A working pilot quickly meets a question Part 107 alone cannot answer: “I’m cleared to fly here under Part 107 — but am I actually allowed to?” The two are not the same thing, because Part 107 is not the only law that can touch a drone operation. It is the federal rulebook for the flight itself. Other law — state and local — can reach parts of what you are doing that are not the flight: where you launch from, who owns the land beneath you, what you record, whether you have trespassed. This section is about the STRUCTURE of that division only, not its details, which vary from place to place and change over time.

The clean way to hold it is by what each system governs. Part 107 is federal and governs the operation of the aircraft — how, where, and over whom you may fly. State and local law generally governs things on the ground and around the flight — property, privacy, and conduct that is not the flying itself. The same job can sit within both at once: a perfectly lawful flight can still raise a privacy or trespass question the FAA never addresses. Where exactly the lines fall between the systems — and how they interact where they meet — is a legal question well beyond this book; knowing that both exist, and that they cover different things, is the framework a working pilot actually needs.