Dreaming Of Your Own "Human Drone"? FAA Throws Wrench In Part 103 Flight Plan

Planning to buy a single-seat electric multicopter and zip around Class G airspace under Part 103 ultralight rules? The Federal Aviation Administration may have just grounded those hopes and dreams. 

YouTuber Jimmy (Jimmys World) recently flew a Chinese YiVTOL S-Zero Plus "human drone" at a dealer demonstration in Tennessee. The video racked up millions of views, but eight days later, the YouTuber received a letter from the FAA telling him the eVTOL was illegal under Part 103.

Jimmy said the $100,000 eVTOL was marketed as a Part 103 ultralight, meaning a lightweight recreational vehicle subject to minimal requirements.

The FAA's letter raises questions about whether applying 1980s-era rules written for gas-powered ultralights to battery-powered personal VTOLs is outdated and could inhibit eVTOL growth in the US while China fully embraces the new form of flying transportation.

Jimmy outlined the FAA's hard line on allowing flights in this eVTOL:

Batteries count toward the 254-pound empty-weight limit. Unlike aviation fuel, which burns off and is excluded, batteries remain on the aircraft and weigh essentially the same whether depleted or charged. A 2012 FAA Office of the Chief Counsel letter to Rainbow Aviation explicitly rejected treating batteries as fuel. Including them prevents unlimited battery capacity that would defeat the original 1981 intent of limiting range and endurance for uncertified pilots. Jimmy estimates the packs weigh 50-60 pounds each; two packs alone consume a large portion of the 254-pound allowance before the airframe, motors, propellers and seat are counted. Larger variants with more batteries are effectively impossible under the rule.

Remote-control training mode makes it a drone, not an ultralight. Part 103 is for manned operation by a single occupant with direct pilot control. The dealer's setup, which uses a ground-station remote for takeoff and training and allows control to be handed over or reclaimed, turns it into an unmanned aircraft system. Drone rules, such as Part 107 or exemptions for heavier aircraft, are entirely different. Jimmy's summary: "You're now a drone. You're not an aircraft."

Part 103 already bans flight over congested areas or open-air assemblies of people. Even if the weight and control issues were resolved, practical utility would remain constrained. Legal places to fly these aircraft remain limited.

Traditional experimental aviation pathways for these lightweight eVTOLs could be allowed but there would be considerably more regulation and bureaucracy. 

As Jimmy put it, "FAA won't allow him to fly it yet until they get all the approvals and avionics and radios, and basically it's going to be a small helicopter, and that's kind of the category they're looking at."