A Practical Remote PIC Preflight Checklist

Six preflight duties are written into the regulation. 14 CFR 107.49 lists them, they are mandatory, and they belong to the remote pilot in command personally — not to the crew, not to the client, and not to the app.

Everything else in a good preflight is what those six duties quietly assume you already did.

The six duties, as written

Note what is not there: there is no required logbook, no required maintenance schedule, and no required inspection form. What 14 CFR 107.15 does require is that the aircraft is in a condition for safe operation, checked before each flight, and that you stop flying if it stops being so. How you satisfy that is left to you.

Duty one carries most of the weight

The environment assessment is the duty that decides whether the flight happens, and the regulation spells out four things it must include.

Local weather conditions

You need three statute miles of flight visibility from the control station and 500 feet below / 2,000 feet horizontally from cloud under 107.51. Both are assessments you make from where you are standing, not readings you copy from an app.

Check, in this order:

• Current METAR for the nearest reporting station, and identify the ceiling — the lowest broken or overcast layer
• The TAF trend for your operating window
• Surface wind, including gusts, against your aircraft's limit rather than against how it feels
• Temperature and dew point spread, which tells you whether fog is likely
• Density altitude if you are high, hot, or heavy

Local airspace and flight restrictions

• Classify the airspace at your launch coordinates, not at the nearest airport
• If it is Class B, C, D or surface Class E, obtain authorization before you fly
• Check NOTAMs and active TFRs — sporting events, VIP movements and wildfire restrictions appear with little notice
• Check for special use airspace and military training routes nearby; four-digit MTRs operate below 1,500 feet AGL

The location of persons and property on the surface

Walk the site. Planning imagery is often months old, and the thing that ends a flight is usually a person who was not there when the photograph was taken.

• Who is present, and who may arrive during the flight
• Roads, parking areas and any moving vehicles
• Property you would damage in a forced landing
• Whether anyone is under the flight path who is not participating

Other ground hazards

• Powerlines, guy wires and antennas — guy wires are the classic invisible hazard
• Trees and structures that will interrupt visual line of sight
• Surface condition at the launch and recovery point
• Livestock, wildlife, and nesting birds, which will actively pursue a small aircraft

The physical check

The regulation does not prescribe one, but 107.15 requires the aircraft to be in a condition for safe operation, and this is how you establish that.

Airframe

• Arms, frame and shell for cracks, especially at the joints
• Motor mounts secure, motors turning freely with no grinding
• Propellers free of nicks, chips and cracks; correctly seated and tightened; correct rotation direction
• Landing gear intact
• Registration marking present and legible on an exterior surface

Power

• Battery physically intact — no swelling, no puffing, no damage
• Charged to the level your planned flight needs, plus reserve
• Contacts clean, battery seated and latched
• Controller charged
• Spares charged and stored safely

Systems

• Power on and let the aircraft complete its self-test
• Confirm firmware state, and never update firmware on site before a job
• Compass and IMU calibration if the location or conditions call for it
• GPS satellite lock acquired and stable
• Control link established, with the range and interference environment sanity-checked
• Camera and gimbal free, and storage media present with space on it
• Anti-collision lighting if any part of the operation is at night — 107.29 requires it visible for 3 statute miles

Configuration

• Return-to-home altitude set above the tallest obstacle on site
• Failsafe behavior confirmed and appropriate for the site
• Geofence and altitude limits set
• Any payload secured, and its effect on center of gravity considered

The crew brief

Duty two is a briefing requirement, and it is the one most often skipped on a small job with one other person. The regulation names five things it must cover:

1. Operating conditions — the plan, the area, the altitude, the weather
2. Emergency procedures — what happens on a flyaway, a fire, an injury
3. Contingency procedures — what happens if a person walks into the area, if the link drops, if the battery falls faster than planned
4. Roles and responsibilities — who is remote PIC, who is a visual observer, who talks to the public
5. Potential hazards — everything the site walk found

Two additions that are not required but are worth the minute:

• Name the abort call. Agree a single word that stops the flight, and agree that anyone may use it without justifying it first.
• Agree the landing point and the alternate. Deciding where to put it down is much harder once something is wrong.

A compressed field version

For a routine job at a known site, the whole thing fits on a card:

Environment — weather, ceiling, wind · airspace and authorization · NOTAMs and TFRs · people and property · ground hazards

Aircraft — props, frame, motors · battery condition and charge · registration marking · payload secure

Systems — self-test clear · GPS lock · control link · RTH altitude above obstacles · failsafe set · lighting if night

Crew — conditions · emergency · contingency · roles · hazards · abort word · landing point

Final — visual line of sight achievable throughout · reserve power agreed · you are fit to fly under IMSAFE

The one that gets missed

IMSAFE is not in 107.49, but 14 CFR 107.17 prohibits manipulating the controls with a physical or mental condition that would interfere with safe operation, and 107.27 covers alcohol and drugs.

Illness · Medication · Stress · Alcohol · Fatigue · Emotion

Fatigue is the one that actually shows up. A crew on the fourth site of the day makes worse decisions than the same crew on the first, and nothing on the aircraft warns you about it.

Frequently asked questions

What does 14 CFR 107.49 require before a drone flight?

It requires the remote pilot in command to assess the operating environment, brief all participants on conditions and procedures, verify the control links, confirm sufficient power for the intended flight time, secure any attached object, and — for operations over people — confirm the aircraft meets the applicable category requirement.

What must the operating environment assessment include?

The regulation names four elements: local weather conditions, local airspace and any flight restrictions, the location of persons and property on the surface, and other ground hazards.

Does Part 107 require a maintenance logbook?

No. Part 107 imposes no maintenance schedule, no logbook and no required inspection form. It requires under 14 CFR 107.15 that the aircraft is in a condition for safe operation, checked before each flight, and that flight stops if it is not.

Who is responsible for the preflight check?

The remote pilot in command. The duties in 107.49 are assigned to that person specifically, and cannot be delegated to a visual observer, a client or another crew member.

What is IMSAFE?

IMSAFE is a personal fitness checklist: Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion. It is not named in 107.49, but 14 CFR 107.17 prohibits operating with a condition that would interfere with safe operation.

Do I need to brief a crew if I am flying alone?

The briefing duty applies to persons directly participating in the operation, so with no crew there is nobody to brief. The other five duties still apply in full, and thinking through the emergency and contingency plan is worth doing whether or not anyone is listening.

Preflight and decision-making sit in the Operations knowledge area, 25 percent of the current exam. See where you stand with the free readiness assessment.

Sources

• 14 CFR 107.49 — Preflight familiarization, inspection, and actions for aircraft operation
• 14 CFR 107.15 — Condition for safe operation
• 14 CFR 107.17 — Medical condition
• 14 CFR 107.29 — Operation at night
• FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25)