Pursuing my Part 107 certificate

When it comes to getting your commercial drone pilot certificate (FAA Part 107 sUAS) there are all kinds of avenues available. Just do a search on you’ll be inundated with all kinds of options, e.g. books, online training, Youtube videos, etc.

I started my journey trying the self-study method. I downloaded information from the FAA website along with some other information that I found through web searches. For me the reading was dry and some of it difficult to understand. Because of this I was really considering some type of online training, but cost was certainly making it a difficult decision.

I don’t recall exactly now how I came across it, but I learned about GRADD Part 107 Academy. The course is a ten week training that takes place every Saturday morning. All training material is available once you join the program. This allows you to review the week’s material and take a quick before the Saturday morning session.

Training is conducted by several instructors that provide a high level review of the week’s lesson. At the end of each session there is a competitive quiz for any students who want to participate. This is a very fast paced quiz but I found that it really helped reinforce learning throughout the course.

After completing the 10 weeks of instruction and several hours of taking and retaking the various tests, I scheduled my exam. I always get anxious when it comes to any type of test but felt pretty confident going in as I only need to score a 70%. The test is 60 questions that must be completed within 2 hours. After some technical issues at the test center I completed my exam with a 90%.

I’ll close out this segment by saying, while I could have probably done the self-study thing I’m so thankful that I went through GRADD. There are parts of this test that without some experienced coaching can be difficult to understand. So if you’re an aspiring drone pilot and looking to get your Part 107, I would encourage you to check out GRADD.