Fly around Havre De Grace in Maryland

Tom Z · May 11, 2017

RJ_Make and others,

I have not yet received an official reply back from the FAA about if commercial part 107 drone pilots can fly strictly as a hobbyist and use a commercially registered drone as a hobbyist also, but have received an answer from the wonderful people of www.remotepilot101.com who helped me pass my test.

Here is there answer:

Hey Tom,

I will be happy to answer both of your questions.

Once you become commercially certified, you can absolutely still fly as a hobbyist.

And you can own one drone and register it as commercial, pay the $5.

Commercial blankets it all.

You can fly it as a commercial or a hobbyist. You just must obey all of the hobbyist laws while you are flying it.
Don't get caught doing commercial things when you're flying as a hobbyist, or visa versa.

On a crazy, yet very serious note, If you are flying commercially, and then want to fly as a hobbyist. You must land as a "commercial" and then take off again as a "hobbyist" You can not be flying it and in mid flight, say you are a hobbyist.

I hope this answers your questions.

If you still have any questions, please let us know. We will be more than happy to help you.

DroneDriver · May 11, 2017

Tom Z said:
RJ_Make and others,

I have not yet received an official reply back from the FAA about if commercial part 107 drone pilots can fly strictly as a hobbyist and use a commercially registered drone as a hobbyist also, but have received an answer from the wonderful people of www.remotepilot101.com who helped me pass my test.

Here is there answer:

Hey Tom,

I will be happy to answer both of your questions.

Once you become commercially certified, you can absolutely still fly as a hobbyist.

And you can own one drone and register it as commercial, pay the $5.

Commercial blankets it all.

You can fly it as a commercial or a hobbyist. You just must obey all of the hobbyist laws while you are flying it.
Don't get caught doing commercial things when you're flying as a hobbyist, or visa versa.

On a crazy, yet very serious note, If you are flying commercially, and then want to fly as a hobbyist. You must land as a "commercial" and then take off again as a "hobbyist" You can not be flying it and in mid flight, say you are a hobbyist.

I hope this answers your questions.

If you still have any questions, please let us know. We will be more than happy to help you.

Yeah, I new there was a delineation. It would be nice to see the official verbiage on this. As most often with FAA regulation it is open to interpretation and remains gray until it's challenged in court and force to be re-written in black-and-white. As a good precaution, one can log each flight whether it's for hobby or commercial. Then you have a legal document should someone challenge you.

Tom Z · May 16, 2017

Official response to my questions from the FAA:

"
Thank you for your inquiry. You may continue to operate as a hobbyist under the Section 336 rules or you can operate as a hobbyist under Part 107. Whichever one you choose to do, though, you must follow exactly as it is written. You cannot pick and choose the parts you want from each set of regulations.

Similarly, you may operate under the same registration number for both commercial and recreational operations, provided the registration number is one for non-model aircraft.

Regards,

FAA UAS Integration Office
[email protected]
Unmanned Aircraft Systems "

DroneDriver · May 16, 2017

Tom Z said:
Official response to my questions from the FAA:

"
Thank you for your inquiry. You may continue to operate as a hobbyist under the Section 336 rules or you can operate as a hobbyist under Part 107. Whichever one you choose to do, though, you must follow exactly as it is written. You cannot pick and choose the parts you want from each set of regulations.

Similarly, you may operate under the same registration number for both commercial and recreational operations, provided the registration number is one for non-model aircraft.

Regards,

FAA UAS Integration Office
[email protected]
Unmanned Aircraft Systems "

TomZ,
Thanks for deep diving this. There you go, black and white and read all over! Do you think you could provide a copy of the letter that we could use as reference? Of course you would want to redact any personal information. Thanks in advance.

DD

Tom Z · May 16, 2017

There was no letter. I just emailed them and they responded.

RJ_Make · May 16, 2017

Thanks Tom, Except for the last paragraph, it's pretty clear.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

bephoto · May 17, 2017

Tom Z said:
Anyone from Maryland or just anyone ever fly in and around Havre De Grace.

Was hoping to get some nice footage and saw someone on youtube has some but looking at the sectional charts it appears that the whole area is a Class E airspace and if I am reading things correctly it's from the surface up.

Anyone know for sure if I am reading it right?

thanks
Tom

Olney, Md. Pumpkin owner. Peace