Getting Certified

The FAA bro...

What you need to fly: - TRUST Exam certification - Aircraft registration - Be following the rules set out by an approved Community Based Organization of your choice - Be in legal airspace

TRUST Exam Certification

The TRUST exam is a short online training course (takes under 15 minutes speedrunning) you need to complete to legally fly. There are many approved organizations that can issue this, but I used the AMA website.

The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST) | THE RECREATIONAL UAS SAFETY TEST (TRUST) TEST by AMAtrust.modelaircraft.org

This is one of the approved TRUST exam administrators. It takes around 20 minutes to do online and get a certificate.

Aircraft Registration

Each pilot needs to get an FAA issued registration number (which they can then put on whatever plane they want). You have to visibly write it on your plane and carry a paper or digital copy of the certificate with you when flying.

FAADroneZonefaadronezone-access.faa.gov

Register here.

How to Register Your DroneUSDOT

More information

Rules to follow while flying

The FAA requires you to follow certain rules and safety guidelines, but they don't have any exact ones. Instead, you have to choose an approved Community-Based Organizations' rules to follow and you must be able to specify which one if a nark asks you. (Flite Test has the most lenient rules that I know of...)

Recreational Flyers & Community-Based OrganizationsUSDOT

Recreational flyers are allowed to fly planes under 55 lbs and under 400 ft in altitude in any non-restricted airspace.

Safety Guidelines - Flite Test Community AssociationFlite Test Community Association

Flite Test Rules

Checking the Airspace

If you meet the above requirements, you can basically fly anywhere, except in restricted and controlled airspace (i.e. around airports, near DC). To check what kind of airspace you're in, you can use mobile apps like B4UFly (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.faa.b4ufly2&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1). To request authorization in controlled airspace, you can use apps like Aloft (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.aloft.aircontrol&hl=en_US&gl=US).