Part 107 ACS Task Area 10: Maintenance and Preflight Inspection Procedures

Maintenance and Preflight Inspection Procedures is Task Area 10 of the Unmanned Aircraft General, Small (UAG) Airman Certification Standards (ACS), and the last of the ten task areas the Part 107 knowledge test draws from. It covers two related but distinct obligations: the regulatory preflight check you must run before every single flight, and the ongoing maintenance responsibility you carry between flights, which Part 107 handles very differently from how manned aviation regulates aircraft upkeep.

The regulation: 14 CFR 107.49 preflight requirements

Before every flight, a remote pilot in command (RPIC) must complete four categories of check under 14 CFR 107.49:

• Environmental assessment. Evaluate local weather conditions, local airspace and any flight restrictions, the location of persons and property on the surface, and other ground hazards in the operating area.
• Personnel briefing. Anyone participating in the operation, including a visual observer (VO), must be briefed on operating conditions, emergency procedures, contingency procedures, roles and responsibilities, and potential hazards.
• System checks. Confirm the control link between the ground station and the aircraft is functioning correctly, and that the aircraft carries sufficient charge or fuel for the intended flight duration, including a safety margin.
• Equipment security. Anything attached to or carried by the aircraft, a camera, a payload, an accessory, must be secure and must not adversely affect the aircraft’s flight characteristics or controllability.

If the operation involves flight over people under Part 107’s Subpart D, the aircraft must also meet the specific airworthiness conditions tied to its operations-over-people category, a separate and more involved requirement covered in the operations-over-people explainer rather than in the general preflight rule itself. None of these four checks is optional, and none is a one-time task you complete once and reuse across flights: a control link that tested fine yesterday, an area that was clear of bystanders an hour ago, or a battery that held charge on the last flight can all be different by the time you launch again, which is exactly why the regulation frames this as a per-flight requirement rather than a per-aircraft or per-day one.

There is no FAA-mandated maintenance program for a Part 107 aircraft

This is the detail that trips people up who already know general aviation. A certificated manned aircraft operates under a legally mandated inspection program (an annual inspection at minimum, often a 100-hour inspection for aircraft used for hire), performed and logged by a licensed mechanic. Part 107 has no equivalent requirement. There is no FAA-mandated inspection interval, no requirement for a certified mechanic to sign off on your drone, and no regulation requiring you to keep a written maintenance log. Instead, the FAA places the entire burden of airworthiness on you: you are responsible for following the aircraft manufacturer’s maintenance and inspection recommendations and for keeping the aircraft in a condition safe for flight, full stop, with no paperwork trail required by regulation to prove it.

Building your own preflight and maintenance habit

Because nothing forces a specific checklist on you, the practical skill this task area rewards is building a consistent one yourself and actually running it before every flight, not just the first one of the day. A reasonable preflight and periodic-maintenance routine covers:

• Visual airframe check. Cracks, loose fasteners, or visible damage to the body, arms, or landing gear.
• Propeller condition. Nicks, cracks, or delamination on each blade, since a damaged propeller can fail or cause a dangerous vibration in flight.
• Battery condition. Charge level, swelling, or physical damage to the cells; a swollen battery is a fire risk and should be retired, not flown.
• Firmware and software status. Confirm the aircraft and controller are running a version you trust, since manufacturer updates frequently patch safety-relevant bugs.
• Compass and inertial measurement unit (IMU) calibration. Recalibrate when you move to a significantly different location, particularly a large distance or a place with strong local magnetic interference, since a miscalibrated compass can cause erratic flight behavior.
• Control-link and GPS check. Confirm a strong signal and a solid GPS lock before takeoff, not just before the flight review overall.

Discrepancies and documentation

If a preflight or postflight check turns up something wrong, the rule is simple even though it is not written down anywhere in Part 107: do not fly until it is resolved. Nothing requires you to log the discrepancy and its resolution, but doing so anyway protects you twofold, it builds the paper trail an insurer or the FAA would want to see if you ever need to report an accident, and it keeps you from re-discovering the same problem on a future preflight after you already fixed it once.

How this gets tested

Expect scenario questions describing a preflight situation (a low battery reading, a control-link warning, an unbriefed crew member) and asking what the RPIC should do next, alongside direct recall questions on which of the four 107.49 categories a specific check belongs to. Drill both formats in the free practice bank, which groups questions by task area so you can work through maintenance and preflight procedures on their own.