Arkansas Drone Laws 2026: The Complete Pilot's Guide

If you read three drone-law guides about Arkansas before this one, most of them will tell you the same thing: Arkansas has one drone statute, passed in 2015, that bars you from surveilling critical infrastructure. That was true for almost a decade. It is now out of date. In April 2025, Governor Sanders signed Act 597, the Arkansas Privacy Act, and it did far more than tweak the old law. It rewrote the core statute, created a brand-new criminal offense for using a drone to surveil a person or private property, added a separate crime for sharing those images, built a civil lawsuit with fixed dollar damages, and spelled out twenty-five specific things you are allowed to photograph from a drone. If your understanding of Arkansas drone law stops at "don't fly over the power plant," you are working from a version of the rules that the legislature replaced.

Arkansas is otherwise a fairly light-touch state. There is no state pilot license, no state drone registration, and no state insurance mandate stacked on top of the FAA. What Arkansas has is a focused privacy-and-infrastructure statute, a pair of voyeurism laws that name drones by hand, a wildlife code that keeps aircraft away from game, a state-parks permit rule, and the usual federal no-fly zones at Hot Springs National Park and along the Buffalo River. A rice-field scout in the Delta, a powerline inspection for an electric cooperative, a real-estate fly-around in Bentonville, a sunset clip over the Ozarks, and a Saturday hobby flight in a Little Rock backyard all sit inside the same three layers of law. This guide walks through each one with citations to the Arkansas General Assembly, the Arkansas Code, the Game and Fish Commission, the state parks, and the FAA, so an Arkansas flight stays legal from pre-takeoff to landing.

What governs drone flight in Arkansas?

Three layers, in this order:

The rest of this article works through each layer in that order.

Federal baseline: what applies everywhere

Before any Arkansas rule kicks in, you are bound by FAA rules. Here is the short version.

• Part 107Covers commercial operation. If you fly for anything that benefits a business — real-estate listings, roof inspections, wedding videography, farm imagery, paid social content — you need the FAA Remote Pilot Certificate.
• TRUSTThe Recreational UAS Safety Test covers non-commercial flight. Free, online, and you cannot fail it. Carry the completion certificate when you fly. No Arkansas drone license exists on top of it.
• FAA registrationFive dollars, every drone heavier than 0.55 lb (250 g). The registration number has to be visible on the aircraft.
• Remote IDMandatory since March 16, 2024 — Standard Remote ID, a broadcast module, or operation inside a FRIA.
• Altitude cap400 ft AGL for most flights.
• Visual Line of SightDaylight or civil twilight unless waivered.
• Controlled airspaceClass C (LIT in Little Rock, XNA in Northwest Arkansas), Class D, and surface E require LAANC authorization before launch.

Everything that follows is what Arkansas layers on top.

Arkansas state-level drone laws

The 2025 rewrite: Act 597 and A.C.A. § 5-60-103

Arkansas's central drone statute is A.C.A. § 5-60-103. It started life in 2015 as a single critical-infrastructure rule. Act 597 of 2025 — the Arkansas Privacy Act, sponsored by Reps. DeAnn Vaught and David Milligan and Sen. Blake Johnson — split it into two distinct offenses and bolted on three new sections. This is the part of Arkansas law most worth getting right, because it is recent and most published guides have not caught up.

Critical infrastructure — § 5-60-103(b). It is an offense to knowingly use a drone to conduct surveillance of, gather evidence or collect information about, or photographically or electronically record critical infrastructure without the prior written consent of the owner. Arkansas defines critical infrastructure with a specific list: electrical power generation or delivery systems, petroleum refineries, chemical or rubber manufacturing plants, petroleum or chemical storage facilities, railroad operating facilities, communication towers and broadband wireline facilities, food processing or manufacturing facilities, correctional or detention facilities, and — added in 2025 — natural-gas distribution and transmission lines, facilities, and storage. The baseline penalty is a Class B misdemeanor, rising to a Class A misdemeanor for a second or subsequent offense. There are sensible carve-outs: you can fly over your own property, an insurer can document a claim, a law-enforcement officer can do official work, and the Arkansas Department of Transportation and city and county public works can do authorized work. Notably, the 2025 amendment also clarified that a drone flown for a commercial purpose in compliance with FAA rules is not the kind of "unmanned aircraft system" the statute targets.

