Beautiful Nebraska is brimming with places for your next drone flight.

You can explore towering trees, breathtaking waterfalls, scenic views, and hiking trails with your drone, having it follow you or track subjects for cinematic footage you’ll adore. 

All this fun (and profitability) begins with holding a commercial drone license.

How to get a drone license in Nebraska?

Here’s how to get a drone license in Nebraska:

• Meet the eligibility standards
• Get an FAA Tracking Number
• Register for your exam at the nearest FAA Knowledge Testing Center
• Enroll in an online drone course to study
• Get a passing score on the Part 107 exam
• Request your license by completing Form 8710-13

Boiling it down to bullet points might make the process look simple, but once you get underway, you’ll realize there is a lot more to it than bullets can convey. 

I’m here to guide you through the entire process of becoming a commercial drone pilot, breaking down the complexities so first-timers can get through it faster.

Here’s how to obtain a drone license in Nebraska

First, here’s a little distinction. 

The commercial drone license, or Remote Pilot Certificate (colloquially referred to as the Part 107 certificate) is different from the recreational license or TRUST certificate. 

The former is far more expansive and encompassing, and–best of all–it’s how you can earn money with your drone.

Got it? Great! Now, you’re ready to get underway so you can become a commercial drone license holder in Nebraska faster than you can say McCool Junction. 

» MORE: How I Passed Part 107 (& The Course That Helped Me do That)

Meet the eligibility standards

The FAA, which oversees all aviation activity in the United States skies, requires pilots to meet a few basic standards before they can register for the Part 107 exam. 

These are no biggie for most pilots, so let’s go over them. 

You need to be 16 and older, mentally and physically safe to fly a drone, and in full command of the English language.

Yes, that’s it! Don’t you feel accomplished already? 

Get an FAA Tracking Number

However, you can’t exactly take the Unmanned Aircraft General – Small (UAG) test yet (that’s the official name for the commercial drone license exam). 

First, the FAA needs a way to identify you, and–more importantly in this process–verify you. 

If this is the first time you’ve ever flown any aircraft, manned or unmanned, then you’ll need an FAA Tracking Number.

You might already have an FTN if you have prior aviation experience in the US. If so, you still need to make an IACRA account.

A what account? IACRA. It’s short for the Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application. 

IACRA is an extension of the FAA for cutting down on the paper trail when registering and maintaining an active drone license. You need an account to get a new FTN. 

If you already have an FTN, you still need an IACRA account to complete the drone license process. 

Click here to visit the IACRA website. You will see a login box on the upper right, then a registration link below that. Click the link.

This begins your registration process. Start by selecting a role relevant to your experience and aviation duties. You can check more than one role, so be accurate. 

Next, carefully read IACRA’s terms of service, then click the button when you’re ready to move on. 

The second page begins with a Certificate Information section. Even if you have other FAA experience, you don’t have a Remote Pilot Certificate, so you can’t fill this section in. It’s alright to skip it for now.

Answer some security questions for account safety, type your personal information, and choose your IACRA login, inputting a username and password. 

That’s it for registration. IACRA will confirm your account creation, and when you log in, you will have an FTN. 

Register for your exam at the nearest FAA Knowledge Testing Center

While everything today is online-oriented, that’s not quite the case for the Unmanned Aircraft General – Small (UAG) test. You must take it in person, and the only place to do it is at a Nebraska FAA Knowledge Testing Center.

You can find Knowledge Testing Centers on PSI, a testing resource the FAA uses to administer and manage its exams. 

You won’t get far on the PSI website without your FTN, so aren’t you glad you have it? 

Clicking the link above, choose Create an Account. You’ll have to type in your FTN to proceed. 

Once PSI approves you, you can follow the single-page user registration prompts. These are very simple and straightforward. 

Create a username and password, type in your name and email address, and confirm your preferred language. 

Click the continue button and check your inbox for an email from PSI. Although it should go into your main inbox, it sometimes gets relegated to the spam or junk folders, so check there too. 

You can ask PSI to resend the verification if you didn’t get it the first time.

Inside that email from PSI is a verification link. When you click it, you can now log in and use your account to the fullest. 

That includes registering for the Part 107 exam. Browse Knowledge Testing Centers in your part of Nebraska by selecting Find a Test Center. 

You must choose Unmanned Aircraft General – Small (UAG) from the dropdown menu to find a place administering the commercial exam.

You can narrow your results by location and distance, making it handy to find the Knowledge Testing Center nearest you. 

