DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Flying in Seattle???

Bula

New Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
4
Reactions
0
Age
68
What to do ??
I live in Seattle on South Lake Union.
I would Love to purchase a Drone, But, from what I have read is that there is really no place in Seattle to fly a Drone except around in circles at a few boring parks? I know that their are sensitive areas in the city, but there is a lot of wonderful opportunities to take some great photos/videos. I have also seen many Drone videos of Seattle on line. Are they all commercial pilots with wavers? I would love to use a Drone for what it is intended , but not sure if owning one would be time and money spent well, if all you do is fly in fear of all the rules,(unless the rules are not inforced) or go to a park?

love to hear any ideas, thoughts or solitons
 
What to do ??
I live in Seattle on South Lake Union.
I would Love to purchase a Drone, But, from what I have read is that there is really no place in Seattle to fly a Drone except around in circles at a few boring parks? I know that their are sensitive areas in the city, but there is a lot of wonderful opportunities to take some great photos/videos. I have also seen many Drone videos of Seattle on line. Are they all commercial pilots with wavers? I would love to use a Drone for what it is intended , but not sure if owning one would be time and money spent well, if all you do is fly in fear of all the rules,(unless the rules are not inforced) or go to a park?

love to hear any ideas, thoughts or solitons


In some respects it is worse than that. The rules say that in order to fly within 5 miles of any airport, you must notify the airport. There is almost no place in Western Washington, except in the mountains, where you are not less than 5mi from some type of airport.
 
This map shows Western Washington airports with a 5 mile radius circle around each. The regulations as they stand right now are neither reasonable, nor enforceable.
Maptive | AIrports

P.S. One way to address this might be for all hobbyist drone pilots to actually notify all the airports within 5 miles every time you fly. I promise the airports will eventually get the FAA to change the rules.

My suggestion, if the FAA insists on notification, establish a national website where a drone pilot can "register" his intent to fly. Require the following data be entered at least 30 minutes before flying: Long./lat. at the center of your flight operations, radius from that point where you may fly, your FAA registration number, date/time of your flights, cell phone number that you will have with you while you are flying.

The site would then notify all airports within X miles and they can call you and deny your flight if they feel the need. In some cases, flying in Western WA would require you to notify up to 5 "airports".
 
Last edited:
If you want to fly in an area that is within the 5 mile radius of an airport on can use LAANC as a hobbyist now to quickly file a flight plan and have it approved.

Lots of hobbyists use the Airmap app Home - AirMap

The submission and approval process is conducted from ones smartphone app and is very quick to approve or reject. What one is doing with this app is sending the information of a planned drone flight within the 5 mile radius of the airport and requesting authorization. Many flights are approved.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dawgpilot
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
131,296
Messages
1,561,790
Members
160,242
Latest member
dominicus15