Images of people and property — § 5-60-103(e). This is the new one. It is now an offense to purposely use a drone to capture an image of an individual or private property with the purpose of conducting surveillance on that person or property. It is a Class C misdemeanor. The statute provides defenses — you destroyed the image promptly without sharing it, you captured it lawfully under the new permitted-uses list (more on that below), or you are a law-enforcement officer on duty. The practical takeaway: do not use a drone to spy on your neighbor or photograph someone's home for surveillance purposes.

Sharing the image is a separate crime: A.C.A. § 5-60-126

Act 597 also created A.C.A. § 5-60-126. If you capture an image in violation of § 5-60-103 and then possess, disclose, display, distribute, or otherwise use it, that is its own offense — a Class C misdemeanor for mere possession, a Class B misdemeanor otherwise, and each image counts as a separate violation. Promptly destroying the image, or having captured it lawfully, is a defense.

The civil lawsuit: A.C.A. § 16-118-119

The same act gave property owners a money remedy. Under A.C.A. § 16-118-119, an owner or tenant whose property or person was captured by a drone in violation of § 5-60-103, where they had a reasonable expectation of privacy, can sue to stop the flights and recover fixed statutory damages: $5,000 for all images captured in a single episode, or $10,000 if the operator disclosed or distributed the images. Disclose with malice and the owner can pursue actual damages on top. The court awards court costs and attorney's fees to the winner, and the owner has two years to file. This is the part that turns a careless surveillance flight from a low-level misdemeanor into a real financial exposure.

What you are allowed to photograph: A.C.A. § 27-118-101

Act 597 did not just create offenses; it also created a long permission list. A new chapter, A.C.A. § 27-118-101, spells out twenty-five lawful uses of a drone to capture an image in Arkansas. The ones working pilots care about: agricultural and research use by universities and the Game and Fish Commission, electric, natural-gas, and water utility inspection and maintenance, pipeline inspection, licensed real-estate brokers marketing a property as long as no person is identifiable, Arkansas-licensed surveyors and engineers doing mapping and GIS work, insurance underwriting and claims, and a catch-all for images taken from no more than eight feet above the ground in a public place without magnification. If your commercial work fits one of these categories, the image-surveillance offense was not written for you. Act 597 carried no emergency clause, so it took effect roughly ninety days after the 2025 regular session adjourned sine die on May 5, 2025 — in early August 2025 — and is in full force now.

Privacy and voyeurism: A.C.A. §§ 5-16-101 and 5-16-102

Arkansas wrote drones directly into its voyeurism laws years before the Privacy Act. Under the video-voyeurism statute, A.C.A. § 5-16-101, it is unlawful to knowingly use "an unmanned vehicle or aircraft" — the statute says so by name — or concealed recording equipment to secretly record another person for the purpose of viewing any part of the body where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, without consent. The drone subsection is a Class B misdemeanor, rising to a Class A misdemeanor if you distribute the image, post it online, or have a prior conviction. The separate voyeurism statute, A.C.A. § 5-16-102, also names drones: looking into a dwelling or a private place inside a public accommodation "through the use of an unmanned vehicle or aircraft," for sexual gratification, is voyeurism, ranging from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class C felony depending on the victim. A drone hovering a camera at a bedroom window sits squarely inside these statutes, on top of the new § 5-60-103 image offense. Arkansas is a one-party-consent state for audio, so if your drone records sound, leave it off unless someone in the conversation consents.

Registered offenders: A.C.A. § 5-14-138

Arkansas singles out a narrow group. Under A.C.A. § 5-14-138, a person required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act of 1997 who has been assessed as a Level 3 or Level 4 offender may not purchase, own, possess, use, or operate an unmanned aircraft, unless it is required as part of their employment. A violation is a Class D felony. It will not touch most pilots, but it is on the books.

