First Flight Location?

[earthbound_misfit]

Hello New Friends, I just picked up a Mavic Mini this weekend, joined the forum, and am considering heading out tomorrow for my introductory flight, ideally at some time where it is below 100 degrees Fahrenheit! Where would you recommend that I go in the South Bay to get started flying, without a ton of registration, unlocking, permits, etc? Ideally close to San Jose, Santa Clara, Los Gatos or Sunnyvale. I'm looking forward to your advice, and am grateful for the great input I've already seen on this forum.

 

[MavicPeter]

Congratulations on getting a new Mavic Mini! You may also want to post in this thread:

Bay Area Pilots Sound Off

Pilots from The Bay hit me up!

mavicpilots.com

There are quite a few places listed in threads around this forum. I found this thread quite useful:

2020 Updated San Francisco / Bay Area flying spots

Only had my drone for a few days but have been struggling to find infos on where I can fly my drone in the SF Bay Area... So many NFZ Nature Preserves / Marin Country Parks around here it almost made me regret buying it... but I found some spots and already flew 2. I am especially interested in...

mavicpilots.com

One thing to note is that although the Mavic Mini (at 249g) does not require FAA registration, you must still abide by FAA regulations for drones: ("Unmanned Aircraft Systems", as the FAA calls them)

Recreational Flyers & Modeler Community-Based Organizations

www.faa.gov

The 249g weight does not mean that the drone is exempt from FAA regulations.

Down here in the South Bay, much of the airspace is controlled on account of there being a major airport (SJC) in the area and numerous other airports. This means you'll have to request LAANC authorization in order to fly.
However you shouldn't be scared of this. LAANC is available for many airports controlled airspace (such as SJC) and I use it all the time. All you need to do is download an app like AirMap or KittyHawk, and follow a tutorial (you can find many on YouTube, just search for "AirMap LAANC" or "Kittyhawk LAANC") and the process is very fast.

 

[pelagic_one]

Sharing some South Bay flying spots:

A couple of months ago I flew around Winchester Mystery House for a quick few minutes. I then drove to the top of a two level parking structure across Wolfe Road from the new Apple HQ, and enjoyed sunset lighting of that spaceship-looking building. Both spots are clear of SJC patterns per Kittyhawk.

 

[earthbound_misfit]

Thank you! Good tips!

 

[MavicPeter]

@pelagic_one thanks for the tips as always. I recently got some footage of Apple Park as well. Hopefully this will give others some ideas: