If § 107.15 sets the standard, § 107.49 turns it into specific actions you take before every flight. The section lists them, and the first is the widest: assess the operating environment. Section 107.49(a) spells out what that assessment must include — local weather conditions, local airspace and any flight restrictions, the location of persons and property on the surface, and other ground hazards. Chapter 2 met this as a duty and Chapter 3 taught the airspace half of it; the point here is that it is the opening item of a fixed preflight routine, not a vague instruction to “be careful.”

The remaining items move from the world to the aircraft and crew. Section 107.49(b) requires you to brief everyone directly participating on the operating conditions, the emergency and contingency procedures, their roles and responsibilities, and the hazards. Section 107.49(c) requires you to ensure the control links between the control station and the aircraft are working properly. Section 107.49(d) requires you to confirm there is enough available power for the aircraft to run for the intended operational time. And § 107.49(e) requires that any object attached to or carried by the aircraft is secure and will not adversely affect the flight. Run in order, those five are the repeatable core of a preflight.

AC 107-2A is where the list becomes a routine you can actually perform. Its guidance is to inspect the aircraft for equipment damage or malfunction before each flight, following the manufacturer's inspection procedures where they exist or a procedure the operator develops where they do not, scalable to cover the whole system. It also draws out checks the rule implies: moving the flight-control surfaces through the control station and confirming they respond correctly — and, the guidance says, not conducting flight until they do. The regulation names what must be checked; the guidance shows how to check it the same way every time.