Not sure if I am looking for encouragement, empathy, advice, snark, or just vent. Ha ha. I have been flying for about 6 months, been improving my skills as a pilot, and find flying engaging, relaxing, and just plain fun. The challenge is where to fly. Full disclosure: I am trying not to go rogue because I don't want to give ammunition to those that are not happy with drones.
I see people in this forum talk about just getting out and letting the Mav stretch its legs whimsically, but it seems like NFZ on the Mav and airports are child's play. Okay. So I'll go flying in a national forest, thankfully not a National Park. But then I have to check if it is a Wilderness area, as established by Congress. Well, I'll keep it local. Okay, I fly in the Phoenix area, and I already researched that Class B airspace is a complete no go, based off of Sky Harbor's drone site. Authorization will not be granted by them or the FAA. So I find a nice park with a beautiful mountain. Oh, I just learned from a ranger that I cannot fly in a city park. Well, not knowing the regulation that she is talking about I won the moral victory that I cannot TAKE OFF or LAND in a city park. Ha ha. So, I stroke a few Google terms and finally found the reg she was mentioning. So I will apparently need to find a good point outside of parks to safely take off and land.
So at this point I am getting stressed to fly because it feels like I have to check my Mav, Google the **** out of local regs, study VFR maps, look at B4UFly, double check with KittyHawk, maybe reference Hover, and still keep my fingers crossed. Am I the only one? How does everyone efficiently find interesting places to fly with so many local, state, Federal, and FAA laws/regulations out there?
I see people in this forum talk about just getting out and letting the Mav stretch its legs whimsically, but it seems like NFZ on the Mav and airports are child's play. Okay. So I'll go flying in a national forest, thankfully not a National Park. But then I have to check if it is a Wilderness area, as established by Congress. Well, I'll keep it local. Okay, I fly in the Phoenix area, and I already researched that Class B airspace is a complete no go, based off of Sky Harbor's drone site. Authorization will not be granted by them or the FAA. So I find a nice park with a beautiful mountain. Oh, I just learned from a ranger that I cannot fly in a city park. Well, not knowing the regulation that she is talking about I won the moral victory that I cannot TAKE OFF or LAND in a city park. Ha ha. So, I stroke a few Google terms and finally found the reg she was mentioning. So I will apparently need to find a good point outside of parks to safely take off and land.
So at this point I am getting stressed to fly because it feels like I have to check my Mav, Google the **** out of local regs, study VFR maps, look at B4UFly, double check with KittyHawk, maybe reference Hover, and still keep my fingers crossed. Am I the only one? How does everyone efficiently find interesting places to fly with so many local, state, Federal, and FAA laws/regulations out there?