Recent content by hank970

"Well, you've done your part in gathering information. You should call your nearest FAA Field office and report it. It's very odd for him to be flying such aircraft and in such manner, being so far from any workable area (those things aren't cheap to operate either). The aircraft owner may also...

Good.

There are a lot of things worse than a ranger, either working and paid or working and unpaid. Consider visitors who try to feed bears or ride bison, folks who drive drunk, idiots who can't resist leaving their graffiti and litter everywhere or stealing archaeological artifacts, self-proclaimed...

Yes, the rules are the same and they're being enforced. Some folks, thinking that the henhouse isn't guarded, might be tempted to ignore the rules, but the NPS's law enforcement rangers haven't been furloughed. They're on the job, obliged to work without pay, and they probably aren't very...

I wouldn't support it because I don't perceive a threat and I don't think there's a need for such a law. My sense is that, though my drone is broadcasting an RID signal, nobody is listening. For sure, the government lacks the resources to listen on any meaningful scale.

Why do you assume that the government would be interested in tracking anyone's innocent enjoyment of a toy in their own back yard? It's not as if there were enough government receivers or personnel available to capture every limited-range RID transmission and to monitor drone use at-large. The...

Your contact apparently isn't very knowledgeable or doesn't know how to conduct an online search. Tell him or her to type 14 CFR 108 in any search engine. The proposed text, more than 600 pages of it, has been published in the Federal Register, and the FAA is awaiting subsequent public review...

You might be surprised how thoroughly border agents can conduct a search when the spirit moves them. And when they're done tearing everything apart, they don't, as a courtesy, replace things where they found them.

National parks don't have a monopoly on scenic beauty, at least not here in the US, and not all of us obsess about what you call the national parks thing. I find many spectacular places with varied terrains over which to fly near my home, some near parks and some not, but then I live in a...

If there are still folks selling sight-seeing helicopter rides to tourists, they'd base their operations in Tusayan, south of the park, and fly over the park in Class E airspace like other light aircraft.

I've hiked the east side of Black Bear Pass, climbed adjacent Trico Peak (elev. 13,329) and, on the other side of US 550, climbed Ohio Peak (elev. 12,673). I've also hiked to Bullion King Lake in that area. Black Bear Pass isn't in a national park or anywhere near one, so someone driving a Kia...

I think you need to give it a rest. You're beginning to sound like a kid who constantly whines about wanting a new toy. Just go fly somewhere else.

I'd imagine that the prohibition regarding drone operations in parks isn't primarily about safety; it's about intrusions on the enjoyment of other visitors, concerns about resource damage, and the potential for the disturbance of wildlife.

Yes, the parks belong to the people, and the people decided more than a century ago, through laws enacted by their elected representatives, that management of the parks should be entrusted to an agency with the expertise necessary to ensure their protection in perpetuity. And, in accordance...

With a very few exceptions, the NPS prohibits the taking off, landing, and operation of aircraft on national parklands (36 CFR 2.7). The FAA recognizes the authority of the NPS to establish such prohibitions and restrictions (14 CFR 107.45). Neither agency, however, expressly prohibits...