Part 107 Ace

Oklahoma drone laws

What Oklahoma actually regulates, what federal law settles before the state gets a say, and what that leaves you to check before a commercial flight.

State drone law changes every legislative session. This page cites the statutes as read on the date shown below and is not legal advice — verify against the current statute before you fly.

Oklahoma has two drone statutes, and the more important of the two is about to change. The critical infrastructure statute, 3 O.S. §322, bars flying below four hundred feet over refineries, substations, pipelines and a list of similar fenced or signed sites — but it carries an express exception for an operator using a drone for a commercial purpose who is authorized by the FAA to conduct operations over that airspace. Today a §322 violation carries civil liability only. From 1 November 2026 it also carries criminal exposure: Senate Bill 1441 of the 2026 session, approved by the Governor on 30 April 2026, rewrites subsection D to make a violator subject to the penalties in 21 O.S. §1792.

The other statute, 21 O.S. §1743, applies to everyone, and its business-purpose carve-out is narrower than most operators assume. So the practical risk here is not the pipeline job. It is the landing. Section 1743 makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally land a drone on the private lands or waters of another without consent, and to trespass into airspace within four hundred feet AGL intending to subject anyone to eavesdropping or surveillance. Sort out launch and recovery permissions in writing before you drive out.

State drone law changes frequently. This page was last checked on 25 August 2026; verify against the current statute before you fly.

What federal law settles before Oklahoma gets a say

The FAA has exclusive authority over aviation safety and the efficient use of the navigable airspace, as set out in its State and Local Regulation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Fact Sheet of 14 July 2023. State and local rules that set flight altitudes, dictate flight paths or aerial routes, mandate geofencing, or impose a license on top of the Part 107 certificate are regulating in a preempted field.

Outside those fields, states keep meaningful power. The FAA's own list of permissible subjects includes land use and zoning, privacy, voyeurism, harassment, trespass, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, delivery of prison contraband, wildfire suppression, and photography of particular facilities such as water treatment plants, prisons, oil refineries and railroad facilities — plus rules on where an aircraft may take off and land and where the operator may stand.

Read Oklahoma's statutes against that map and they fall on the state side of it: §322 protects specific facilities, and §1743 is privacy and trespass law. That does not guarantee any particular application survives a preemption challenge, but it does mean you should plan around both rather than expect them to fall. One nuance cuts your way — the Airline Deregulation Act preempts state laws related to the prices, routes or services of an operator with economic authority to provide interstate transportation, so a rule enforceable against a hobbyist can be preempted as applied to a Part 107 job. We found no Oklahoma statute preempting municipal drone ordinances, so local rules remain live and are worth checking city by city.

Both Oklahoma statutes are written around a four-hundred-foot figure. Read it for what it is: the trigger for a place-based state offense, not a ceiling on your flight. Your ceiling is Part 107's, and Oklahoma cannot move it.

Oklahoma's drone-specific laws

3 O.S. §322 — critical infrastructure facility, unmanned aircraft prohibited. Subject to the exceptions below, a person shall not intentionally or knowingly operate an unmanned aircraft over a critical infrastructure facility if the aircraft is less than four hundred feet AGL; allow one to make contact with such a facility, including any person or object on the premises or within it; or allow one to come close enough to interfere with the facility's operations or cause a disturbance to it.

"Critical infrastructure facility" is a closed list of fifteen categories — refineries, electrical generating facilities, substations and control centers, chemical and rubber plants, water and wastewater facilities, gas compressor stations, LNG terminals, telecommunications switching offices, cell towers, freight and rail facilities, gas processing plants, broadcast transmitters, electric-arc steelmaking plants, CFATS-regulated sites, regulated dams and gas distribution facilities — plus any aboveground portion of an oil, gas, hazardous liquid or chemical pipeline enclosed by a barrier. Crucially, each of the fifteen is covered only if it is completely enclosed by a fence or other physical barrier obviously designed to exclude intruders, or clearly marked with signs reasonably likely to come to an intruder's attention indicating that entry is forbidden or that flight of unmanned aircraft without site authorization is forbidden. An unfenced, unsigned substation is not a covered facility on the face of the statute. Note also what is absent: hospitals, courthouses and military installations turn up in several online summaries of this section and are not in the text.

The exceptions cover government at every level and its contractors, law enforcement and its contractors, the facility's owner or operator and its contractors, anyone with the owner's or operator's prior written consent, the owner or occupant of the underlying property — and the one you care about, an operator of an unmanned aircraft being used for a commercial purpose, if the operator is authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct operations over that airspace.

Section 322 was added by Laws 2016, c. 313, effective 1 November 2016, and as enacted its subsection D provides only that a violator may be civilly liable for damages to the facility, including damage to property, the environment or human health. That changes on 1 November 2026. SB 1441 of the 2026 session passed the Senate 47–0 on 17 February 2026 and the House 88–2 on 28 April 2026, was approved by the Governor on 30 April 2026, and takes effect 1 November 2026. It amends subsection D so that a violator "shall be subject to the provisions of Section 1792 of Title 21" and may also be civilly liable. Section 1792 makes willful trespass on property containing a critical infrastructure facility a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $1,000, or six months in the county jail, or both; where the trespasser's intent is to damage, deface, tamper with equipment or impede operations, it is a Class D3 felony carrying a fine of not less than $10,000. The commercial-purpose exception survives untouched — the enrolled bill leaves paragraph 9 standing and changes only subsection D.

