Flying over, and from, moving vehicles

5.5

Vehicles

Two Part 107 rules involve vehicles, and they are easy to confuse because both say “moving vehicle” while answering completely different questions. One, § 107.145, governs flying the aircraft OVER a human being who is inside a moving vehicle — it is a rule about what is beneath your drone. The other, § 107.25, governs operating the aircraft FROM a moving vehicle — a rule about where you and your control station are. Chapter 2 introduced the from-a-vehicle basics; here the two sit side by side so the line between them is clear.

Both rules can be waived, and both appear on the § 107.205 list — § 107.25 at paragraph (a) and § 107.145 at paragraph (j) — so the FAA may authorize a deviation from either for an operation shown to be safe, through the certificate-of-waiver process Chapter 8 covers in full. There is one boundary the waiver system will not cross: a § 107.25 waiver may never be issued to allow the carriage of another person’s property by aircraft for compensation or hire. That single carve-out aside, the ordinary rules below are what govern day to day.

Over people in vehicles — § 107.145

Flying over a human being inside a moving vehicle is permitted only when the operation first meets one of the four categories — the same Category 1 through 4 rules as any flight over people.

For Categories 1, 2, and 3, the aircraft must either stay within a closed- or restricted-access site where everyone in a vehicle has been put on notice that a drone may pass over them, or else not maintain sustained flight over the moving vehicles. A Category 4 aircraft must carry its Part 21 airworthiness certificate.

From a moving vehicle — § 107.25

This rule is about where you operate from, not what is beneath the aircraft. You may never operate from a moving aircraft at all.

You may operate from a moving land or water-borne vehicle only over a sparsely populated area — a term the rule uses but does not itself define — and only if you are not transporting another person’s property for compensation or hire. The property-for-hire limit is the line this rule will not cross.

Key terms

Operations over moving vehiclesSparsely populated areaClosed- or restricted-access siteSustained flightCertificate of waiver

In review

Flight over people is prohibited by § 107.39 unless the person is directly participating, under a covered structure, or inside a stationary vehicle — or the operation fits one of the four subpart D categories that § 107.105 gates, each keyed to how much harm the aircraft could do on impact.
Category 1 needs only an aircraft of 0.55 pounds or less throughout the flight, including any payload, with no exposed rotating parts that would lacerate skin — and no manufacturer paperwork.
Categories 2 and 3 turn on a manufacturer’s declaration of compliance that an impact stays under 11 or 25 foot-pounds of kinetic energy, with a permanent category label; the remote pilot must re-label a damaged or missing label under § 107.135, and Category 3 adds tighter limits on where you may fly over people.
Category 4 replaces the injury threshold with a full Part 21 airworthiness certificate, an approved Flight Manual, and ongoing maintenance under § 107.140 — the path for larger aircraft.
Sustained flight over an open-air assembly demands Remote ID (§ 89.110 or § 89.115(a)) in Categories 1, 2, and 4, and is barred outright in Category 3; flying over occupied moving vehicles (§ 107.145) and operating from a moving vehicle (§ 107.25) are separate, separately-conditioned rules.