DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Golden Gate Bridge - Legal To Fly or Not?

Both of you are confused.
Steel can have an effect on the compass (if it's close enough) but the only way it can affect signal is by blocking signal if you fly behind a large solid steel object.
Quite correct and my bad wording. It is the compass that can be affected. Thank you for the correction.
 
@tanner707, @AmAbreu, @NavyMan84, @MIGUELVM360 and whomever wants to join us...let’s meet up on Treasure Island this Saturday at Noon, on the lawn & parking lot of MerSea Restaurant.

Wish I could make it, but with Covid, I couldn't get a flight (as an airline retiree, I fly non-rev). Left a VM re: your meeting for my son Clarke, who lives in San Mateo. Maybe he'll show up. Happy flying, guys.
 
Wish I could make it, but with Covid, I couldn't get a flight (as an airline retiree, I fly non-rev). Left a VM re: your meeting for my son Clarke, who lives in San Mateo. Maybe he'll show up. Happy flying, guys.
After all your great posts and images shared, I can’t wait to meet you eventually. I’m sure we’ll all benefit from learning a thing or two from you. Please let Clarke know that we’ll be parked at this spot, but I’m sure he’ll see us as he pulls up.
37°49'18.0"N 122°22'29.2"W

Everyone else is welcome, too. Please come masked-up and distanced. Weather should be favorable: 66 degrees F; wind gusts 18 mph at 400’, 8% cloud cover.
 
After all your great posts and images shared, I can’t wait to meet you eventually. I’m sure we’ll all benefit from learning a thing or two from you. Please let Clarke know that we’ll be parked at this spot, but I’m sure he’ll see us as he pulls up.
37°49'18.0"N 122°22'29.2"W

Everyone else is welcome, too. Please come masked-up and distanced. Weather should be favorable: 66 degrees F; wind gusts 18 mph at 400’, 8% cloud cover.
18 mph wind is nothing to an M2P, unless you're RTH against it with a low batt. Sent a PM re: your event to Heyengel, who lives in Alameda. Met him on a previous trip. He, Clarke and I flew Port of Oakland and TI. The folks at MerSea let us use their outdoor plugs to recharge our batts during lunch there. Hope Engel shows up. Wish I could.

You guys are going to have such a great time. Stay safe!
 
Last edited:
18 mph wind is nothing to an M2P, unless you're RTH against it with a low batt. Sent a PM re: your event to Heyengel, who lives in Alameda. Met him on a previous trip. He, Clarke and I flew Port of Oakland and TI. The folks at MerSea let us use their outdoor plugs to recharge our batts during lunch there. Hope Engel shows up. Wish I could.

You guys are going to have such a great time!

@pelagic_one Rich just messaged me about this, will try to make it but I'm running late. Please let me know if you guys move to a different area.
 
I get so tired of articles stating that drone flying is illegal in one way or another. They often misinterpret local regulations stating no launching or landing on restricted property by incorrectly stating it‘s illegal to fly in that airspace.

The Golden Gate Bridge is one such spot. DJI has placed a proper geofence that prevents Mavics from taking off within the restricted zone imposed by the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. But nothing stops us from launching and landing outside the zone, take videos and pictures from a legal distance, then share our footage on social media. None of that is illegal, but uninformed authors will write click-bait articles making us look like criminals.

I came across this San Francisco Chronicle article from February, written by a commercial real estate author who doesn’t seem to know drones and associated regulations very much. He stated some common misconceptions that we’ve even read in this forum; so I commented on his article based on facts I’ve gleaned from reading very informed and valid posts by the professional aviators of our forum.

I am doing this for the sheer fun and slight adrenaline rush of planning that epic flight, capturing awesome images, and sharing with friends, family and fellow flyers. So let me know if you’d ever like to get together and simply fly with me and some other fellow forum members. Some of us have flown from over 75 legal locations around the greater Bay Area in 2020 alone. I didn’t buy these relatively expensive drones to have them sitting in a closet; so if you didn’t either, let’s get out there and enjoy a masked-up, socially-distanced flying experience with our Mavics!

Since this is an open, global forum, I look forward to your varying opinions. I’d also appreciate hearing from our longtime local (and visiting) flyers who fondly recall being able to fly around places like Ocean Beach, East Bay Regional Parks, Big Sur and the Golden Gate Bridge prior to current regulations.

Surely his name is a pseudonym defining his work "Roland Li"
 
It's too bad it's a universal ban from all national parks.

Some people a few years ago being careless in places like Yellowstone, making rangers help them retrieve lost drones, led to a blanket ban in all national parks.

If people are willing to risk losing their drones as they launched from areas overlooking the GGB and the Bay, they should be able to take that risk, though I guess it's conceivable that the Bay would become littered with downed drones over time.
 
Don't know if you folks are aware of this Meetup group: Flying Drones for Fun (Sunnyvale, CA)
They periodically meet on Treasure Island as well as other spots around the Bay. Tell them I sent you!
Absolutely! Dan is my inspiration for doing these impromptu meet-ups, having a flown a few meet-ups with him before the stay-at-home orders. It’s great that he’s formed three groups that all meet up at the same places, so we get a good picture of the Bay Area drone scene. He’s unfortunately needed to curtail his meet-ups for now, because he was getting over 50 people signed up per event.

This hobby ain’t dying just yet!
 
Last edited:
...will try to make it but I'm running late. Please let me know if you guys move to a different area.
Sorry we missed you! We hung around and flew a couple hours but needed to go on with our day. I’m guessing you saw the same beautiful weather.

It’s great to know we’ve got such knowledgeable local Mavic Pilots out here. We had aloft a M2P, MPP, MP and MA2. And we’ll certainly do this again soon!

FF2515F2-A605-4105-A657-44603B021041.jpeg
The ever-evolving look of Treasure Island behind us. Yes, we flew around the ground moving equipment. More beautiful condos and family gathering places being built with the gorgeous city and Bay view.

I’m sure the guys will post their pics and videos soon.
 
Generally newspaper articles are vetted and fact checked before publishing.

Strewth, you are lucky in the US to have such responsible editors, here in the UK the only vetting here is when your pet is ill.... the media whether TV or Papers are 99.99% concocted click bait with one ...
They periodically meet on Treasure Island

Surely that is a "BLACK SPOT"... ;)
 
I live in the Santa Cruz mtns and get tired of looking at the tops of redwood trees. A while back I did a session at the SF Drone School on treasure Island. After school I flew my Spark in the area and got some great videos of the Bay Bridge etc. I'm waiting for a clear day to go back with my Mavic Pro. The GGB would be spectacular, but the restrictions sound impossible unless launching from a boat. If some of you would like to get together to do this legally let's go.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,592
Messages
1,554,167
Members
159,594
Latest member
mini2+