Be aware of what that cross-reference does not resolve. Section 1792 is written around a person who willfully trespasses on or enters property containing a critical infrastructure facility; how its penalties map onto an aircraft overhead is not something the amendment spells out. Treat 1 November 2026 as the date §322 stops being purely civil, and do not assume the boundaries are settled.

One further bill points the other way, and it is worth watching. HB 2312 of the 2025 session would delete the commercial-operator exception outright: its engrossed text strikes paragraph 9 of subsection C in full. It passed the House 89–0 on 12 March 2025 and was placed on the Senate General Order on 9 April 2025, where the history ends. It has not been enacted, so the exception stands — but anyone flying Oklahoma energy infrastructure under Part 107 has a direct stake in whether it moves.

21 O.S. §1743 — unlawful use of drones. No person using an unmanned aircraft system or drone, as defined by the FAA, shall, except as authorized by law: trespass onto private property or into airspace within four hundred feet above ground level with the intent to subject anyone to eavesdropping or other surveillance; install on private property, without the owner's or lessee's consent, any device for observing, photographing, recording, amplifying or broadcasting sounds or events on that property, or use any such unauthorized installation; intentionally use a drone to photograph, record or otherwise observe another person anywhere that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy; or intentionally land a drone on the private lands or waters of another without the owner's or lessee's consent.

A person who violates the act is guilty of a misdemeanor. Two carve-outs sit in the penalty subsection, and both are narrower than the headline suggests. The reasonable-expectation-of-privacy paragraph does not apply to an operator flying for a bona fide business or government purpose who unintentionally or incidentally photographs, records or observes another person in a private place, nor to a designated emergency management worker or a government employee or contractor acting within lawful duties. The landing paragraph does not apply to a landing required in the interest of safety or otherwise in an emergency, such as to avoid collision. There is no general business exemption from the trespass-with-intent-to-surveil paragraph. Section 1743 was added by Laws 2022, c. 258, effective 1 November 2022.

Those are the two Oklahoma statutes that restrict how you fly. Title 3 also designates the Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics as the state UAS clearinghouse under 3 O.S. §421, but that section is administrative and imposes no duty on a commercial operator. And for anyone who works around jails: we found no prison-drone provision anywhere in Title 21 or in Title 57, Oklahoma's prisons title.

Where you can and cannot take off

Oklahoma State Parks are administered by the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, whose own State Parks FAQ puts it in one line: a permit is required for all drone usage. Treat that as the operative rule and call the park office before you plan a shoot.

Behind that FAQ line sits the department's codified rulemaking, and we could not open the official Oklahoma Administrative Code for this update — the state rules site refused every request. So this page makes no claim about the current codified park rules, including which permit category a commercial shoot falls into, or whether an individual park manager may close a park to drones. Confirm with the park office.

Beyond state parks, no Oklahoma statute restricts where you may launch, other than the landing prohibition in §1743. Municipal ordinances are not cataloged here, and Oklahoma has no statute preempting them — check with the city.

What still applies everywhere

Oklahoma changes nothing about Part 107. You need a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating and an FAA-registered aircraft. You fly at or below 400 feet AGL, or within 400 feet of a structure's uppermost limit when inspecting it, and within visual line of sight. You need at least 3 statute miles of flight visibility from the control station and the required cloud clearances. Controlled airspace still needs authorization, usually via LAANC — so know your airspace classes and check for TFRs and special use airspace, of which Oklahoma has plenty around its military ranges. Anything outside the standard rules needs a waiver. Still studying? Run a practice test.

Frequently asked questions

Can I fly a Part 107 inspection over an Oklahoma substation?

Section 322's exceptions include an operator of an unmanned aircraft used for a commercial purpose who is authorized by the FAA to conduct operations over that airspace, so the statute contemplates that job, and SB 1441 leaves that exception in place. Get the facility owner's prior written consent as well — a separate exception that removes any argument.

What is the penalty under Oklahoma's critical infrastructure drone law?

Until 1 November 2026, subsection D provides civil liability only, for damages to the facility including damage to property, the environment or human health. From that date SB 1441 makes a violator subject to 21 O.S. §1792, whose trespass penalty is a misdemeanor with a fine of not less than $1,000 or six months in jail, or both.

Is it illegal to land my drone on someone's land in Oklahoma?

Yes, if you do it intentionally without the owner's or lessee's consent — 21 O.S. §1743 makes that a misdemeanor. The only exception written into the section is a landing required in the interest of safety or otherwise in an emergency, such as to avoid collision with a person or property.

Does my commercial work exempt me from Oklahoma's drone privacy law?

Only partly. The bona fide business exception in 21 O.S. §1743 applies to the paragraph on observing someone with a reasonable expectation of privacy, and only where the operator does so unintentionally or incidentally. It does not exempt you from the paragraphs on trespass with intent to surveil, unauthorized installations, or landing without consent.

Do I need a permit for an Oklahoma state park?

Yes. The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department's State Parks FAQ states plainly that a permit is required for all drone usage. We could not open the official Administrative Code text of the Chapter 30 park rules to confirm which permit category applies to commercial filming, so call the park office before you schedule the job.

Sources

Neighboring states

TexasMissouri

Federal rules are the ones tested.

No state changes the 400-foot ceiling, visual line of sight, or the certificate itself. Those are what the Part 107 exam asks about.

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