Lost your Part 107 certificate? How to get a replacement

A lost Part 107 certificate is replaced through the FAA's airmen certification services, either online through an Airman Services account or by a signed request mailed to the Airmen Certification Branch, with a two dollar fee either way. Losing the card does not affect your certification itself, because the certificate as a legal credential lives in the FAA's registry rather than in your wallet. What the loss does affect is your ability to exercise it, since Part 107 requires the physical certificate to be in your possession and readily accessible when you fly.

This article covers both replacement routes, how to recover a certificate number you no longer have, the temporary authority option that keeps a working pilot legal while the card is in the mail, and the program level records that turn a lost card from a small crisis into a clerical errand. The order of operations matters, so it starts with the fastest path.

The online route, and the mail alternative

The fastest replacement runs through the FAA's online airman services. Sign in, or create an account with your name, date of birth, and certificate details, select the replacement request, give the reason, and pay the two dollar fee per certificate. The replacement card prints and mails from Oklahoma City, and the FAA quotes seven to ten days of processing for online requests against four to six weeks for mailed ones, which is why the temporary authority option covered below exists, and why the request should go in the day the loss is discovered rather than the week before the card is needed.

The mail route serves pilots who cannot use the online system. It accepts either the FAA's replacement application form or a signed written request stating your name, date of birth, certificate number or Social Security number, and the reason for replacement, with a two dollar check or money order per certificate payable to the FAA, addressed to the Airmen Certification Branch at its Oklahoma City post office box. Mail adds transit time on both ends, so the online request is worth preferring whenever it is available.

Recovering your certificate number

Replacement requests go faster with the certificate number, and a lost card often takes the number with it. The public lookup tools will not restore it, because the FAA deliberately excludes certificate numbers, along with dates of birth and Social Security numbers, from what its airman database displays. The direct path is a phone call to the Airmen Certification Branch, reachable through the contacts on the FAA's certificate replacement page, where staff can locate your record and, after verifying your identity, provide the number for your request.

This is also the moment the loss teaches its lesson. A certificate number is not a secret credential, and there is no reason for a working pilot, or the program employing one, to hold it in exactly one place. The number, the issue date, and a scan of the certificate belong in the pilot's own files and in the program's personnel records from the day the card first arrives. Every later administrative task, replacements included, starts from that record instead of from a phone queue.

Flying while the replacement is in the mail

The regulation that makes a lost card urgent is the inspection rule: a remote pilot in command must have the certificate in physical possession and readily accessible when exercising its privileges, and must present it on request to the FAA, the NTSB, the TSA, or any law enforcement officer. A pilot whose card is genuinely gone cannot meet that requirement, and a photo of the old card does not satisfy the rule. Commercial flying pauses at that point, not because the certification lapsed, but because the proof did.

The FAA's answer is temporary authority to exercise certificate privileges, a document issued on request through the airman services that stands in for the card while the replacement processes. A working pilot should request it in the same sitting as the replacement, because the alternative is benching themselves for the weeks the card spends in production and transit. For a program, this is the difference between a pilot missing one morning of scheduling work and missing a contract week, which is a strong argument for the program knowing the procedure before anyone needs it.

What a lost card teaches about records

The certificate card is the FAA's document, and the FAA will always sell you another copy for two dollars. The pilot's qualification record is the program's document, and no federal office reprints it. A program that learns of a lost card and cannot say, from its own files, what the certificate number was, when it was issued, and when the pilot's recurrent training runs out, has discovered a records gap wearing a small costume. The card was never the record. It was a token of one.

The durable fix is a pilot file that holds the certificate scan, number, and issue date, the recurrent training completion certificates with their dates, and the identity documents the program verified at onboarding. With that file, a lost card triggers a two dollar request and a temporary authority letter, and nothing else changes: scheduling still knows who is current, clients still get accurate rosters, and audits still close. The pilots most likely to lose a card are the ones flying the most, which is exactly why the record cannot live in their back pocket.

Common mistakes in replacing a lost certificate

Waiting until the card is needed. Replacement cards take weeks to print and arrive. The request, and the temporary authority alongside it, should go in the day the loss is confirmed, not the week a client asks for proof.

Flying on a photo of the old card. The rule requires the physical certificate, or FAA issued temporary authority, in the pilot's possession. A phone picture fails the inspection requirement even though the certification itself is intact.

Hunting the number in public databases. The FAA excludes certificate numbers from its public airman data on purpose. Recovering a lost number means calling the certification branch and verifying identity, or reading it from your own records.

Treating the loss as the pilot's private problem. A benched pilot is a program problem. Programs that keep certificate details in personnel records can file the replacement and keep scheduling accurate within the hour.

Confusing the card with currency. A replacement restores the proof, not the privileges that recurrent training governs. Check the training date while the file is open, because a fresh card with lapsed recency is still a grounded pilot.

FAQ

How much does a Part 107 certificate replacement cost?

Two dollars per certificate, paid online through the FAA's airman services or by check or money order with a mailed request to the Airmen Certification Branch in Oklahoma City. The fee covers printing and mailing a new physical card.

Can I fly commercially while waiting for the replacement?

Only with temporary authority to exercise certificate privileges, which the FAA issues on request while the card processes. Without it, the possession requirement is unmet, and Part 107 flying waits even though your underlying certification is unaffected.

Does losing the card affect my certification or training status?

No. The certificate as a credential lives in the FAA's registry, and your recurrent training clock runs independently of the card. Losing the physical certificate costs you proof, and the replacement plus temporary authority restores it.

How do I find my certificate number without the card?

Call the FAA's Airmen Certification Branch and verify your identity, since public lookup tools deliberately omit certificate numbers. Better, read it from the copy your own records should hold from the day the certificate was first issued.

Closing thought

A lost certificate costs two dollars and some patience, provided the pilot and the program treat it as a paperwork event instead of an emergency. Order the replacement immediately, request temporary authority in the same sitting, and pull the certificate details from records kept in advance. The card is replaceable by design. The discipline of holding its details somewhere safer than a wallet is what makes the replacement boring, and boring is the goal.

If you are rebuilding your credentials after losing a Part 107 certificate, FlybyOps was built for the operational record problem at the center of regulated drone work. A pilot registry holding certificate numbers, issue dates, and currency, a document vault for certificate scans and training completions, role-based access control over who sees credential records, and an append-only audit log are all part of how the platform keeps certificate numbers and issue dates on file so a lost card never means lost proof.