FAA Rules for RC: TRUST, Registration & Remote ID
Three rules apply to anyone flying a model aircraft in the US — and plane, heli and jet flyers usually think none of them do. What TRUST is, when the $5 registration kicks in, and the three legal ways to satisfy Remote ID.
Updated Jul 22, 2026 · RC Crash Crew
If you fly a model aircraft in the United States, three rules apply to you. Most people in this hobby know about one of them, and a lot of RC plane and helicopter flyers assume none of them apply at all.
They do. The FAA does not have a separate rulebook for "drones" and "model aircraft". A foam warbird, a 700-size heli, a 5-inch FPV quad and a DJI camera drone are all *unmanned aircraft* as far as the law is concerned. If it flies and you are not in it, this page is about you.
The three things
| What | Who it applies to | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pass TRUST | Everyone flying recreationally, at any weight | Free |
| 2 | Register your aircraft | Anything 250g / 0.55lb or more at takeoff | $5, covers all of them, 3 years |
| 3 | Remote ID | Anything that has to be registered | Built in, a module, or fly at a FRIA |
Under 250g you still have to do number 1. That surprises people.
1. TRUST — free, takes twenty minutes, no excuse
The Recreational UAS Safety Test is required by law for anyone flying recreationally in the US. It is free, it is online, you cannot fail it — it re-asks anything you get wrong until you understand it — and it does not expire.
When you pass, you get a completion certificate. You must be able to produce it while you are flying if the FAA or law enforcement asks. Save the PDF to your phone; the issuing body does not keep a copy you can re-download, so if you lose it you retake the test.
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is one of the approved test administrators, and it is the one most RC club flyers end up using.
2. Registration — $5, and one registration covers everything you own
The threshold is 250 grams (0.55 lb) total takeoff weight. That is the whole aircraft as it leaves the ground: airframe, battery, propellers, camera, prop guards, lights, any payload. Not the empty weight on the box.
For recreational flying, one $5 registration covers every aircraft you own — your park flyer, your quad and your heli all sit under the same number. It lasts three years.
Two things people miss:
- The registration number must be visible on the exterior of every aircraft. Not inside the battery hatch. A label on the fuselage or the frame is fine.
- You list your Remote ID serial numbers during registration — either the drone's built-in Remote ID serial, or the serial of the broadcast module you have fitted to it.
If you also fly commercially — anything that is not purely for fun, including monetised video — that is a different rule set (Part 107) and registration works differently. This page is about recreational flying only.
3. Remote ID — required since 16 March 2024
Remote ID broadcasts your aircraft's identity, its position, and the position of your control station — that is, where you are standing — while you fly. If your aircraft needs registering, it needs Remote ID. There are exactly three legal ways to satisfy it.
Route A — Standard Remote ID built in
Most drones sold since 2023 have it. Nothing to add. Check the manufacturer's spec sheet rather than assuming.
Route B — A broadcast module
A small transmitter you bolt to an older aircraft. This is the normal answer for anything home-built: an FPV quad, a scratch-built plane, an older heli.
⚠️ Read this part carefully, especially if you fly FPV. An aircraft using a broadcast module must be flown within visual line of sight at all times. A module does not buy you long-range flying. If your plan was to fit a module and go two miles out, that is not what a module permits.
Route C — Fly at a FRIA
A FAA-Recognized Identification Area is a fixed patch of ground where aircraft without any Remote ID equipment may legally fly. FRIAs are applied for by organizations — community-based organizations such as AMA clubs, plus schools, colleges and trade schools.
This is the route that matters most to traditional RC. If you fly at an established club field, there is a good chance it already is a FRIA, and inside its boundary your unequipped models are fine. Ask your club. If your field is not one, the club can apply.
The flying rules themselves
Registration and Remote ID are paperwork. These are the rules for the flight:
- Keep the aircraft within your visual line of sight, or within that of a visual observer standing beside you who can see it unaided. FPV goggles do not count as seeing it — flying FPV legally means a spotter.
- Do not interfere with, and always give way to, manned aircraft.
- In uncontrolled (Class G) airspace, stay at or below 400 feet above the ground.
- In controlled airspace, you need authorisation before you fly. For recreational flyers that comes through the LAANC system or the FAA's own request process — and near an airport that authorisation may be zero feet, meaning no.
- Fly at or below the ceiling the authorisation gives you, and follow the safety guidelines of a community-based organization if you belong to one.
- Check the airspace before you launch. The FAA's B4UFLY service exists for exactly this and is free.
What happens if you ignore it
Civil penalties for flying unregistered or without Remote ID run into thousands of dollars, and the FAA has issued them. Beyond the fine, an incident involving an unregistered aircraft is a considerably worse day than the same incident with the paperwork in order.
The practical risk for most people is not enforcement. It is that a club field, an insurance claim or a landowner's permission quietly depends on you having done this, and nobody checks until something has already gone wrong.
⚠️ What this page is not
- These are United States rules. If you fly anywhere else, your national aviation authority sets entirely different thresholds, tests and registration schemes. The 250g line happens to be common internationally, but nothing else here transfers.
- This is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for the FAA's own pages. It exists to tell you *what to go and check* — the FAA site is clear once you know which three things you are looking for, and impenetrable when you do not.
- The rules move. Remote ID enforcement began in March 2024, and the recreational framework has changed more than once since 2019. This page was written on the date below. If you are reading it much later, verify before you fly.
Sources
- FAA — Recreational Flyers & Community-Based Organizations
- FAA — Remote Identification of Drones
- FAA — Register your drone
- FAA — B4UFLY airspace checker
- AMA — TRUST test
- AMA — Remote ID and FRIA FAQs
*Underlying law: 49 U.S.C. § 44809 (exception for limited recreational operations) and 14 CFR Part 89 (Remote ID).*
*Written and checked 22 July 2026. The FAA is the authority — where this page and the FAA disagree, the FAA is right.*