https://iacra.faa.gov/IACRA/ and create an account there.

After you’ve completed the IACRA process, it will give you an application ID number and an FTN number.

With those numbers you can then get a CFI who has been registered on IACRA as such, to verify all your documents and sign you off on the IACRA system, and in a couple of hours your temporary certificate will be available on the IACRA website for downloading and printing.

Our chief instructor, Bob Meder, got it done for me this evening.

And I now have an sUAS Pilot Certificate!

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