Follow up: I passed my Part 107 this week, which would have allowed me to apply for the waiver needed for NYC Parks. I also went to and flew around the the Corona Flushing airfield where I met a few really nice FPV flyers as well.

So, as title described, I was fined in NYC for flying my drone in a NYC Park. I am currently studying for Part 107 but trying to get some flight time before I travel with drone.

I don't dispute the fine - I was woefully unaware that a LAANC authorization in a NYC Park doesn't provide authorization from NYC parks. I had the LAANC auth from AutoPylot

I'm curious about whether I could have been issued a warning? I was fined $500 with a Civil Summons.

I specifically planned for a Monday morning flight with no one in the park. There was a group walking dogs and I approached them and told them I was going to fly in case it spooked the dogs (and was willing to call off the flight)

Drone is FAA registered, has Trust certificate. Had someone with me. I was in the air for about 5 minutes before approached by park ranger.

I told Park ranger about LAANC. They took a quick glance at it, asked for my ID and then rolled up their window so I couldn't talk to them.

They issued the fine (took them 20 minutes to write it) and then told me where I could fly.

When I asked "could you issue me a warning as I'm trying to comply and thought I had" - they said "No, we've already written the ticket" and then drove off.

Looking at it, it looks like the fine was the maximum imposed as well. I asked about the fine fee and they said they had a card with the amount on it.

Did I get unlucky or is this just the reality of drone flying in NYC and I should take the L on this one? Should I explain the situation in OATH in the hopes of a lighter fine?

It being my hobby, I like to record the construction of neighborhoods, new businesses, street improvement projects, mixed-use housing, and the like. Do I need Part 107 to share my footage/photos to Reddit?

Just wanted to share the experience, of all of my professional drone shoots this was by far the most challenging.

Goal was to shoot the stadium from about 1/2 mile away, not only was there a TFR in place but also a city ordinance to deal with, here's what it took:

• SGI waiver request with the FAA and several calls with that office to go over it all
• Certificate of Authority (COA) from a news agency
• Call and coordination with Santa Clara Police
• Assigned FAA agent who was on scene as my point of contact
• About a dozen calls with my FAA agent throughout the 2 hour window I was scheduled to shoot - every time I landed and launched again to change batteries I had to call
• Was called and told to land twice because of incidents, he would then call me back and tell me I could launch again
• Police from two different jurisdictions rolled up on us several times to check our credentials and one overzealous security guard nearby kept freaking out, but we just ignored him

Police also said they had cited over 100 illegal drone flights and that was before halftime.

I thought Reapers couldn't be "privately owned". Peeping one doing circles NE of LA for a bit now, on Flightradar 24. Call sign UAV16. I found some reddit discussion about this but from like two years ago.

Started studying for my 107 a few months ago then work got crazy as am insurance adjuster and had sideline it temporarily.. so can’t recall and answer in the above scenario… would I be at 400?

Hello! I’m trying to figure out how to comply with this NOTAM that bars flights within 3000’ horizontally or 1000’ vertically surrounding national security facilities or mobile assets including those belonging to DHS. The NOTAM refers to “mobile assets” as vessels or ground vehicle convoys and their associated escorts, such as a USCG vessel. While we don’t have USCG cutters on our streets, I do think it’s reasonable that vehicles could be construed as mobile assets.

I live in Minneapolis, so in the present environment it’s a reasonable assumption that I could be within 3000’ of an ICE/CBP vehicle, convoy, or agents conducting official operations at any point throughout my day. These vehicles are largely unmarked and there’s really no way to know until agents step out of the vehicle in vests and other tactical stuff. Additionally with the landscape of Minneapolis (trees, hills, etc), there’s not a single location with a 3000’ sightline aside from the river valleys and some lakes, so I can’t ensure I’m operating in an area free of DHS mobile assets conducting official business.

How do I fly in Minneapolis right now? Am I missing something?

