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Filming National Parks From Outside

All the airspace for the Grand Canyon is restricted space by the FAA.....
Long ago it was popular for passenger airliners to fly along the length of the grand canyon. The FAA was created in response to a spectacular head on crash of two aircraft that were doing this..
 
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Here are some references. First is the memorandum that established the drone bane in National Park Service Units.

The important text is: As used in this Policy Memorandum and its exhibits, the term “park” means any unit of the National Park System.

Next, to understand what "all units" means, you can see the following at this link: Designations of National Park System Units - Golden Gate National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)

Designations of National Park System Units
The numerous designations within the National Park System sometime confuse visitors. The names are created in the Congressional legislation authorizing the sites or by the president, who proclaims "national monuments" under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Many names are descriptive—lakeshores, seashores, battlefields—but others cannot be neatly categorized because of the diversity of resources within them. In 1970, Congress elaborated on the 1916 National Park Service Organic Act, saying all units of the system have equal legal standing in a national system.

National Park

These are generally large natural places having a wide variety of attributes, at times including significant historic assets. Hunting, mining and consumptive activities are not authorized.

National Monument

The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorized the President to declare by public proclamation landmarks, structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest situated on lands owned or controlled by the government to be national monuments.

National Preserve

National preserves are areas having characteristics associated with national parks, but in which Congress has permitted continued public hunting, trapping, oil/gas exploration and extraction. Many existing national preserves, without sport hunting, would qualify for national park designation.

National Historic Site

Usually, a national historic site contains a single historical feature that was directly associated with its subject. Derived from the Historic Sites Act of 1935, a number of historic sites were established by secretaries of the Interior, but most have been authorized by acts of Congress.

National Historical Park

This designation generally applies to historic parks that extend beyond single properties or buildings.

National Memorial

A national memorial is commemorative of a historic person or episode; it need not occupy a site historically connected with its subject.

National Battlefield

This general title includes national battlefield, national battlefield park, national battlefield site, and national military park. In 1958, an NPS committee recommended national battlefield as the single title for all such park lands.

National Cemetery

There are presently 14 national cemeteries in the National Park System, all of which are administered in conjunction with an associated unit and are not accounted for separately.

National Recreation Area

Twelve NRAs in the system are centered on large reservoirs and emphasize water-based recreation. Five other NRAs are located near major population centers. Such urban parks combine scarce open spaces with the preservation of significant historic resources and important natural areas in location that can provide outdoor recreation for large numbers of people.

National Seashore

Ten national seashores have been established on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts; some are developed and some relatively primitive. Hunting is allowed at many of these sites.

National Lakeshore

National lakeshores, all on the GreatLakes, closely parallel the seashores in character and use.

National River

There are several variations to this category: national river and recreation area, national scenic river, wild river, etc. The first was authorized in 1964 and others were established following passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.

National Parkway

The title parkway refers to a roadway and the parkland paralleling the roadway. All were intended for scenic motoring along a protected corridor and often connect cultural sites.

National Trail

National scenic trails and national historic trails are the titles given to these linear parklands (over 3,600 miles) authorized under the National Trails System Act of 1968.

Affiliated Areas


In an Act of August 18, 1970, the National Park System was defined in law as, "any area of land and water now or hereafter administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the National Park Service for park, monument, historic, parkway, recreational or other purposes."The Affiliated Areas comprise a variety of locations in the United States and Canada that preserve significant properties outside the National Park System. Some of these have been recognized by Acts of Congress, others have been designated national historic sites by the Secretary of the Interior under authority of the Historic Sites Act of 1935. All draw on technical or financial aid from the National Park Service.

Other Designations

Some units of the National Park System bear unique titles or combinations of titles, like the White House and Prince William Forest Park.



If you go to the web sites of these units, you can see rules specific to the unit and all that I have looked at contain the drone ban.​
Wow that is really overreaching and ridiculous.

Mapping out ways to fly those areas legally from outside the boundaries makes even more sense then.
 
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kind of interesting that the federally produced B4UFly app only lists the actual National Parks, led me to believe only those were covered by the blanket restriction, but perhaps it is intended to cover all properties administered by the NPS.
 
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kind of nteresting that the federally produced B4UFly app only lists the actual National Parks, led me to believe only those were covered by the blanket restriction, but perhaps it we intended to cover all properties administered by the NPS.
Airmap on the other hand shows these areas when you tell it to display "National Parks". That's how I stumbled into this in the first place.
 
How about filming some parts of Yellowstone National Park from the outside?
 
Part of the reason I'm curious is because I'm planning a road trip in a bunch of states.

Would definitely be nice to film some of these areas legally if possible.
 
I can tell you that Sunset Crater National Monument near Flagstaff, Arizona is a great choice for filming legally from the air. The park border on the south side is almost at the base of the crater. I flew up it and looked into the crater itself recently. I'll post the video when editing is complete. Beautiful park, too!
 
Was the drone always within VLOS? We _all_ airport owners and towers called within 5 miles? Was there _ever_ a safety issue (flying over or around people)? The list goes on and on. I'm not saying it's right but it's very possible that a ranger might frown upon this type of flight if they found out.



