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Admittedly dumb question about flying AT (not just near) an airport

Maviac

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Before everyone berates me, I've read Part 107 many times, and am a Private Pilot and am up on my FARs. But here's my dumb question, which is maybe answered somewhere in 107 or elsewhere and I just don't remember:

My friend is the owner of the sole FBO (fixed-base operator) at the local airport (non-towered, Class E at 700'). He (and the city) would like me to do a drone video of the airport for promotional purposes (I'm Part 107 so no issue there). It'll probably be used by the local Chamber of Commerce and the city itself. That's all fine with me - I'm volunteering to do it and will edit and give them the footage. The city administrator and airport administrator (same person) and mayor have also given their approval. I'll have my transceiver on me while flying to listen for traffic, and the FBO operator will be monitoring the CTAF and notifying any traffic of my activities (this is an airport with maybe 1-2/day operations on weekdays, which is when I'd be flying). I'd be flying up and down the runway, doing some circling shots of airplanes, and then doing some general aerial shots of the (small) airport facilities. I'd probably add in some B-Roll shots of downtown a mile away for the Chamber.

Assuming everyone local is cool with all of this, are there any FAA regs or guidelines I should be aware of that would prohibit this or require a waiver?
 
Sounds like your ducks are all in a row. You might have to get a Custom Unlock from DJI in order to do this so plan well in advance and I'd suggest a couple of trial runs long before the day you play to go LIVE.
 
If you have permission from the tower/owner (I'd get it in writing), you're good.

As always, be situationally-aware. Have a radio to the tower, just in case something goes south - emergency/unexpected landing. Maybe have a co-pilot/observer?

Also, what BigAl07 just said: you may need to get an unlock code just to make sure the app isn't freaking out while you fly.
 
If you have permission from the tower/owner (I'd get it in writing), you're good.

As always, be situationally-aware. Have a radio to the tower, just in case something goes south - emergency/unexpected landing. Maybe have a co-pilot/observer?

Also, what BigAl07 just said: you may need to get an unlock code just to make sure the app isn't freaking out while you fly.

If you have someone with you, they could be holding a radio to the tower, and let you know if something comes up. As a sUAV, you can easily slide into the grass, or over into an inactive runway/area, within a few seconds, then land, until the situation is taken care of.

Likely, everything will be fine, no incidents. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
 
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Sounds like your ducks are all in a row. You might have to get a Custom Unlock from DJI in order to do this so plan well in advance and I'd suggest a couple of trial runs long before the day you play to go LIVE.
Good call. Thanks. This is, despite what the local Chamber of Commerce would like to suggest, in the middle of nowhere, so I'd assumed there would be no GeoZone issues there, but you're right that they may lock me out for flights actually AT the airport since I have to accept the warnings when flying in the vicinity as it is.

Actually, come to think of it, I only had to clear the warning in DJIGo4 the very first time I flew there back in December (after calling my FBO owner friend who told me I could fly anytime and not to bother him with stupid calls), and then never saw it again UNTIL I updated the firmware this past weekend and it's now had me approve every flight.
 
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If you have someone with you, they could be holding a radio to the tower, and let you know if something comes up. As a sUAV, you can easily slide into the grass, or over into an inactive runway/area, within a few seconds, then land, until the situation is taken care of.

Likely, everything will be fine, no incidents. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

In the Army we had to coordinate our helicopters with an active flight-line and airstrip just a few feet away (all of which we'd built).

A lot of this for you is just going to be coordination. Using a radio/monitoring local traffic is helpful. But you also don't want to be distracted, so having a crew/co-pilot/observer with you might help.
 
Good call. Thanks. This is, despite what the local Chamber of Commerce would like to suggest, in the middle of nowhere, so I'd assumed there would be no GeoZone issues there, but you're right that they may lock me out for flights actually AT the airport since I have to accept the warnings when flying in the vicinity as it is.

Oh, the DJI Go app has a fantastic database of various airports, and I have about six surrounding my house. Luckily, I'm just outside of the range of them, which is awesome, but I still get warnings. As you get closer (inside the circle), you get even more warnings, and sometimes it won't even let you take off without an unlock code, so be prepared.

I have a small college airport that I'm in the direct path of one of their runways. It has a big "X" shaped no-fly zone for each of the flight paths. Again, just outside. But they fly overhead (at 500' above) all the time.
 
Good call. Thanks. This is, despite what the local Chamber of Commerce would like to suggest, in the middle of nowhere, so I'd assumed there would be no GeoZone issues there, but you're right that they may lock me out for flights actually AT the airport since I have to accept the warnings when flying in the vicinity as it is.

Actually, come to think of it, I only had to clear the warning in DJIGo4 the very first time I flew there back in December (after calling my FBO owner friend who told me I could fly anytime and not to bother him with stupid calls), and then never saw it again UNTIL I updated the firmware this past weekend and it's now had me approve every flight.

Sorry for so many replies! But I was also thinking, if you had the ability to do a dry-run (the database and the app changes all the time...) closer to the event, you could literally take off a few feet from a building or a tower (something aircraft should be nowhere near) and see how things react. Just test the warning/unlock code, see how long it lasts, etc.

I say that the app and database changes regularly because I just started getting warnings again about my local, smalll, unpaved airstrip. And when I take-off, I have to click a check-mark box and click OK. The check-mark box is fairly small, and easy to miss when it's bright out. I know why they're doing it, safety first, but it's also super annoying that it pops up right at the wrong moment, usually.
 
If you have permission from the tower/owner (I'd get it in writing), you're good.

As always, be situationally-aware. Have a radio to the tower, just in case something goes south - emergency/unexpected landing. Maybe have a co-pilot/observer?

Also, what BigAl07 just said: you may need to get an unlock code just to make sure the app isn't freaking out while you fly.
Thanks! There is no tower. I'm pretty comfortable with the authorization without getting anything in writing but that's a good point and I'll work on that (the city attorney was present during all of these discussions, and he is a very close relative. It's a REALLY small town).
 
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I just did something similar at my local airport a few days ago. Even though the airport is almost abandoned DJI made me get a unlock code. There are no flying aircraft based at the airport but I'm restoring my own plane there.
 
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My concern would be the geofencing for sure! I am on The Fringe of an airport and some days it will let me get a clearance code and other days it will not so that could be pretty annoying I imagine there's got to be some way to get that official unlock!
 
If you have permission from the tower/owner (I'd get it in writing), you're good.

As always, be situationally-aware. Have a radio to the tower, just in case something goes south - emergency/unexpected landing. Maybe have a co-pilot/observer?

Also, what BigAl07 just said: you may need to get an unlock code just to make sure the app isn't freaking out while you fly.
Might be a bit hard because he stated that there IS NO TOWER
 
Here in Australia, CASA would still need to be the approver. However this would be no problem to get as you have done all the work required and CASA would have no problem issuing an approval. End of the day, you are in airspace so the regulator is the approver, not local authorities.
It may well be different in the U.S.
 
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Here in Australia, CASA would still need to be the approved. However this would be no problem to get as you have done all the work required and CASA would have no problem issuing an approval. End of the day, you are in airspace so the regulator is the approved, not local authorities.
It may well be different in the U.S.
I’m glad to hear that someone has it in order. LEOs here, and secondarily drone pilots are encumbered, if not overwhelmed, with a morass of illegal rules made by municipalities, states, etc when clearly the only U.S. authority empowered is FAA.
 
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In any event, the FBO owner/operator will probably be standing beside me the whole time.
I think I'd document his presence with a quick picture at the beginning of the flight!
 
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