so i got a mini 3 pro for christmas and i've just been flying it around my property, nothing crazy, staying well under 400 feet and not going near any airports or anything. my neighbor mentioned something about having to register with the FAA and i honestly had no idea that was even a thing. do i actually have to do that just to fly recreationally on my own land? feels like overkill for what im doing but i dont want to get in trouble

yeah unfortunately you do, if the drone is over 250 grams you have to register it with the FAA regardless of where you fly. the mini 3 pro is over that limit so you'd need to register. it's only like 5 bucks and takes maybe 10 minutes on the FAA DroneZone website. you also need to put your registration number on the aircraft somewhere visible. flying in your backyard is fine otherwise, just make sure you've got that sorted because technically flying unregistered is a federal violation which sounds scary but they're mostly going after people being reckless near airports and stuff

also worth downloading the B4UFLY app or just checking AirMap before you go up even in your yard, depending where you live you might be in controlled airspace without knowing it. my buddy lives near a small regional airport and had no idea his whole neighborhood was in class D until someone told him. the LAANC authorization through those apps is free and usually instant for most places