Regulations

Drone Remote ID: What You Must Broadcast

✓ Reviewed against current FAA sources on October 11, 2026

Remote ID is the rule most often described as a license plate for drones, which is close enough to be useful and wrong in one important way: a license plate is read by someone standing next to the vehicle, and Remote ID broadcasts to anyone with a phone within radio range. What it sends, and what it does not send, is set out in 14 CFR Part 89, and the examinable detail is in the difference between two lists.

The three ways to comply

Part 89 gives an operator three routes, and only three.

• A standard Remote ID unmanned aircraft under 89.110, which has the capability built in by the producer.
• A Remote ID broadcast module under 89.115(a), which is an add-on fitted to an aircraft that does not have it built in.
• Flying at an FAA-recognized identification area under 89.115(b), where no Remote ID equipment is required at all, provided the aircraft and the person manipulating the controls stay within the area for the whole operation.

What a standard aircraft broadcasts: the eight elements of 89.305

Section 89.305 (opens in a new tab) requires eight message elements, and the order below is the order the regulation gives them:

1. the identity of the aircraft, either a serial number or a session ID;
2. the latitude and longitude of the control station;
3. the geometric altitude of the control station;
4. the latitude and longitude of the aircraft;
5. the geometric altitude of the aircraft;
6. the velocity of the aircraft;
7. a time mark for the time of applicability of a position source output;
8. an indication of the emergency status of the aircraft.

Two of those eight are about you rather than the aircraft. A standard Remote ID aircraft broadcasts where the pilot is standing, in latitude, longitude and altitude. That is the single most surprising fact in Part 89 for most people, and it is examined.

What a broadcast module broadcasts: the seven elements of 89.315

A module sends seven elements, not eight:

1. the identity of the aircraft, consisting of the module's serial number;
2. the latitude and longitude of the aircraft;
3. the geometric altitude of the aircraft;
4. the velocity of the aircraft;
5. the latitude and longitude of the take-off location;
6. the geometric altitude of the take-off location;
7. a time mark for the time of applicability of a position source output.

The differences are the whole point, and each one follows from the module being bolted on rather than integrated:

• No control station position. The module is attached to the aircraft and has no idea where the pilot is, so the take-off location substitutes for it.
• No emergency status. The module is not wired into the flight controller, so it cannot know.
• No session ID option. Identity is the module's serial number and nothing else.

The operating rule that catches people

Broadcast-module operations are visual line of sight only. Section 89.115 (opens in a new tab)(a)(2)(ii) requires that the person manipulating the flight controls be able to see the unmanned aircraft at all times throughout the operation. A standard Remote ID aircraft carries no such restriction in Part 89, which matters the moment you hold a waiver of the visual line of sight rule in 107.31: the waiver frees you from 107.31, and a broadcast module puts the requirement straight back through Part 89.

From takeoff to shutdown, and what to do if it stops

Both routes require broadcast from takeoff to shutdown, and both say what happens on a failure in flight. Under 89.110(a)(2) and 89.115(a)(4), if the aircraft stops broadcasting the required message elements, the person manipulating the flight controls must land the aircraft as soon as practicable. Not immediately, and not at the end of the job.

A standard aircraft has three further conditions in 89.110(b): the Remote ID equipment must be functional and compliant from takeoff to shutdown, it must not have been disabled, and the serial number must appear either on the Certificate of Aircraft Registration or in a notice of identification given to the FAA under 89.130 before the operation.

The performance figures

Section 89.310 (opens in a new tab) sets what the broadcast has to achieve, and these are the numbers a test question can hang on:

A standard aircraft must also be unable to take off if the Remote ID equipment is not working. A module cannot do that, because under 89.320 it self-tests and monitors but has no authority over the aircraft it is strapped to.

Where Remote ID meets the rest of Part 107

Remote ID is not only its own rule. It is a condition inside other rules. Sustained flight over an open-air assembly of human beings requires that the operation meet either 89.110 or 89.115(a), and that condition appears separately in the Category 1, Category 2 and Category 4 sections of Subpart D. In other words, the flying-over-people categories do not give you an open-air assembly without Remote ID, whatever the aircraft weighs. See flying a drone over people for how the four categories work.

Sources: 14 CFR 89.110 (opens in a new tab), 89.115 (opens in a new tab), 89.130 (opens in a new tab), 89.305 (opens in a new tab), 89.310 (opens in a new tab), 89.315 (opens in a new tab), 89.320 (opens in a new tab); 14 CFR 107.110 (opens in a new tab), 107.115 (opens in a new tab), 107.140 (opens in a new tab).