Hey there everyone! I honestly meant to get this blog update posted before now but I have been doing a bunch of other things. I have been playing with getting a FAA Part 107 since they came out. But have not really buckled in and seriously put time in on getting it. To be honest with everyone as much as I play in the aviation field and with as much baseline as I was able to bring to the table it was not even close to the amount I would have needed to pass the 107 test. So over the last couple months (don't pick things up as fast as I did a decade ago!) I have been studying on the side, watching videos and taking online practice exams to judge where I was in relation to being ready. About a month ago I shout down through the entire 3DR site online exam and averaged around a 72-76% over all 100+ questions. I knew I was pretty good on the methods and practices. The numbers, stats and laws I had a good grip on as well. But I was a little weak on maps, kind of weak on METAR and TAF decoding and VERY weak on the weather portions. So I chose to kind of focus on those a bit for a week or so. After that time I felt I was much stronger on maps and METAR/TAF reading. I was still worried about weather, so I ran through it for another week but leaning heavily on weather. Did help a bit but I still felt I was not as strong for the test as I felt I should be going into a $150 test. Then I watched a video by MrSteele on youtube in which he had just taken his 2 year recurrent test and mentioned that he had heard that the FAA dropped the weather and another section on they recurrent test. Which he said might have been the case since he got no weather questions on his test. That left me in a questioning position, do I spend much higher amounts of time perhaps even breaking open my old flight study books and go very hard at the weather doing my best to learn it all?? I did the math and knew I could get 18 questions wrong on the test before I would drop below the failure threshold. After doing those numbers I felt much better about taking the test, since I found it very unlikely that the FAA would throw enough weather questions I could not answer with some form of competence to drop me out of contention. SO, a week ago today I made the decision to schedule the test and take my shot. After calling the actual test center (don't bother it has to be scheduled via the testing company over the phone unless you are very lucky to live in one of a very few metro areas where the online registry is available.) Plus waiting on the phone on hold for what seemed like an eternity (awful hold music...) I was able to give my info and payment info. I scheduled the test for the next morning 10/15/2019 at 8am. On the way got tangled in a little traffic and had to call the testing site to make them aware I was running a bit behind. Got there a very nice young woman got me all squared away in the system. Then she was shocked as I had nothing on me other than my car keys and sunglasses to stow for the test. You cannot have anything on you for the test since it is a proctored and sterile test environment. The FAA gives you 2 hours to complete the 60 question test, once I got the hang of the wacky moving between the supplied information book and the computer to answer the questions off I went at a pretty fast speed. At one point I was wondering how I could be pushing through the test as quick as I was since at the rate I was answering I would have been done in about 35-40 minutes after a 2-4 minute first question (trying to figure out the book for the info to answer.) But once I got to the back end of the test I got slowed down a tiny bit. I finished in a little under 50 minutes but then went back to the few marked questions I had read them very careful and checked them again. After that I was right around 53-54 minutes, but I hesitated for a moment. When I got to the test I was worried for a couple minutes if I had made the right choice in going so soon and without doing one of the online courses. Then just before I clicked on finish test I had a bit of anxiety...had I done enough...did I make 70%??? I was not sure I had...I know self doubt isn't my normal stance but in this case yeah a bit. BUT after clicking on the button and waiting for that inevitable progress bar, I was able to breathe super EASY! 92% The test proctor came in and asked if I wanted to review the questions I got wrong. I said yes and took a look through them, I was actually not very surprised the questions I got wrong I was not super happy with my answers. Only 5 wrong and one of those I would feel that I answered in a safer manner than the FAA regs would require. So in total I probably would clock the amount of time that I put in for study on this test at around 8-9 hours between videos and online searching and even reading parts of the .pdf that the FAA has posted online. Better yet was the fact that almost half of this time was downtime I had in my schedule when I was sitting idle at dog shows. So win/win!!!! 

If you are considering going out for a part 107 or even just want to study the materials -
I would suggest going to the FAA site concerning the part 107 and downloading all the relevant .pdfs and info. I would also consider watching a vareity of the youtube videos out there that have 107 info. The best one I found was quite long but he kept it moving and interesting was the video by Tony Northrup. There are a couple other course videos and I would suggest looking at some of them as well. Get used to finding information on the sectional charts that the FAA has out there. I watched Tony's video 2 times once at home where I was able to put it up on the tv so as to see things a little better. Of course you can also go with one of the online drone courses out there, but I know I am beating a dead horse when I say this...everyone says it. You do not need to shell out more money for this, a bit of study and take those online practice tests!!! That will let you know where you might be having issues. Then just tailor to those weak spots. If I am able to study as little as I did and cruise that test with a 92% in the amount of time it took me to take it. You should be able to as well!!! 

I would like to say that now I have to go out there and get myself a whirly bird to put up in the sky. BUT I have had a imaging rig capable of flight for years now. I upgraded it not long ago with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro and have been thrilled with the output from that machine. But without a license I have not been able to use it commercially so I have been very careful not to "cross the streams" between using it (them) for myself vs. using it for the business. Now that I have a 107 (don't have the actual card yet but I passed the test and know the BG check will come back clean) I am going to be flying a bunch more and posting to the site more as well. So look for an update in the near future where I introduce "Raptor-2" and put up some really fun images and maybe a short video as well!