Part 107 bans flight over people unless your operation fits one of four categories. What Categories 1 through 4 require, from 250 grams to type certification.
Flying over people is prohibited by default under Part 107, and there are exactly four legal ways in. Since April 21, 2021, 14 CFR § 107.39 has allowed flight over people without a waiver when the drone itself qualifies for one of four categories. A category belongs to the aircraft, not the pilot: its weight, design, or certification decides it, there is nothing to apply for, and the test expects you to know all four.
The categories run from a stock sub-250 gram drone up to a type-certificated aircraft. Here is what each one requires, what "sustained flight over an open-air assembly" means, and the details the test asks about.
The regulation starts with a flat prohibition. 14 CFR § 107.39 reads: "No person may operate a small unmanned aircraft over a human being unless" one of three conditions is met. The person is directly participating in the operation, the person is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can provide reasonable protection from a falling drone, or the operation fits one of the categories in Part 107 Subpart D.
Note what the rule does not say. It does not distinguish between hovering over someone and briefly passing over them. Any flight over a non-participant who is not under cover puts you in category territory, even for a second. The sustained-flight language applies only to open-air assemblies and moving vehicles, covered below.
| Category | Aircraft requirements | Operating limits |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.55 lbs (250 g) or less at takeoff, counting everything on board or attached. No exposed rotating parts that would lacerate skin (§ 107.110). | Remote ID required for sustained flight over open-air assemblies |
| 2 | Injury on impact below an 11 foot-pound kinetic energy threshold, no exposed rotating parts, no safety defects. FAA-accepted Declaration of Compliance plus a category label (§§ 107.115, 107.120). | Remote ID required for sustained flight over open-air assemblies |
| 3 | Same design tests as Category 2 with a 25 foot-pound threshold (§§ 107.125, 107.130). | No open-air assemblies at all, plus site and sustained-flight restrictions |
| 4 | Airworthiness certificate issued under Part 21, operated within its FAA-approved Flight Manual (§ 107.140). | Manned-aviation style maintenance and recordkeeping, same Remote ID condition |
Start from the job, not from the rule. For most work, the cheapest fix is planning the flight so nobody is under the aircraft. The categories exist for the jobs where flying over people is the shot.
| The job | Category | The realistic path |
|---|---|---|
| Roof and real estate inspection | None | You fly over a building, not people. Anyone indoors is under a covered structure (§ 107.39); keep crew and homeowners out from under the flight path. |
| Weddings, concerts, festivals | 1 or 2 | An outdoor crowd is an open-air assembly: sustained overhead shots also need Remote ID, and Category 3 is banned over assemblies. Many pilots frame the crowd from the side instead. |
| YouTube and travel content | 1 | Street scenes are full of non-participants. A sub-250 gram drone with propeller guards is the standard answer and the reason small drones dominate this work. |
| Film and TV production | 3 | Built for closed sets: a restricted-access site where everyone is briefed. § 107.145 extends the same logic to shots over a picture-car convoy. |
| Search and rescue support | 1 to 4 | Being rescued is not participating. A Part 107 volunteer still needs a category to overfly people on the ground; agencies often fly under their own FAA authorizations instead. |
"Participating" is narrower than most pilots hope. AC 107-2A limits direct participants to the remote pilot, the person on the controls, visual observers, and "crewmembers necessary for the safety of the small unmanned aircraft operation". Your client is not a participant. Neither is the wedding party, the on-camera talent, or the person your team is searching for.
Category 1 is the only category with no paperwork behind it. Under § 107.110, the aircraft must weigh 0.55 pounds (250 grams) or less on takeoff and throughout the flight, "including everything that is on board or otherwise attached to the aircraft", and it must have no exposed rotating parts that would lacerate skin.
That weight limit is a hard ceiling, and it counts accessories. A 249 gram drone wearing a 15 gram filter kit is a 264 gram aircraft and out of Category 1. The laceration clause is why propeller guards show up on sub-250 gram drones: bare propellers on a light drone can still cut.
Category 1 needs no Declaration of Compliance and no label; the pilot verifies both conditions before each flight. The 0.55 figure is also one of the 20 numbers worth memorizing, because the test asks for it exactly.
Categories 2 and 3 cover drones heavier than 250 grams that are built to hurt less when they hit. Under § 107.120(a), a Category 2 aircraft must not cause injury "equivalent to or greater than the severity of injury caused by a transfer of 11 foot-pounds of kinetic energy upon impact from a rigid object". Category 3 relaxes that threshold to 25 foot-pounds (§ 107.130(a)).
Both categories also require no exposed rotating parts, no safety defects, an FAA-accepted Declaration of Compliance filed under § 107.160, and a permanent label on the aircraft stating its category. § 107.135 makes replacing a damaged or missing label the pilot's job before any over-people flight.
The price of Category 3's heavier impact allowance is operational. Under § 107.125 it may never operate over open-air assemblies, and it may fly over people only inside a closed or restricted-access site with everyone on notice, or by avoiding sustained flight over anyone not participating or protected.
Category 4 is a different animal. Under § 107.140, the aircraft needs an airworthiness certificate issued under Part 21, the same certification framework manned aircraft go through. It must be operated within its FAA-approved Flight Manual, and those operating limitations must not prohibit flight over people.
Category 4 also imports manned-aviation maintenance: work per the manufacturer's manual, records for every inspection and alteration, and airworthiness directive tracking (§ 107.140(c)). Very few small drones hold a Part 21 certificate, so most over-people work happens in Categories 1 through 3.
Categories 1, 2, and 4 share one extra condition: Remote ID. Sustained flight over an open-air assembly of people is allowed only if the operation meets § 89.110 (standard Remote ID built into the aircraft) or § 89.115(a) (an attached broadcast module). Flying under the FRIA exception, which is § 89.115(b), does not qualify.
The FAA describes sustained flight as "hovering above the heads of persons gathered in an open-air assembly, flying back and forth over an open-air assembly", or circling above it. A "brief, one-time transiting over a portion of the assembled gathering" that is incidental to a flight going somewhere else does not count.
Neither the regulation nor the FAA's rule overview defines an open-air assembly by headcount. For borderline gatherings, the cautious reading is the defensible one.
Yes, with conditions. Under § 107.145, flight over people inside moving vehicles is allowed when the operation already meets Category 1, 2, 3, or 4. For Categories 1 through 3 there is one more condition: the flight stays within or over a closed or restricted-access site where vehicle occupants are on notice, or the aircraft does not maintain sustained flight over the vehicles.
For Category 4, the approved Flight Manual has to permit it. Before April 2021 any flight over a moving vehicle required a waiver, so older advice on this topic is out of date.
The knowledge test leans on the details that separate the categories. The FAA's published UAG sample questions include the Category 1 weight limit and the Category 4 airworthiness requirement. The recurring traps: forgetting that accessories count toward 250 grams, assuming a light drone automatically earns Category 2, and treating altitude as permission to overfly a crowd. The test writes traps like these on purpose.
Clients and venues usually ask for proof of liability insurance before an over-people shoot. Our resources page covers the drone insurance option we point pilots to first.
The over-people rules are detail memory: two kinetic energy thresholds, one weight limit, one certificate, three sets of operating limits. The free Part 107 drill includes questions on § 107.39, Categories 1 through 4, and moving-vehicle operations, each with a written explanation. A few passes will show you which detail you keep mixing up.
10 source-cited flying over people questions in the bank. Each attempt joins your record, and misses come back until you stop missing them. Free, no signup.