Where to Fly a Drone without getting into trouble?

The usage of drones supports a lot of agricultural activities, one of them is land monitoring. When there are large extensions of land sometimes it can be complex to do the job quickly. 

Hello there, aircraft enthusiasts! And welcome to yet another of our special blogs where we talk exclusively about your favorite source of joy and entertainment: Unmanned aircraft systems, otherwise known as, you guessed it, drones!

Detector Power prides itself of being the kind of store that makes products popularly considered as niche, accessible to everyone, everywhere. We'd like to take some time to tell you a bit about an issue surrounding the use of a drone that many folks are not aware of and who may unintentionally break some rules.

Flying drones for recreational purposes has made the creation of laws and regulations necessary. These make the small aircrafts safe to fly and pilots more aware of their responsibilities. There's a lot to know when it comes to owning and operating one of these devices and you have to make sure you don't leave any of this to chance.

Laws surrounding drones also establish limitations regarding the kind of space you're able to fly one. It's also a matter of state lines. Of the 51 states in our country, only 33 allow the use of drones and in each of these states, there are only a few cities listed as part of the group of places where flying drones is permitted.

Watch out for No Drone Zones

Areas designated by the FAA as No Drone Zones have signs in place that indicate there are restrictions being enforced particularly by the institution, which you may check using an app called B4UFLY on your mobile device. There are some nuances to these regulations, though.

If you see a Restricted Airspace sign, it means you can't have your aircraft zooming around that specific perimeter. Restricted Airspaces have been deemed so by the FAA due to the possibility of pedestrians being endangered, presence of wildlife, stationary vehicles, or high moving vehicle volumes. These are definitely no-nos, so be very careful.

Local Restrictions signs are placed in areas in which state, local, territorial or tribal governments have regulations surrounding drone flights being enforced. Mostly, these signs mean that the area they're covering can't be used as takeoff or landing pads by drone pilots. If you took off somewhere else and happened to fly over a locally restricted area, you'd stay off the hook.

Lastly, the Temporary Flight Restrictions signs indicate limited air travel restrictions are in place in certain areas. As their name suggests, these signs are provided by the FAA to let drone pilots know that for a period of time, they can't operate their aircrafts due privacy-sensitive events that may unfold in the near future in the designated airspace.

A side note: Airspace authorization is different from land use authorization. No Drone Zone signs often mean that you can't use a certain patch of land to take off or land with your drone, so make sure you stay clear of these even if you have an airspace permit.

Common UAS Flight-Prohibitive Areas

Law has established that there are common-sense locations that no one should fly a drone over. These may seem obvious but they're worth mentioning either way. These areas are often highly populated, high in air traffic or may be the object of privacy concerns.

Areas with permanent FAA rules on UAS operations are:

• Stadiums and sporting events.
• Airports or nearby areas.
• Security sensitive areas.
• Special Use Airspaces.
• Washington, DC (Capitol Hill, etc.)

You can always check these in detail on the FAA's website. There's a lot of information for each item so we recommend you read it carefully or at least get acquainted with it.

Make sure to check out this amazing post we did a while back which also touched on recreational drone flights in California, institutional rules on state parks and more!

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