Hey Guys,
I just got my Mavic a few days ago, but haven't had a chance to fly it. I upgraded from a P3 Pro. My wife and I actually live in Iowa and are planning a week long trip to Scottsdale in April. We have some relatives who live in Apache Jct so it gave us an excuse to visit.
I've been looking online for places to fly in the area, but haven't been able to find much online as to where it's "sanctioned". So from my research, I have found....
1. Can't fly in national parks.
2. Can't fly in state parks.
3. Some higher level bill that was passed and took effect in Sept 2016 of last year (SB 1949? My memory eludes me now) that overrides the ability for local cities/counties to impose restrictions overriding the FAA restrictions, unless it meets certain criteria. Everything I'm reading in local legislation is looking like they are trying to find loopholes in these exceptions and find a way to continue the bans.
It's all so freaking confusing right now, being a newer mainstream invention. There is such a disconnect between the law, the media, and the players. I'm sure the laws will differ by the time I'm actually there to visit and anything I read on the internet won't be current enough.
I found a site where Phoenix has designated 8 city parks where you can fly drones (
Parks and Recreation Radio-Controlled Aircraft in Phoenix Parks)
Coyote Basin Park - 2730 E. Beardsley Rd. (27th Pl. and Beardsley Rd.)
Desert Foothills Park - Lower Field - 1010 Marketplace Southwest (Chandler Blvd. and Desert Foothills Pkwy.)
Dynamite Park - 4550 E. Dynamite Rd. (north of Dynamite Rd. at 44th Street)
El Prado Park - 6428 S. 19th Ave. (19th Ave. and Southern Ave.)
Esteban Park - Eastern Quadrant - 3345 E. Roeser Rd. (32nd St. and Broadway Rd.)
Grover's Basin Park B - 17447 N. 20th St. (Cave Creek Rd. and Grovers Ave.)
Mountain View II Park - open space south of the ballfield, 9901 N. 7th Ave. (7th and Cinnabar avenues)
Werner's Field Park - 17831 N. 7th Ave. (7th and Grovers avenues)
I don't know anything about these areas, but from Google image searches, it pretty much seems like they are removed from any points of interest where you would want to fly or film with a drone anyways. Let's send the droneys to the areas that nobody wants to fly in anyways. Sorry if any of you live in those areas. I'm going strictly by Google images. No offense intended.
I saw some pretty cool videos shot at the Gila River Memorial Airport that were posted to this site, but then saw another video on YouTube that said undercover cars were waiting there monitoring for somebody to jump the fence-line.
We are thinking of maybe heading up to Sedona/Flagstaff area while we are there too.
Does anybody know of any cool, scenic places in any of these areas (Phoenix, Sedona, Flagstaff) that I can legally fly w/o some anti-droney calling the cops on me? Maybe off some trails that aren't parks or city with people all huffed-up about anti-privacy. Frankly, I could care less about what's in people's back yards. I just want the cinematic geographic shots. Granted,It would also be fun to play around with some sport mode stuff, etc w/o having to worry about crashing into something or somebody and trashing my investment before I even learn its capabilities.