Flying a Drone From a Moving Car or Boat

Tracking a car down a highway, filming a boat from its own deck, inspecting a pipeline from a truck: all of them mean flying from something that moves. Part 107 answers in one short rule. Under 14 CFR §107.25, no one may operate a small UAS from a moving aircraft, or from a moving land or water vehicle unless the drone is flown over a sparsely populated area and is not transporting another person's property for compensation or hire.

What does the rule allow?

Part 107 does not define "sparsely populated" with a number. Open farmland, desert highways and open water usually qualify; a suburb usually does not. When it is not obvious, treat it as not sparse.

Who can drive while you fly?

Someone else. The person manipulating the controls has to keep the drone in visual line of sight under §107.31 and pay attention to it throughout the flight, which a driver watching the road cannot do. In practice a vehicle operation is a crew job: a driver, and a remote pilot in command or pilot at the controls in the passenger seat or on deck. The VLOS post covers how a visual observer fits in.

What else changes when you are moving?

• Line of sight is harder to keep. Trees, bridges and the vehicle's own roof can block the view and the radio link.
• Return-to-home points move. The home point is where the drone took off, not where the car is now. Know what your aircraft does on link loss before you launch, as the emergencies post explains.
• Other rules still apply. Flying over moving vehicles on a road counts against the operations over people rules unless the operation fits a category, and roads near airports may sit in controlled airspace.

What the exam asks about moving vehicles

Operating rules sit in ACS task UA.I.B, Operating Rules, which the handbook covers in UA.I.B.K1 onward. Expect a scenario with a vehicle, an area and a purpose, and decide whether all three conditions are met: not an aircraft, sparsely populated, and no carrying of someone else's property for hire. The real scenarios post has more examples of how purpose changes the answer.

Flying over traffic rather than from a vehicle is a separate rule, covered in flying over roads and cars.