so i was going through the FAA site last night trying to figure out if my old Mavic Air 2 is still good to fly in controlled airspace with just LAANC or if i need to do something else now and i stumbled onto what looks like an updated page about remote ID compliance. maybe its been there a while and i just missed it but it seems like they clarified something about broadcast modules for legacy drones? i honestly cant tell if this is new or if ive just been misreading the old version this whole time.

anyone else been keeping up with this stuff? i feel like every time i think i understand the rules something shifts and i have to start over. would really appreciate if someone who actually follows this closely could give me the plain english version of where things stand right now for recreational flyers with older hardware.

yeah the remote ID situation has been a bit of a moving target honestly. the broadcast module path is still technically valid for legacy drones that cant get a firmware update for built-in remote ID, but the list of FAA-accepted modules is pretty short and some of the early ones that people bought turned out to not actually meet spec. your Mavic Air 2 should have gotten a firmware update that handles it natively through the DJI side so you probably dont even need a module. i'd double check your firmware version though because if youre not on a recent build it might not be broadcasting correctly even if you think it is.

LAANC is separate from remote ID btw, those are two different things. LAANC is just authorization to fly in controlled airspace, remote ID is the broadcast requirement. you need both where applicable.

omg i had the same confusion a few months ago when i was getting started. i spent like two hours on the FAA drone zone site just going in circles. eventually i just called the local FSDO and the guy i talked to was actually super helpful and walked me through it. might be worth a call if you want a definitive answer instead of trying to parse the website which is... not the clearest thing ever designed lol