Part 107 Operations Over People: Categories 1 to 4, Moving Vehicles and Open-Air Assemblies

Flying over people is where Part 107 stops being a list of limits and becomes a chain of decisions. It is also the area the FAA's own data flags: declaration-of-compliance questions are the only UAG topic in the FAA's four latest most-missed reports, as the guide to how hard the Part 107 test is shows. This guide follows the chain in the order the rule applies it.

The three ways a Part 107 flight over a person is allowed

14 CFR 107.39 says no one may operate a small unmanned aircraft over a human being unless one of these is true:

1. The person is directly participating. AC 107-2A lists the remote pilot in command, anyone manipulating the controls, a visual observer, or crewmembers needed for the flight's safety. The remote pilot assigns and briefs them.
2. The person is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can give reasonable protection from a falling drone.
3. The operation meets one of the four categories in Subpart D of Part 107.

So the first question is never "which category?" It's "is this person a participant, or protected?" Only if the answer is no do the categories matter. A person inside a moving vehicle is not covered by option 2. That case has its own rule, 107.145, covered below.

Part 107 sets no fixed stand-off distance from people. The AC says the remote pilot should choose one based on the aircraft's course, speed and trajectory, wind, the movement of people and vehicles, likely failures, and their own skill with the aircraft.

Part 107 Categories 1 to 4 side by side

The table is drawn from 107.110 to 107.140 and AC 107-2A Tables 8-3 and 8-4. Two points worth slowing down for:

• The energy numbers are not something you measure in the field. The 11 and 25 foot-pound thresholds are design standards. The manufacturer shows them through an FAA-accepted means of compliance, by test, analysis or inspection (107.155). Your job is to confirm the aircraft is declared and labeled.
• Remote ID here means standard Remote ID or a broadcast module. 107.110(b), 107.115(b) and 107.140(a)(2) point to 89.110 and 89.115(a) only. Flying inside an FAA-recognized identification area, 89.115(b), doesn't satisfy it. The Part 107 Remote ID guide explains the three ways to comply.

Precise recall of these conditions is the skill being tested, and the 221 Regulations flashcards planned for Part 107 prep cover the content area this subpart belongs to.

What "sustained flight" and "open-air assembly" mean under Part 107

Neither term is defined in the regulation, so the FAA's guidance does the work.

Sustained flight. The FAA's Operations Over People page describes it as hovering above people's heads, flying back and forth over them, or circling so the drone stays above some part of the group. For Categories 1, 2 and 4, a brief, one-time transit over part of a gathering doesn't count, as long as the transit is incidental to a point-to-point flight unrelated to the assembly. For Category 3 outside a closed site, AC 107-2A describes the goal as momentary exposure: adjust the flight path, and stop if the job would need sustained flight over people.

Open-air assembly. AC 107-2A says the FAA decides case by case, based on how dense the crowd of non-participants is and how big the operating area is. Its examples:

The remote pilot has to make that assessment before the flight, not during it.

Flying over moving vehicles under Part 107

14 CFR 107.145 covers people inside moving vehicles. The flight must fit Category 1, 2, 3 or 4, and for Categories 1 to 3 one of these must also hold for the whole operation:

• the drone stays within or over a closed- or restricted-access site, and everyone in a moving vehicle there is on notice that it may fly over them, or
• the drone doesn't maintain sustained flight over moving vehicles.

A Category 4 aircraft may fly over moving vehicles if its operating limitations don't prohibit it. AC 107-2A sums up the open-road case as "transit only, no sustained flight."

Don't confuse 107.145 with 107.25. Flying over moving vehicles is Subpart D. Flying from a moving land or water vehicle is 107.25, allowed only over a sparsely populated area and never while carrying someone else's property for compensation or hire. From a moving aircraft, it's not allowed at all.

Closed or restricted-access sites in practice

Category 3 and the moving-vehicle rule both lean on this idea. AC 107-2A says everyone inside the site must be on notice that a drone may fly over them, and people working there should be told what precautions to take. The remote pilot is responsible for preventing inadvertent or unauthorized entry, for example with barricades, fencing or monitoring staff. Natural boundaries such as rivers, canals, cliffs and heavily wooded areas can also restrict access. A closed site still can't be an open-air assembly for a Category 3 flight.

The declaration of compliance from the remote pilot's side

Under 107.3, a declaration of compliance (DoC) is a record submitted to the FAA certifying that the aircraft meets the Category 2 or Category 3 requirements. The questions that trip candidates usually turn on who does what:

Three more points from the rule and the AC:

• Building or modifying makes you an applicant. AC 107-2A says someone who builds a drone from separate parts is an applicant, and a modification that takes an aircraft out of its declared configuration needs a new DoC before flying over people in that category.
• A rescinded DoC stops these flights. The rule text, 107.160(d)(1), says no person may operate an aircraft identified on a rescinded declaration while the rescission stands. AC 107-2A describes the effect for remote pilots as ceasing operations over people with that aircraft. Before rescinding over an unresolved safety issue, the FAA gives the holder 30 calendar days to respond.
• There are two kinds of DoC. Part 89 uses the same name for a manufacturer's Remote ID declaration. A Remote ID DoC says nothing about Category 2 or 3 eligibility.

The who-does-what split is easy to blur under time pressure, so when you practice, see how each planned Part 107 explanation points to the rule section it relies on and check the section yourself.

Over people at night, and other Subpart D details

• Night doesn't change the categories. AC 107-2A says the categories and their restrictions are the same at night, and the night rules of 107.29 apply on top. The Part 107 night operations guide covers those.
• Variable modes. Under 107.150, one aircraft can be eligible for more than one category only if the remote pilot can't switch between modes or configurations by accident.
• Waivers. 107.39 and 107.145 are both on the list of waivable rules in 107.205.

Operations over people practice scenarios written by Passy

These are original practice scenarios, not FAA test items. Decide first, then read the reasoning.

1. A 0.52-pound quadcopter with a 0.06-pound light attached flies over a farmers market crowd. It is not Category 1. The 0.55-pound limit includes everything on board or attached, for the whole flight, so the aircraft weighs 0.58 pounds.

2. A Category 3 drone films a fenced construction site. Every worker was briefed that it may fly overhead. Allowed, if the site isn't an open-air assembly. Category 3 permits flight over people within a closed or restricted-access site when everyone there is on notice.

3. Before a Category 2 job, the pilot notices the category label has peeled off. The pilot may re-label the aircraft in English, legibly and prominently, so it stays on for the flight, and then fly over people (107.135). This works only if the aircraft really is listed on an accepted Category 2 declaration.

4. A Category 2 drone with no Remote ID broadcast hovers over a parade. Not allowed. Hovering over a parade is sustained flight over an open-air assembly, which needs standard Remote ID or a broadcast module. Flying inside a FRIA wouldn't fix it, because a FRIA isn't one of the two options 107.115(b) accepts.

5. A Category 1 drone crosses once over a public road with moving cars, on the way to a survey point. Allowed as a transit. Outside a closed site, Categories 1 to 3 may not maintain sustained flight over moving vehicles, but a brief crossing is not sustained flight.

If you want more scenario practice later, Hard Mode is among the challenges planned for full Part 107 prep. For now, the free Part 107 practice questions include Regulations items with full explanations.

Studying Subpart D efficiently

A practical approach is to read 107.100 to 107.165 once straight through, then AC 107-2A chapter 8, then test yourself on the who-does-what table above until you can fill it in from memory. Because Regulations is 48% of the test under PSI's 2025 specifications, this subpart is worth a dedicated session in any schedule from the Part 107 study plan guide.