How long do drone flight records need to be kept?

The short answer is that Part 107 does not specify a retention period for most drone flight records. The longer answer is that operators retain them anyway, typically for three to five years, because insurance carriers, client contracts, statute-of-limitations windows, and FAA inspectors during a program audit all expect to see them. Programs without a retention policy discover the gap during a claim or inspection, which is the worst time to find out.

What Part 107 actually says about recordkeeping

Part 107 is light on explicit retention mandates. Section 107.7 requires a remote pilot in command to present their certificate and registration documentation to FAA personnel on request. Section 107.9 requires accident reports for serious injury or property damage above $500 to be filed within 10 days of the event. Aircraft registration documents need to be carried during operations. Beyond these obligations, the regulation does not set a number of years for retaining flight logs, maintenance records, or training documentation.

That gap matters. Auditors, insurers, and litigants assume records exist, so the absence of a retention floor in the regulation does not mean operators can discard records freely. The FAA can ask for records years after an event when investigating an incident or evaluating a waiver renewal. A program that cannot produce records on request faces a presumption that the operations were not run to standard, even if they were. The retention question is operational and contractual more than regulatory.

Why three to five years is the working baseline

A few external forces converge on the three-to-five-year window. Personal injury statute of limitations in most US states runs two to three years from the date of incident, sometimes longer when minors are involved or when injuries are discovered later. Insurance claims can arrive years after a flight, and carriers expect operators to produce records tied to the date, location, equipment, and pilot involved. Client contracts in regulated industries (utility inspections, rail, oil and gas) routinely specify three, five, or seven-year retention periods for any work product associated with the engagement.

Beyond external pressure, the program's own audit cycle benefits from longer retention. Showing an FAA inspector a clean pattern of compliance across multiple years is more defensible than producing the last six months of records. Waiver renewals for operations such as BVLOS or operations over people ask the operator to demonstrate operational history, and a thin record-set undermines that case.

Programs that retain three to five years of flight logs, maintenance records, training certifications, and incident reports tend to satisfy the broadest set of demands. Programs that retain less find the gaps when something goes wrong.

A practical retention framework

A retention schedule should match the record type to the longest reasonable demand window. Flight logs themselves benefit from a minimum of three years, with five preferred. Maintenance records tied to specific airframes should be kept for the operational life of the aircraft plus at least two years after disposal, because incident investigations can implicate equipment that left the fleet. Pilot certification and currency records should be retained while the pilot is active plus three years after departure, since claims can surface after a pilot has moved on.

Incident reports deserve the longest retention window. Seven years is reasonable, longer if the incident involved injury or significant property damage. Training records should follow the pilot's tenure plus a three-year tail. Authorization documents (waivers, LAANC approvals, airspace authorizations) should be kept for the waiver term plus three years, because the FAA may ask about operations conducted under a prior authorization when evaluating a new one.

The retention schedule itself should be documented, dated, and reviewed annually. A schedule that exists only in the operations lead's head is not a schedule.

Common mistakes

Retaining only what the regulation explicitly requires. Operators read Part 107, see no general retention period, and treat that as permission to discard records. The absence of a mandate is not an exemption from operational reality. Audits, claims, and contracts all expect records to exist for years.

Storing records on individual pilot devices. Flight logs that live on a pilot's phone or laptop function as personal files rather than program records. When the pilot leaves, the records leave with them. A central system of record is the only way to make retention enforceable across staff changes.

Discarding maintenance records when equipment is retired. When an airframe is sold or scrapped, its maintenance history often goes with it. Two years later, an incident investigation may need to know how that equipment was used and maintained across its service life, and the records are gone.

FAQ

Does Part 107 require a specific retention period for flight logs?

No. Part 107 does not set a retention period for flight logs. Operators typically retain logs for three to five years to satisfy insurance, contractual, and audit-defense needs, and to support waiver renewals where operational history matters to the FAA's evaluation.

What about Remote ID broadcast data?

Remote ID broadcasts in real time and is not retained on the aircraft. Operators do not need to store broadcast data, but they should retain the records of which aircraft were operating under which session ID at which time, since this can be reconstructed during an investigation.

Do state or local laws require longer retention?

Some do, particularly when drone work involves public records, environmental compliance, or contracts with state agencies. Retention requirements written into client agreements or state contracts can extend beyond the operator's default schedule and should be tracked per-engagement rather than across the whole program.

What records does the FAA actually ask for during a program audit?

Pilot certifications, aircraft registrations, flight logs tied to specific operations, training records, maintenance logs, waiver documentation, and incident reports. A retention schedule should cover all of these record types for the same default window.

Closing thought

Records retention for drone programs is not a regulatory question with a clean answer. It is a downstream consequence of insurance, contracts, statutes, and audit cycles, and the operator who plans for the broadest reasonable demand window comes out ahead. Three to five years for most record types, longer for incident reports and equipment maintenance, with a documented schedule that is reviewed annually.

If you are building a retention policy you can defend during an FAA inspection or insurance claim, FlybyOps was built for the operational record problem at the center of regulated drone work. A document vault with expiration tracking, a pilot registry with certification and currency tracking, an equipment registry with airframe-hour rollups, and an append-only audit log are all part of how the platform supports defensible recordkeeping over multi-year retention windows.