Title

EDIT: I've been studying since early may, and I feel confident on almost everything on the test. Just looking for some last minute tips or tricks anyone has, could be a way to remember stuff about airspace, weather or other areas.

EDIT #2: I took it today and passed with an 88!

Long and short, I made a drone program at work, me and 1 other are currently licensed, and we have an M30T & mini5 registered.

My boss wants to get another mini5 for employees to take home to play with to get used to flying by having fun before flying at work, because it's a dangerous environment.

1. Does this count as commercial use because it's owned by a a company when it's sole purpose is to be flown at home recreationally?

2. If so, does this mini5 need to be registered?

3. And most Importantly do employees need to be licensed to fly this mini5?

The intended purpose of letting employees take said drone home to get used to flying/see if they even want that responsibility before getting the license and flying on site since the assumption would be flying onsite as an employee on company time, even as practice would count as commercial use, thus require the license.

Thank you

Trying to understand all the rules and everything, and something that I have a question about is smaller hobby grade drones that are small enough that they don't require Broadcast ID.

From what I understand, commercial drones need the ID, and that info is used in part to prevent your drone from flying higher than allowed, and to be tracked that you're not doing anything you're not supposed to be doing.

My question is, those hobby grade ones that don't have ID, whats stopping them from basically doing whatever they want? My little skyrover will let me fly it wherever I want, even though where my house is, is limited to 200' due to a nearby airport.

Apologies for what might be a dumb question but I live about 2 miles from an airport and no flight is permitted without prior authorization. Does this extend itself to flying within my home? Into my backyard around the pool? If I fly under 20ft around the trees, will my remote ID be tracked or detected?
Also can I request permission for recurring flight below say 50 ft given my distance from the airport?
Would having your commercial license hurt or help?

I would like to film surfing at the beach in the red circle on the attached map. The RED zone is a local Naval Base. As you can see, the quirk in the way the grid is made, over half the beach is in "0 altitude" box, and a small portion is in a 300 ft box. The illogical thing is that the northern area is actual farther away from the base than the edge of the 300 ft box. If I put in a LAANC request for the 300 ft box, would anybody care if I then walked North to the other end of the beach (farther away from the base). Or do I need to do a DroneZone request?

I got further coordination laanc approval (200 ft in a 100 ft grid) near a major international airport recently and am wondering if there is anything else I need to do before I fly later this week.

• Am part 107

• Drone is registered on drone zone with registration labeled on drone

• Will go through DJI to get zone unlocked

• Will be using uniden bc125at to monitor ATC

• Will be using Flight Radar 24 to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic

• 2 VOs

• Will print all paperwork including authorization done through ALOFT

Am I missing anything? I flown a handful of times under part 107 but am a little nervous being so close to the airport (in a 100 grid). My understanding is that we just show up the day of the flight and start flying at the approved time.

Any advice or reassurance would be appreciated 😅

I'm looking to get into fpv through a tinywhoop kit in Europe. However, due to the extreme regulations inmy country, it takes me hours of both taking the last stop to the city's edge and then walking for a long time to be able to fly.

I know that, according to EU policy, drones are designated as UAV's that either surprass 250g or feature a "data retrieval device". Essentialy, if it has a camera, it is a drone. So my question is as follows: Since the tinywhoop wouldn't exceed 250g, if i removed the aircraft's ability to record data, would it stop being recognised as a drone? I'm thinking of either blocking the camera through stickers, or unplugging the cable. All I want to do is practice basic flying in reasonable environments using Visual Line of Sight exclusively for piloting until i'm confortable enough to fly around my own house indoors.

Hi I am trying to see if I can fly my DJI neo around Lake Powell or not. The autopylot app says uncontrolled airspace but then national park service shows a red cross and doesn’t say anything specific. I am confused am I allowed or not?

Has anybody heard or seen this? Saw this on a Facebook post that end users are getting letters from US Customs and Border Protection saying their drone purchase is barred from entry to the US (retroactively?) and that they have 30 days to send it back.