Wildlife and hunting

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission keeps drones away from game. AGFC Code 05.07 makes it unlawful to hunt, drive, herd, or harass wildlife from or with an aircraft, a Class 2 violation, and the agency applies that rule to unmanned aircraft. So using a drone to locate deer, push birds, or harass wildlife is out, whether or not you ever fire a shot. Separately, AGFC Code 05.11 bans hunting in any state or national park in Arkansas. The flip side, written into the 2025 permitted-uses list, is that AGFC biologists themselves can fly drones for fish, wildlife, and habitat surveys and to investigate suspected violations.

Commercial versus recreational operation

Arkansas does not require a state-level drone license, registration, or business permit beyond what the FAA already requires. Commercial operators need FAA registration and Part 107. Recreational operators need FAA registration and TRUST. Ordinary Arkansas business and tax rules apply to a commercial drone operator the same as any other business. There is one government-side wrinkle: Act 525 of 2023 bars Arkansas public entities from buying small drones made or assembled by a "covered foreign entity" — keyed to China and Russia — and requires agencies to phase those drones out by May 1, 2027, with waivers through the Department of Transformation and Shared Services. That rule is aimed at public agencies. It does not restrict private or commercial Part 107 operators, who can fly whatever the FAA allows.

Penalties at a glance

Local ordinances to watch in Arkansas

Arkansas has no statute that flatly preempts local drone rules, but the practical picture is settled: cities and counties cannot regulate the airspace — that stays federal — and what they can regulate is takeoff, landing, and operation on the public property they own. In Arkansas, very few municipalities have enacted standalone civilian drone ordinances, and the realistic local touchpoints are airspace and city-property rules rather than a thick local patchwork.

Where to fly legally in Arkansas

Looking for places to fly that do not require chasing a permit?

• Private property with the owner's permission, outside controlled-airspace rings unless you have LAANC.
• AMA-recognized club fields listed at modelaircraft.org. Membership includes insurance and a vetted list of fields.
• FAA-Recognized Identification Areas (FRIAs), updated at faa.gov.
• The Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, under Forest Service rules, which are generally more permissive than the state parks or the NPS units — though wilderness areas, active fire or closure orders, and commercial-filming permits still apply.
• The B4UFLY app before every flight. It surfaces controlled airspace, active TFRs, and security exclusions in real time.

Two reminders that trip people up. Arkansas State Parks are not on this list — those need a Special Use Permit. And the National Park Service units, led by Hot Springs National Park and the Buffalo National River, are off the list entirely.

Who enforces drone laws in Arkansas?

Federal rules are enforced by the FAA, with civil-penalty ceilings that can reach five figures for serious safety or TFR violations. State criminal charges under A.C.A. §§ 5-60-103, 5-60-126, 5-16-101, and 5-16-102 are filed by county prosecutors after investigation by local police, county sheriffs, or the Arkansas State Police. The civil image-violation remedy under A.C.A. § 16-118-119 runs in parallel, in the hands of the property owner. Game and Fish Commission wildlife officers enforce the AGFC code, including the no-aircraft hunting rule. State park staff enforce the state-park drone permit rule. National Park Service rangers enforce the federal drone ban at Hot Springs National Park, the Buffalo National River, and the other Arkansas NPS units, with citations filed in federal court.

How to fly legally in Arkansas — quick checklist

Commercial drone work in Arkansas

Arkansas's commercial drone demand is anchored by agriculture and infrastructure. The state is the country's leading rice producer and a major soybean, cotton, corn, and poultry state, so crop scouting, stand counts, and spray-support imagery run across the Delta and the Arkansas River Valley — and the 2025 permitted-uses list expressly protects agricultural and research flights. On top of ag, Entergy Arkansas, the rural electric cooperatives, and the state's natural-gas operators lean on drones for transmission, distribution, and pipeline inspection, all of which Act 597 spelled out as lawful uses. Northwest Arkansas adds a corporate layer that few states match: Walmart, J.B. Hunt, and Tyson drive surveying, construction, logistics, and inspection demand around Bentonville. Add real-estate and media photography in every metro, bridge and roadway inspection tied to the state DOT, and a growing set of public-safety UAS programs, and the through-line is clear: the entry credential for nearly all of it is the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate.

How USI helps you fly legally

Knowing the rules is half the work. The other half is the credential — and the path looks different depending on who you are. Three audiences, three doors.

Arkansas drone law FAQ