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As someone who enjoys flying drones, I don't mind registration- I just want clarity. Recently I was going out with some friends to the Boston Harbor Islands. I
by tibbon 11y ago
As someone who enjoys flying drones, I don't mind registration- I just want clarity.
Recently I was going out with some friends to the Boston Harbor Islands. I wanted to take a small Parrot AR drone out there, to fly around 25 feet in the air, to capture some group photos and check out some neat angles of military ruins. Yet, I find things like this (https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=14153 https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=1...) on the FAA site that indicates I can't fly anything Class B airspace.
There's stuff about applying for a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization, which seems needlessly heavy. I find things that say things like, "Community-based guidelines require recreational operators to give notice for flights within 5 statute miles of an airport."
I attempt to contact Logan's tower, and get bounced around between literally 10 different people... all equally confused. It feels really odd to call an airport about this, and I have a sinking feeling that this is a good way to get on some watch list, so I'm quite careful with my words.
Eventually, I get in touch with the Assistant Director Airport Operations Airside who responds that 'Massport does not have jurisdiction of that area and cannot give approval for the use of the drone. That approval must come from the FAA local ATC since the area you are looking to operate the drone in falls within their Airspace.'. I spoke with him on the phone as well, and he was super nice and indicated that he was hoping they'd figure all of this out soon as well, because he owns a drone too.
Sites like this (http://fromwhereidrone.com/can-you-fly-your-drone-within-5-miles-of-an-airport/ http://fromwhereidrone.com/can-you-fly-your-drone-within-5-m...) make it sound super easy and casual to get permission... but I found the opposite.
Class B airspace covers basically every major city in the US. Additionally, I couldn't fly because all national parks have had a ban since mid-2014... so even if the FAA allowed it, the Boston Harbor Islands (which are technically a national park, through a joint venture with Massachusetts) I couldn't have legally flown.
I am 100% about safety for these things. I think there should be height limitations, but also reasonable allowances. I wouldn't mind if the GPS lock on the drone kept it below 50 feet (treetop level) in places like this.
Anyway, I had to spend a few hours realizing not only that I couldn't fly on the islands, but legally I couldn't fly almost anywhere around here... including my own back yard which is 4.5 miles from Logan.
- Glyptodon 11y agoThe 5 mile limit for airports is absurd.
- tomswartz07 11y agoI wouldn't say 'absurd', I'd consider it very conservative, however. I think 2.5 miles is plenty, but there could be legitimate reasons that full-size aircraft would be flying near 400 feet near an airport.
- Glyptodon 11y agoIt makes lots of parks and open areas in places that people don't think of as being near airports into unintuitive no fly zones. Or take a city like Tucson where nearly everything is within 5 miles of an air force base. Which I'm sure every university student realizes.
- tibbon 11y agoMy proposition would be graduated flight limitations. I cannot see any reason to not fly my drone 100 feet in the air 4.5 miles from the airport.
- Dylan16807 11y agoThat it's a total restriction in those areas is absurd. There's no reason for the space below 40-50 feet to be restricted anywhere.
- LesZedCB 11y agoIt's not a total restriction. You can fly at the airport if you tell ATC and they clear you. Though that specific scenario is unlikely, I've seen emails from hobbyists to ATCs asking permission to fly within the limits and they approved it with certain hight restrictions (below the trees in one case).
- tjohns 11y agoWhy do you believe that it's absurd? I live about 5.5 miles of a small (but busy) airport, and even at that distance airplanes are sometimes flying lower than I'd like for comfort. If I turned off the 400' altitude restrictions on my quadcopter, I could easily be in their approach path. And not all quadcopters have that feature.