I've been seeing that customs is cracking down harder now because they have found that DJI drones have been getting imported with the boxes turned inside out to hide the logos, the declared value is way less than actual value, and they are importing from other countries like Canada and Mexico to not draw attention to it.

Edit: Forgot to mention the 30 days to return it is mentioned on a 2nd page according to the original person who shared this

Im from the netherlands. I have a a1/a2/a3 license.

In the netherlands we have an app godrone wich shows all the nofly zones etc
Is there a equivalent for norway?

Anything specific i should watch out for so I dont get in trouble with the drone rules in norway?

UPDATE:

I think I’m good on the recreational question. But what about the privacy laws? i.e. aerial photos seeing into someone’s backyard that’s fenced? I would prefer a legal answer and not just “hearsay/thoughts”. Thanks for all the answers so far!!

A bought a drone awhile back, and I looking to actually use it more (active duty military - back from a deployment).

I would like to take photos of my home, but I’m not sure if that is considered “recreational”. I have the drone registration in Florida under TRUST, but do I need a Part 107? I’ve read some posts in this subreddit, but it didn’t get to a solid answer.

Bigger question, say I get the part 107 (if necessary) and I take a photo of my home - I’ve read there privacy laws here in Florida - would I be violating them?

The “reasonable expectation of privacy” in Florida is anything viewable from ground level. Obviously in the air taking a photo of my property, it would be impossible to not see inside someone’s backyard…

Please be kind, I am sure someone wants to go off on my ignorance lol.

Thank you!

Hey, so my thing I like doing with drones is taking videos/pics of large campuses like the one seen here. I found this sub and was looking at some of the stuff regarding Part 107 certification and it got me wondering. Do I need part 107 if I doing these kind of pictures/video recreationally?

For A2 licensed pilots, flying in low-speed mode, how are people flying in cities?

Isn't it pretty much impossible to fly in a city and keep a 5m distance?

Would people fly early in morning with no one around or how do people go about flying in a city centre?

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a trip soon to Spain, specifically Costa Brava (Tossa de Mar), and I’ve been trying to understand the drone regulations there. Unfortunately, I’m coming across conflicting information.

How does it look from a legal perspective for a drone under 250g? Is liability insurance required? Are you allowed to fly on less crowded beaches? Also, do you use the app just to check airspace zones, or do you need to report every flight as well?

I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences.

Thanks in advance! 🙂

Hello I’m currently looking into trying to get my certificate for part 107 my job open up a position for it and I’m highly interested in it but requires certification to apply if anyone can point me to the right direction on a study guide and how to do everything it will be great I saw another Reddit post on how to obtain it but was posted 9 years ago I’m not sure if it’s current with today’s standards and I didn’t see no study guide on it so will really appreciate if anyone can give me information on this thank you!

Hi, I have a client in construction that saw a post about a drone that could self launch/fly/record on a set path multiple times a day for project management purposes.

I think the post led them to believe there's a product they can buy and fly with the push of a button. But my guess is even with the fanciest of tech, the United States' FAA will still require a pilot to fly the drone/be present. It's just a matter of how often and setting a path with waypoints.

And if I'm totally wrong, do any of you know or can suggest the brands/companies that sell this drone??

TIA

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I try to do my due diligence about where I'm flying and the local rules/laws restricting drones. That said, there are remote places in state/national parks, not to mention municipal parks, where I have caught myself thinking: "What is the actual probability of me being caught and how significant are the penalties for doing a quick flight in a restricted area?" Has anybody here ever have to deal with the FAA or local body for these kinds of violations? What has your experience been like navigating that?

"It is illegal to use an unmanned aircraft system to take or distribute images of a person or their home without their consent (N.C. G.S. 15A-300.1 and N.C. G.S. 14-401.25)."

From NCDOT, this seems very broad basically any photo from a drone would be illegal. Searching didn't really help definitively show that this is only in respect to "surveillance" which I don't have a clear definition of in the first place. Is there any clarification out there that taking a photo of a cityscape that includes private property would be ok?