You have to be 16 to hold an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate. That is the only age requirement for the certificate itself — not 18, which is the number you’ll hear most often and the one that’s wrong.

Part 107 and the registration rules actually set three different age thresholds for three different things: 13 to register a drone under 14 CFR 48.25, 16 to hold the remote pilot certificate under 14 CFR 107.61, and no minimum age at all under 14 CFR 107.12 to physically manipulate the controls while a certificated remote pilot directly supervises. Mixing those three up is what produces nearly all of the confusion. None of them is 18.

Rule 1 — 14 CFR 48.25: registering the aircraft (age 13)

Under 14 CFR 48.25, the person who registers a small unmanned aircraft must be at least 13 years old. If the owner is younger than 13, a parent or another person who is at least 13 has to do the registration instead.

This is purely about who puts their name on the registration record. It says nothing about who may fly, or for what purpose — it’s the lowest bar of the three, and the one people forget exists.

Rule 2 — 14 CFR 107.61: holding the certificate (age 16)

This is the big one, and it’s 16, not 18. Under 14 CFR 107.61, to be eligible for a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating you must:

• be at least 16 years old,
• be able to read, speak, write, and understand English,
• be in a physical and mental condition to operate a small UAS safely, and
• pass the initial aeronautical knowledge test (the UAG exam).

A 15-year-old who has already passed the knowledge test still isn’t eligible — the age floor is 16 regardless of how well they did on the exam. And an 18-year-old with a driver’s license but no knowledge test isn’t eligible either; the license doesn’t substitute for the test. It’s the combination in 107.61 that matters, and age 16 is the hard part of it for a teenager.

Can a minor fly a drone commercially? A certificated 16-year-old can

Here’s where “you have to be 18” really falls apart. Once a person holds the certificate, they hold the full privileges — including paid, commercial operations. A drone company can hire a certificated 16-year-old as the remote pilot in command for routine roof surveys, and that’s legal. 107.61 sets the floor at 16, and a certificate holder may exercise full remote PIC privileges, commercial work included.

Labor law may shape the employment terms — hours, conditions, what a minor can be hired to do in your state — but Part 107 itself adds no extra age requirement and no “must be supervised because they’re a minor” rule. A 16-year-old remote PIC is a remote PIC.

Rule 3 — 14 CFR 107.12: manipulating the controls (no minimum age)

This is the one almost nobody knows. Under 14 CFR 107.12, the person actually manipulating the flight controls doesn’t need to hold a certificate at all — and there is no minimum age to do it — as long as they’re under the direct supervision of a remote PIC who can immediately take control.

So a 12-year-old can legally fly the sticks on a commercial job, provided a certificated remote PIC is right there supervising. There’s no age-18 rule and no flight-hour rule to manipulate the controls; those are both myths. What the rule requires is the supervision.

But “direct supervision” is strict, and two conditions catch people out:

• The supervising remote PIC must be positioned and equipped to take immediate control at any moment — standing with the operator, using a buddy-box or dual-control setup, or otherwise able to assume control without delay. Reviewing the flight afterward does not count.
• The supervising remote PIC must actually be able to exercise the certificate’s privileges. If their recurrent training has lapsed past 24 calendar months, those privileges are suspended, and they can’t lawfully supervise anyone — the whole arrangement collapses.

Putting it together

A 14-year-old wants to help with the family’s drone photography business. Legally:

• They can’t hold the certificate yet (need to be 16).
• They can fly the controls on paid jobs today, if a currently-privileged certificated remote PIC directly supervises every flight.
• A parent or someone 13+ handles the aircraft registration.
• At 16, they can take the knowledge test, earn the certificate, and act as remote PIC on their own — commercial work included.

Nowhere in that path is 18 a requirement under Part 107.

Practice questions on this

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum age for a Part 107 drone license?

Sixteen. Under 14 CFR 107.61, an applicant for a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating must be at least 16 years old, be able to read, speak, write, and understand English, be in a physical and mental condition to operate a small UAS safely, and pass the initial aeronautical knowledge test. All four apply — passing the test at 15 doesn’t advance the eligibility date, and being over 16 doesn’t remove the test.

Can a 13-year-old fly under Part 107?

Not as the remote pilot in command. Thirteen is the registration age, not a flying age: 14 CFR 48.25 requires the person who registers a small unmanned aircraft to be at least 13, and if the owner is younger, a parent or other person who is at least 13 registers it instead. Commanding a flight is a separate matter, and the certificate floor in 107.61 is 16.

A 13-year-old can, however, manipulate the flight controls. 14 CFR 107.12 sets no minimum age for the person on the sticks, provided a certificated remote PIC is directly supervising and is positioned and equipped to take immediate control at any moment.

Is the minimum age 13 or 16?

Both, for different things — which is why the two numbers circulate together and each one looks like a contradiction of the other. Thirteen is the minimum age to register the aircraft (14 CFR 48.25). Sixteen is the minimum age to hold the remote pilot certificate (14 CFR 107.61). They sit in different parts of the regulations and neither one overrides the other. Neither is 18.

Is there an age limit for drone pilots?

There is a minimum but no maximum. 14 CFR 107.61 sets the floor at 16 and imposes no upper age limit, and there is no age-based medical certificate requirement under Part 107 — the standard is being in a physical and mental condition to operate a small UAS safely, which applies the same way at 16 and at 80. In the other direction, 107.12 imposes no age floor at all on a person manipulating the controls under direct supervision.

Want to practice the whole regulations section this way? The free 90-question Regulations drill runs in your browser, and every answer names the section it comes from — the same way this article does.

Read next: Do You Need Part 107 for a Monetized YouTube Channel? • One Registration Number or One Per Drone? Part 107 vs. Recreational

← Back to the Part 107 Study Hub for the free drill and more plain-English guides to the regulations.

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Study aid only. Not flight instruction and not legal advice. Regulations change — always verify against current FAA publications before you fly. These are original questions written to the ACS standards from public FAA material, not FAA exam questions.