Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training

What is it?

What exactly is the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training?

Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training — Transportation, Aviation & Maritime credential from Federal Aviation Administration (FAASafety.gov)

Free online course remote pilots complete every 24 calendar months to keep Part 107 certificate privileges current. Offered by Federal Aviation Administration (FAASafety.gov), it is designed for candidates who need to demonstrate verified competence in the Transportation, Aviation & Maritime field. The credential is commonly used for career entry, advancement, regulatory compliance, or employer requirements. Candidates should review the official handbook for eligibility, exam format, and scoring before registering.

The path in brief

1. Confirm you meet any eligibility or prerequisites
2. Review the official handbook and study materials
3. Register and pay through the awarding body or authorized provider
4. Schedule and take the exam (test center or online proctoring)
5. Receive your score and, if passed, your credential

Before you book

Who is eligible to sit the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training?

Eligibility varies; many credentials are open to all, while others require coursework, work experience, or sponsorship.

Who it is for: Professionals and candidates seeking to validate Transportation, Aviation & Maritime competence.

The test itself

What is the format of the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training?

The Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training is administered by Federal Aviation Administration (FAASafety.gov) and runs ~15-30 minutes.

The fine print

What are the retake and renewal rules for the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training?

Proctoring & delivery

Proctored, computer-based delivery (test center or remote online proctoring), varying by exam.

Retake policy

Varies by credential — most bodies permit retakes after a waiting period and full or partial fee.

Score reporting

Scores are reported per the body’s timeline, typically electronically after the exam.

Recertification

Varies; many credentials require renewal every 2–3 years via continuing education or a recertification exam.

What it pays

How much does this credential pay?

ALC-677 confers no wage — it is a free FAA compliance course that refreshes your Part 107 operating currency; BLS has no occupation for small-UAS pilots, so no official salary figure exists for drone work

The direct answer is that ALC-677 has no salary story, and the honest framing is that it is not a credential that moves pay — it is a free, online regulatory compliance course that a Part 107 remote pilot completes every 24 calendar months to refresh the aeronautical-knowledge recency required by 14 CFR 107.65 before operating commercially under Part 107. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish an occupation for small-unmanned-aircraft-system pilots, so there is no official median wage for drone work — any site quoting a "drone pilot salary" is quoting job-board aggregates or vendor surveys, not government data, and those figures vary wildly with the type of work. The closest BLS categories are in manned aviation — airline pilots and commercial pilots — but they do not isolate drone operations, and quoting them here would mislead, so we do not. What is verifiable is the economic structure around this training: the course is free, the FAA certificate itself does not expire, and the only cost is the time to complete the modules, which is exactly why recurrent compliance is cheap compared with the initial Part 107 knowledge test at a testing centre (60 questions, 2 hours, roughly $175, taken once to earn the certificate). Actual earnings for drone work depend on the market, the employer or client, the type of operations — real-estate photography, inspection, mapping, agriculture, film — and whether the pilot is an employee or a contractor, so the honest planning advice is to price jobs locally rather than chase a national figure. The practical value of completing ALC-677 on time is not a raise; it is the legal right to keep accepting paid Part 107 work at all, because a pilot whose 24-calendar-month currency has lapsed is grounded for commercial purposes until the course is completed.

Job growth.No BLS projection exists for small-UAS pilots as an occupation. The demand context is the growing commercial use of drones across real estate, inspection, agriculture and public safety, but earnings and employment are not tracked by BLS in a way that produces an official figure.

Source: FAA — Become a Certificated Remote Pilot (Part 107 recurrent requirements)

Your schedule

How long should I study for it?

2-3 hours, completed within your 24-calendar-month currency window of focused study

The study plan for ALC-677 is short by design — budget roughly 2 to 3 hours of focused time to read the course modules and complete the open-book review, done in one sitting or two, with no days of preparation required — because this is a refresher course whose job is to update your knowledge of current Part 107 regulations, airspace, weather, night operations, Remote ID and operational safety, not to teach you to fly drones. The critical planning step comes before the course, not during it: calculate your 24-calendar-month deadline correctly, because the window ends on the last day of the month 24 months after your qualifying event, not exactly 730 days later — a pilot who passed the initial knowledge test on 10 April 2024 remained current through 30 April 2026, and could not exercise Part 107 privileges from 1 May 2026 without completing qualifying recurrent training. Decide which course you are eligible for before you start: ALC-677 is the standard recurrent course for anyone holding a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, current or lapsed, while ALC-515 is a shorter alternative limited to Part 107 pilots who also hold a Part 61 certificate with a current flight review — if you are a Part 61 pilot whose flight review has lapsed, take ALC-677. On the day, create a free FAASafety.gov account if you do not have one, find ALC-677 in the course catalogue, work through the modules at your own pace — the course is self-paced and can be completed from any internet-connected device — complete the open-book review, and download the certificate of completion immediately. One habit that prevents the most common failure: set a calendar reminder about a month before your deadline, and treat the course as done when the certificate is saved, because the FAA may ask for it during a ramp check, and every day past the window is a day you cannot legally accept paid work.

