The Statue of Liberty with my Mavic

BerndM · Mar 5, 2017

Hmmm, apparently it won't let me paste the direct link to the rules here so Google
NPS Policy Memorandum 14-05

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

BerndM said:
Hmmm, apparently it won't let me paste the direct link to the rules here so Google
NPS Policy Memorandum 14-05

TL;DR/Non-lawyers version, anyone?

BTW, you did manage to post the link in the post, with the "To:" title, but it seems clickable, at least in the mobile app.

kodiak1120 · Mar 5, 2017

Thanks for all the comments. I consider this a pretty safe flight actually, since 95 percent of it was over the water. Yes, if you crash into the statue of liberty you will probably get in trouble, but you will probably get in trouble if you crash into any structure you're flying around.

The video looks much closer than the drone actually was. I doubt anyone on the island was even aware I was flying. When I flew back to where I was I accidentally came ashore about 200 feet from where I was standing. I was only about 50 feet up and I couldn't see or hear it. I literally had to enlarge the map to figure out where it was.

Commercial drone pilots can fly in Class G airspace, and this is Class G. The NPS can only prohibit you from taking off and landing within a park. They have no authority over the airspace.

kodiak1120 · Mar 5, 2017

borislip said:
TL;DR/Non-lawyers version, anyone?

BTW, you did manage to post the link in the post, with the "To:" title, but it seems clickable, at least in the mobile app.

Here's the relevant language:

"Launching, landing, or operating an unmanned aircraft from or on lands and waters administered by the National Park Service within the boundaries of [insert name of park] is prohibited except as approved in writing by the superintendent."

Notice that it is limited to "operating from or on" the national park. It doesn't say anything about airspace.

magsta · Mar 5, 2017

Stunning video!! I'm in New York, in october, would you mind messaging me your take off location so i can give it a whirl..

cardplayer71 · Mar 5, 2017

Racenviper said:
Waiting for the drone police on this one.

That is a national park and a NFZ.

LOL WOW yes this

kodiak1120 · Mar 5, 2017

I love all the drone Police comments who have no idea what the rules actually are, lol.

Stuart Wood · Mar 5, 2017

Very cool! Not too many things like that in Oklahoma!! Just an FYI, looks like your gimbal tilt may be off a bit. Horizon looks like it slopes left to right. Had same issue on mine and had to correct. After reading posts in here now obsessed with that and jerky video!

Slayerstwin · Mar 5, 2017

Awesome well done

Geo · Mar 5, 2017

Well done. Incredible flying from that distance.

kodiak1120 · Mar 5, 2017

Stuart Wood said:
Very cool! Not too many things like that in Oklahoma!! Just an FYI, looks like your gimbal tilt may be off a bit. Horizon looks like it slopes left to right. Had same issue on mine and had to correct. After reading posts in here now obsessed with that and jerky video!

Thanks.. I noticed that too. My horizon was always rock solid, but somewhere along the line after one of the firmware updates, I started having isses.

sonof40 · Mar 5, 2017

kodiak1120 said:
Here's the relevant language:

"Launching, landing, or operating an unmanned aircraft from or on lands and waters administered by the National Park Service within the boundaries of [insert name of park] is prohibited except as approved in writing by the superintendent."

Notice that it is limited to "operating from or on" the national park. It doesn't say anything about airspace.

They might say "operating" and "aircraft" would imply airspace.

SpaceMonkey58 · Mar 5, 2017

sonof40 said:
They might say "operating" and "aircraft" would imply airspace.

Last shot is a killer. Beautiful job. Were you hands shaking?

kodiak1120 · Mar 5, 2017

SpaceMonkey58 said:
Last shot is a killer. Beautiful job. Were you hands shaking?

Yes, actually they were... I did all of the orbit shots manually because I did want to mess around with the different flight modes in the app.

kodiak1120 · Mar 5, 2017

sonof40 said:
They might say "operating" and "aircraft" would imply airspace.

Yes, if you ignore the words "from or on lands and waters administered by the National Park Service" that immediately follow.

Also, they have no jurisdiction over the airspace, since that's controlled exclusively by the FAA.

cardplayer71 · Mar 5, 2017

I was wondering more about the over 9000 heliports shown in the vicinity on any map.

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

Something i generally do wonder about, does anyone even try to notify any heliports? What about class D airports when you are at the very edge of their class D space? And if you do - how? Its not like i've got a VHF radio in my pocket, so i can't just look up an ATC frequency on a chart and talk to them. And even if i could, i bet the response would be something along "get the f*ск off this frequency" lines.