LAANC Authorization: A Step-by-Step Guide for Part 107 Pilots

Updated July 2026 · Part 107 Quiz editorial team

Roughly one drone flight in three starts inside controlled airspace, and under 14 CFR 107.41 none of those flights are legal without prior FAA authorization. LAANC — the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability — is how that authorization gets granted in seconds instead of months. It is a shared system between the FAA and a set of approved private suppliers, and it is the single most useful piece of infrastructure a working remote pilot touches.

This guide walks through what LAANC actually checks, how to request an authorization step by step, what the numbers on a UAS Facility Map grid mean, and what your options are when the answer comes back no.

When You Need an Authorization at All

Part 107 splits the sky into two practical categories: airspace you may simply fly in, and airspace that requires the FAA's permission first.

The distinction that costs pilots the most points on the exam — and the most trouble in the field — is the difference between the fuzzy magenta vignette and the dashed magenta line. The vignette means Class E starts at 700 ft AGL, so a flight at 350 ft below it sits in Class G and needs nothing. The dashed line means Class E starts at the ground, so every flight inside it needs authorization no matter how low you fly. Our airspace classes guide covers the full symbology.

What LAANC Is Actually Checking

LAANC is not a human reviewing your flight. It is an automated comparison against the FAA's UAS Facility Maps (UASFM) — a grid laid over every controlled airport, where each cell carries a pre-approved maximum altitude in feet AGL, set by the air traffic facility that owns the airspace.

• Grid reads 400. The whole Part 107 ceiling is pre-approved there. A request at or below 400 ft is approved almost instantly.
• Grid reads 200, 100, or 50. Only that altitude is pre-approved. Request 150 ft in a 100-ft grid and LAANC rejects it; request 100 ft and it approves.
• Grid reads 0. Nothing is pre-approved, usually because the cell sits on a runway approach path. LAANC cannot grant anything here — see further coordination below.

Step by Step: Requesting a LAANC Authorization

1. Check the airspace before you commit. Use B4UFLY or any sectional-based app to confirm which class your site sits in and which airport's facility map governs it. Do this at the quoting stage, not the morning of the shoot.
2. Read the grid altitude. Find the UASFM cell covering your launch point and note its ceiling. That number, not 400 ft, is your working ceiling for the automated path.
3. Open an FAA-approved LAANC supplier. Suppliers are third-party apps approved by the FAA to broker requests — Aloft, Avision, and UASidekick are common examples. The FAA maintains the current list; any approved supplier produces the same authorization.
4. Confirm your pilot and aircraft details. Your remote pilot certificate number and the aircraft's FAA registration must be on file in the app. Mismatched or expired details are a routine cause of rejection.
5. Draw the operating area and set the window. Define the flight area, the maximum altitude at or below the grid ceiling, and the start and end times. Requests may be submitted for a window up to 90 days out.
6. Submit and read the response. An automated approval typically returns in well under a minute, with an authorization number. Keep it accessible during the flight — you may be asked for it.
7. Fly the authorization you were granted. The approved area, altitude, and time window are the limits. Drifting outside any of the three ends the authorization's protection.
8. Close it out or amend it. If the job moves or runs long, cancel and resubmit rather than flying past the window. Amendments take the same few seconds the original did.

Further Coordination: When LAANC Can't Help

If your grid reads 0, or you need to exceed a grid's pre-approved altitude, the automated path is closed. The remaining route is a manual airspace authorization request through the FAA DroneZone portal. Two things matter here.

First, timing. DroneZone requests are reviewed by people at the controlling facility, and the FAA advises allowing up to 90 days. This is not a same-week option, and it is the reason airspace should be checked before a job is priced, not after it is booked.

Second, quality of the request. Manual requests are approved on the strength of their safety case: exactly where you will fly, how high, for how long, what mitigations are in place, and why the operation cannot be moved to a less sensitive area. Vague requests get denied.

Some suppliers also offer a further coordination submission path that routes to the same facility with a longer lead time than automated LAANC but shorter than a full DroneZone request. Availability varies by facility.

Common Reasons a LAANC Request Gets Rejected

• Requested altitude exceeds the grid. The most common rejection by a wide margin. Lower the request to the grid ceiling and resubmit.
• The operating area crosses grids. A polygon spanning a 400-ft cell and a 100-ft cell is limited by the lower value. Shrink the area or lower the altitude.
• An active TFR overlaps the site. LAANC authorizations do not override temporary flight restrictions. Check NOTAMs separately, every time.
• Stale certificate or registration data. Expired aircraft registration or a lapsed recurrent-training status will stop the request.
• The window is outside operating hours. Some facilities restrict automated approvals to specific hours; a 2 a.m. request may need coordination even in a 400-ft grid.

What the Exam Expects You to Know

The Remote Pilot Certificate test does not ask you to operate any particular LAANC app. It tests the concepts underneath: which airspace classes need authorization, that authorization comes from the FAA rather than from an airport manager or local police, that LAANC is the near-real-time path while DroneZone handles what LAANC cannot, and that a 0-ft grid means no automated approval is available.

It also tests the chart reading that determines whether you need LAANC in the first place — dashed blue, dashed magenta, solid magenta, solid blue, and the magenta vignette. Getting the symbology wrong is what turns a legal flight into an unauthorized one.

Test Yourself

Airspace is 15–25% of the exam and the section test-takers fail most often. Drill it with our Airspace practice questions, which include scenario items on facility-map grids, surface Class E, and TFRs, then take a full Part 107 mock exam to see how airspace mixes with the rest of the test. More knowledge areas are in the Study Guide.

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