FYI I believe the protocol now is to enter the information on the faa portal for your drone activity and not call. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
FYI I believe the protocol now is to enter the information on the faa portal for your drone activity and not call. Correct me if I'm wrong.

That is incorrect and, once you enter the information, the app states that it does not constitute notification to the airport. The only thing entering that information does is send that date to the FAA. Now what the FAA does with that information is anyone's guess. To me, it's very obvious... you are giving information to the FAA that you will be flying within 5 miles of those airports. A they say under Miranda warnings, what you say can and will be used against you...
 
That is incorrect and, once you enter the information, the app states that it does not constitute notification to the airport. The only thing entering that information does is send that date to the FAA. Now what the FAA does with that information is anyone's guess. To me, it's very obvious... you are giving information to the FAA that you will be flying within 5 miles of those airports. A they say under Miranda warnings, what you say can and will be used against you...

Anyone have actual information on this and not just a don't tell them justification. I'm not talking about an app I'm talking about this faa web portal for requesting to fly in restricted airspace (within airport bounds)

Request a Waiver/Airspace Authorization – Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS)
 
Park rangers couldn't care less about FAA rules, and vice versa.

Actually, the FAA hasn't really done much to enforce its own drone rules.

Not that I'm publicly advocating breaking the FAA rules, but let's keep some perspective here.

There are thousands of people monetizing their drone flights without Part 107 status, and the FAA has pretty much given up on doing anything about it.
 
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Park rangers couldn't care less about FAA rules, and vice versa.
Actually, law enforcement agencies are asked to report all possible infractions to the FAA for review. There is no way to know that they do report them all but I'm betting that they certainly view it as helping another law enforcement agency do their job... just as they would want cooperation from other agencies, such as the FAA.

Actually, the FAA hasn't really done much to enforce its own drone rules.
Agreed... and also a terrible job at what they have attempted to do. It's crap piled on top of crap.

Not that I'm publicly advocating breaking the FAA rules, but let's keep some perspective here.
Agree completely. I'd say that the FAA is the least interested in UAVs. Kind of ironic.

There are thousands of people monetizing their drone flights without Part 107 status, and the FAA has pretty much given up on doing anything about it.
They have publically stated that they won't be enforcing this. I'd not say that they are ignoring it so much as something like monetizing YT videos is not what the law was intended to address. It's more of an indirect use of the drone and video. Besides... ever try to get rich on YT? :)
 
Anyone have actual information on this and not just a don't tell them justification. I'm not talking about an app I'm talking about this faa web portal for requesting to fly in restricted airspace (within airport bounds)

Request a Waiver/Airspace Authorization – Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS)

Keep in mind that you are then only asking about commercial use (those that are subject to Part 107) and not hobby flight as well as the use of the app vs website and (what really amounts to) the submission of a form. The greatly changes what we were discussing.
 
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I can tell you that Sunset Crater National Monument near Flagstaff, Arizona is a great choice for filming legally from the air. The park border on the south side is almost at the base of the crater. I flew up it and looked into the crater itself recently. I'll post the video when editing is complete. Beautiful park, too!
It seems like a lot of the National Monuments have smaller boundaries than the parks.
 
It looks like drones are allowed inside the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

I assumed that whole area would be off limits since it's a National Monument, but I checked Wikipedia and it says Escalante is an exception since it's 100% BLM land rather than NPS:

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument - Wikipedia

I also searched for any specific drone regs from the BLM for this area, and of course they don't have any.
 
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Not in the West. In Utah, the Obama created National Monument Bears Ears is bigger than all five national parks that are in Utah combined, at 2,112 Sq Miles.

(Trump just signed an executive order to order review of Obama's executive order creating the bears ears Monument (and other muniments) to see if it complies with the law that requires the Monument to be as small as possible and accomplish the goals of the Antiquities act).

It seems like a lot of the National Monuments have smaller boundaries than the parks.

It seems like a lot of the National Monuments have smaller boundaries than the parks.
 
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Not in the West. In Utah, the Obama created National Monument Bears Ears is bigger than all five national parks that are in Utah (2,112 SQ Miles)

(Trump just signed an executive order to order review of Obama's executive order creating the bears ears Monument (and other muniments) to see if it complies with the law that requires the Monument to be as small as possible and accomplish the goals of the Antiquities act).
Yeah that one covers a massive area of land.

I just checked and it's managed by BLM and USFS, so it's not managed by the NPS at least....
 
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Just wanted to contribute a few thoughts to this thread. I try to fly as responsibly as I can so that people aren't bothered by my mavic. I am trying to do as much video of as many different places as I can because there will come a day when you see "no drones" signs everywhere. For example, I regularly fly at a racetrack we drive at (most racetracks have a no drone policy) which allows drone flying for now but I fear they will change their policy because there was another person at the track with a Mavic just like mine who flew his drone in sport mode dangerously close to $250,000 Porsches and inches above people's heads. Irresponsible drone pilots and the fact that we will see more drones in the air at the same time will put a damper on flying and there will be fewer places to fly. Drone as much as you can now
 

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