1. Before you start30-45 min

   Verify eligibility and calculate the deadline

   • Confirm you hold a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, or that you are a Part 61 pilot choosing between ALC-677 and ALC-515 based on a current flight review
   • Calculate your 24-calendar-month window to the last day of the corresponding month, not 730 days
   • Create or log in to your free FAASafety.gov account and locate ALC-677 in the course catalogue
2. Course day2-3 hrs

   Complete the modules and the review

   • Work through the modules covering current regulations, airspace, weather, night operations, Remote ID and operational safety
   • Complete the open-book knowledge review at the end of the course — you may reference the material and retake as needed
   • Download and save the certificate of completion immediately
3. After completion15 min

   Record the new window

   • Note the new 24-calendar-month window that starts from this completion month
   • Save a backup copy of the certificate in an easily reachable place for ramp checks
   • Set a reminder for about a month before the next deadline

What to buy

Which study resources are worth paying for?

There is essentially nothing to buy for ALC-677, and the buying decision here is really about which official resources to read alongside the free course, because the course itself is free, the FAA materials that explain the requirement are free, and the only private products worth considering are supplementary study aids that cost roughly the same as a coffee. The required resource is the course itself: ALC-677 on the FAA Safety Team Learning Center at FAASafety.gov, at no cost, for any Part 107 certificate holder. The FAA materials that make the course easy are also free: the Become a Certificated Remote Pilot page explains the two recurrent options and the 24-month rule, the Remote Pilot Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Airman Certification Standards explains the knowledge the certificate implies, and the FAA news announcement on recurrent training documents when and why the proctored recurrent test was replaced by the online course. For pilots who want structured review before or alongside the course, the cheap private options are Part 107 recurrent-training review courses and practice-question apps from drone-training vendors, typically $10 to $50, which quiz the same regulatory material in a multiple-choice format — useful if you want to test yourself on the content, but not required, because the course itself is open-book and completion-based. The honest rule: spend the $0 on the FAA course first and read the three free FAA pages, buy a private review product only if you want a self-test of the material before the course, and remember that no product, free or paid, replaces the certificate of completion — that certificate, from the FAA’s own platform, is the only record the FAA counts.

The FAA course is free and completion-based, so no paid product is required. Prices for private review aids are approximate and dated to 2026; we do not rank by commission.

What you'll face

What question types will I see?

ALC-677 is a completion-based online course rather than a scored examination, so it does not have the question mix of a test — but the course does include a knowledge review at the end that works through the same categories of content the modules cover, in an open-book, unlimited-retake format, and it is worth knowing what those categories are so you can focus your reading. The content areas are current Part 107 regulations and operational rules, airspace classifications and controlled-airspace authorisation, weather effects on small-UAS performance, emergency procedures, crew resource management, night operations including anti-collision lighting requirements, and Remote ID compliance. Because the review is open-book and retakeable, the honest way to describe it is as a structured check that you have worked through the modules rather than as a scored barrier — there is no pass-rate statistic, no scaled score, and no comparison with other candidates. The practical skill the course actually builds is recognition of the current rules: being able to answer, from the updated material, whether a given operation needs a Remote ID broadcast module, what the night-operation lighting rule requires, and when a controlled-airspace authorisation applies. The single most useful preparation is reading the course modules with attention to what changed since your last training — Remote ID and night operations are the two areas that most often contain genuinely new material for returning pilots — and then completing the review, referencing the material as needed, until it is done. The sample items below are editor-written illustrations of the kind of knowledge-check questions the course format uses, not live exam items and not scored items on any official examination.

Samples are editor-written illustrations of the published blueprint, not live exam items.

Reference

What are the key facts about the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training?

Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training is a training credential; awarded by Federal Aviation Administration (FAASafety.gov); the exam fee is Free; typical preparation is 1-2 hours (online recurrent course); holders typically earn No dedicated SOC; refreshes Part 107 currency.

In short

Is the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training worth it?

• Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training is awarded by Federal Aviation Administration (FAASafety.gov).
• Validates job-ready competence in Transportation, Aviation & Maritime.
• Registration is through the awarding body or an authorized test provider.
• Renewal and retake policies vary — confirm before scheduling.

Worth comparing

How does the Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Training compare with similar credentials?

• Part 107 Small UAS Initial Training for Part 61 Pilots Federal Aviation Administration (FAASafety.gov)

Trust

Where does this information come from?

Everything above is taken from the awarding body's own published material. Fees, question counts and domain weights are revised regularly — check the official page before you pay.

Research confidence: low · Last reviewed 2026-08