In the United States, most commercial drone flights, including infrastructure inspection, are flown under 14 CFR Part 107, the Federal Aviation Administration’s rule for small unmanned aircraft (under 55 pounds). Part 107 requires the person in charge, the remote pilot in command, to hold a Remote Pilot Certificate earned by passing an aeronautical knowledge test and to keep it current through recurrent training. Aircraft must be registered.
The core operating limits include keeping the drone within visual line of sight, flying at or below 400 feet above ground level, yielding right-of-way to crewed aircraft, and not flying over people or moving vehicles except as the rule allows. One provision is especially relevant to tall infrastructure: a drone may fly higher than 400 feet above the ground if it stays within a 400-foot radius of a structure and no more than 400 feet above the structure’s top. This lets inspectors fly the full height of tall towers.
Many limits can be relaxed through a waiver if the operator shows the operation can be conducted safely, for example flying at night under different conditions, over people, or beyond visual line of sight.
Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS)
Transmission lines and fiber routes can run for hundreds of miles. Under the basic Part 107 rules, a drone must stay within the pilot’s (or a visual observer’s) unaided sight, often well under a mile. This “visual line of sight” requirement is the single biggest barrier to drone inspection of long linear infrastructure. Flying beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) would let one crew inspect many miles of line per flight.
Today most BVLOS work happens under individual waivers or exemptions, which require the operator to show how the drone will detect and avoid other aircraft, how it will stay clear of people, and what happens if communication is lost. In August 2025 the FAA and TSA published a proposed rule, “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations,” which would create a new Part 108 with a performance-based path for routine BVLOS flight. The comment period was later reopened (February 2026). Readers should check the Federal Register docket for the current status before relying on any part of it.
BVLOS also depends on the wider airspace system: how drones share information with each other and with crewed aircraft. NASA and the FAA have studied UAS Traffic Management (UTM) concepts for coordinating many low-altitude drones, and the FAA’s partnership programs test these ideas with real operators, including utilities.
Airspace, Remote ID, and Flight Authorizations
Not all airspace is equal. Areas near airports are controlled airspace, and drone pilots need FAA authorization to fly there. Many cell sites and substations sit close to airports, so this matters for everyday inspection work. The FAA’s LAANC (Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability) system provides near-real-time approval for many flights below published altitude limits in controlled airspace. The B4UFLY service helps pilots check where they can fly.
Some locations are off-limits regardless. The FAA prohibits drone flights over certain designated national-security-sensitive facilities, from the ground up to 400 feet, including some critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants. Temporary flight restrictions may also apply around wildfires, disasters and major events, which is exactly when a utility might want to inspect its lines.
Finally, most drones flying in U.S. airspace must broadcast Remote ID, a kind of digital license plate that lets authorities and the public identify a drone and its control station location. Understanding these layers (controlled airspace, restricted areas and Remote ID) is part of basic flight planning for any inspection program.
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