okay so this might be a dumb question but bear with me. my buddy keeps telling me i should just get the part 107 even though i dont plan on doing any paid work, i just fly my mini 3 around on weekends and do some hiking stuff. his argument is that it gives you more access to airspace or something? im not really sure i understand what he means by that. like does having the cert actually change what i can and cant do if im not flying commercially

i looked at the faa site for like 20 minutes and gave up honestly, the language is really dense

your buddy isn't totally wrong but it's a little more nuanced than that. recreationally you're under the recreational flyer rules which actually limits you in some ways compared to 107. with a 107 cert you can request waivers for things like flying at night, over people, that kind of stuff. the airspace access is kind of the same either way since you're using laanc regardless but having 107 does open some doors if you ever do want to get paid to fly even just once in a while.

that said if you genuinely never plan to make a cent from it the cert isnt strictly necessary, it's more of a nice to have and honestly the exam is not that brutal, most people pass first try with a few weeks of studying

i was in the same boat and just did it anyway, took me maybe 3 weeks of casual studying and passed. the sheppard air practice tests are pretty much all you need. just having it feels good and removes some of the like... ambiguity about what youre allowed to do. plus if someone ever asks if youre licensed you can just say yes instead of having to explain the whole recreational exemption thing to a nosy park ranger lol