I understand now that you don't need to register your drone if you are flying for recreational purposes only.

It seems a Federal court ruled that the FAA overstepped its authority in attempting to regulate small model or recreational aircraft.

But...if you are flying commercially, which, according to the FAA, is for any money whatsoever, including monetized videos on YT,
then you are supposed to register the drone.

In looking at the FAA's registration process today, I see there are three levels of registration.

1) Basic Recreational, which is $29.99
2) Enhanced Recreational, which is $49.99 (this awesome package includes "FAA compliant" stickers, which just look like stickers to me, but maybe they have wind-resistant glue with gold metal flakes in it??)
3) Commercial (required for business), $199.99, which includes everything the $49.99 package does, plus the 107 Business Package (what that is not explained) and access to the Online Training Platform (whatever that is).

I am sorry, but this whole thing reeks of a cash grab and shake down.

How in the world does it cost $199 to register what might only be a $600-700 bird, if that?

Is there any association legitimately advocating for the rights of drone pilots?

The FAA had to be sued to admit they overstepped their authority.

What does that say about the system?

Just a little frustrated and venting.

Do you have a link?  

I think you were looking at one of those scammy 3rd party registration sites.

It's 5 bucks for commercial registration. You are not obligated to register for recreational use.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/faqs/#reg

Yeah dude you've gone to the wrong site. That's all inaccurate fee info. Need to make sure you go to the site link in post #3

Sooooo it seems you were about to be shook down
...besides how is the government gonna pay for all that free stuff they give folks...remember the last administration said they needed to spread the wealth around

if you are flying commercially, which, according to the FAA, is for any money whatsoever, including monetized videos on YT,
then you are supposed to register the drone

By now you should have found out you were looking at a scam site.
But you've also got poor information about when you have to register.
If you are flying recreationally and allow ads on Youtube, you'll be lucky to make $5.
The FAA isn't interested in that sort of thing, it's not commercial flying.

Sorry about this post. It was a scam website.

Do you mind me asking where you found this information? I just registered a recreational drone for $5.00 on FAA.gov. Also, in preparation for the part 107 that I am taking next week, I have not seen a thing about any of the commercial registration costs that you are referring to (outside of the $150 for testing and application fee to FAA).

Look forward to hearing back from you...

DocQuicksand Posted at 2017-12-14 07:29
Do you mind me asking where you found this information? I just registered a recreational drone for $5.00 on FAA.gov. Also, in preparation for the part 107 that I am taking next week, I have not seen a thing about any of the commercial registration costs that you are referring to (outside of the $150 for testing and application fee to FAA).

Look forward to hearing back from you...

...and to follow up, I would like to say that there does seem to be a double standard when it comes to registration of recreational drones. FAA states that any recreational drone weighing more than .55 pounds should be registered while it is not necessary for other RC aircraft (Helicopters and Fixed Wing) unless they weigh more than 55 pounds.

Seems a bit odd to me?