Enroll in an online drone course to study       

The best study resources will produce the best results when you take the commercial drone exam. 

This isn’t a free test, and it costs over $100 to take, so why settle for shoddy resources when you can go straight to the best?

How do I know it’s the best? Simple! Our team here at Droneblog searched high and low for the top beginner drone courses and selected these. They’re led by some of the biggest names in the drone community by industry professionals. 

You can’t learn from better experts than these. They make the complicated FAA drone rules easy to understand so you’ll be ready for whatever questions you get on the Part 107 exam. 

Sounds good? Here’s the link to check out these A+ testing resources.

You can take these courses online, so whether you have plenty of time to devote to studying or are juggling other life responsibilities, you can study on your time wherever you are most comfortable. 

The pass guarantees are around 90+ percent, but you can get a full refund if you somehow don’t pass. You’ll even get funds toward the next time you take the commercial drone exam. 

Get a passing score on the Part 107 exam

As you gear up for the Unmanned Aircraft General – Small (UAG) exam, here are some facts to know:

• You must have a government-issued photo ID to get into the FAA Knowledge Testing Center and take the exam. A driver’s license is fine, but make sure it’s valid!
• All questions are presented in multiple-choice format.
• There are 60 questions total.
• You’re given two and a half hours to complete all the questions.
• You need a score of 70 percent to pass, which means missing fewer than 20 questions. 

You don’t have to worry about bringing anything with you besides the requisite ID. 

You can bring a math calculator or a protractor, but you can also take the test fine without these objects. Everything else you need will be provided to you.

Okay, but I’m sure you’re wondering what you should do with your phone. You can bring it with you, but you must leave it in a locker. The proctor will not let you take the Part 107 exam with your phone on you. 

How will you know if you passed? IACRA will post your test results. Don’t worry, they’re not made public to anyone but you. That said, the results are rarely instant. Be ready to wait up to several weeks before you know. 

Request your license by completing Form 8710-13 

You may pass the commercial drone exam the first time, or it may take you several attempts. Either way, once you achieve this milestone, it’s time to celebrate.

Then, you need to request your Part 107 license. 

Let me shed some light on this. Each new license request requires a lot of internal processing from the FAA, which is a busy enough organization. 

You can receive a temporary version of your commercial drone license by sending in Form 8710-13 through IACRA.

This version of your certificate isn’t as pretty, since you’re printing it on paper, but it’s otherwise the same license. It’s for you to use until the FAA sends you the permanent version. 

Okay, so now that you’ve got that, let’s get to filling out Form 8710-13, shall we? 

Log back into IACRA. Select Start New Application, then Pilot, Remote Pilot, Other Path Information, and Start Application. 

Go through the form, filling out everything accurately, and add your digital John Hancock when you’re done. 

IACRA will process the form. You must pass a background check to receive your drone license, so if there’s any holdup, that’s why.

When you get the green light, IACRA will email you the Part 107 certificate. Print it, use it, love it. You did it! 

I have my drone license in Nebraska – Now what? 

You should be proud of yourself for getting here, but you’re not entirely done yet. 

First, since you have a commercial drone license, you have to register your drone commercially with the FAA. Although you’ve probably heard that drones under 250 grams don’t need registration, that’s only the case for recreational drones. 

Once you’ve gotten that taken care of, I can’t stress enough the value of drone insurance. You’re a beginner, and mistakes happen. You don’t want to bankrupt yourself or harm your financial situation by paying out of pocket for a drone accident you caused, right? 

Drone insurance protects you, so do yourself a favor and get it.

Nebraska doesn’t have many drone laws, but you must still know the contents of the Nebraska Games and Parks Commission law, which was implemented in 2018. 

According to that law, you can’t fly a drone in any state park, state historical park, or recreation area unless you have a special permit. You’re also forbidden from flying in wildlife management areas throughout the state. 

Under the Airborne Hunting Act, you can’t harass state wildlife with your drone, especially nesting and migrating birds. Avoid endangered birds like the whooping crane, least tern, piping plover, mountain plover, and red knot, as they’re endangered and/or threatened. 

Here’s a teeny-tiny misconception about the Part 107 license. It might be called permanent, but this certificate still expires every two years. 

Once upon a time, until 2021, you had to take the commercial drone test all over again every two years. That was expensive and stressful. Fortunately, now the FAA lets you certify online for free. 

This post from our blog will tell you everything you need to know.