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Has anyone ever gotten a ticket? (New York)

Tek

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Joined
Mar 24, 2017
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Age
41
I live in NY and there is a park next to me, I called some say the town allows drone usage, others say no. I called the park itself and got literally 2 different answers. I am a bit worried about flying now. If I were to get ticketed, how much is one expected to pay? Are we talking hundreds of dollars? Can they confiscate my drone? I love my drone but I've developed this fear of what ifs now.
 
I'd call and ask for direction to a written rule. If there is no rule on paper, it's sure hard to enforce.

I've heard of parks banning the use of "motorized vehicles", which then can be interpreted to include unmanned aerial vehicles with electric motors.

Good luck. If I were you I'd start digging through the city regulations for the rules on park use and what is permitted.
 
I would see if you can find a number to the city's parks and recreation director or someone similar. I emailed the director in my city about flying in city parks. He was nice enough to highlight the parts of the city ordinance that were related to unmanned aircrafts and send it to me.

Funny thing is, it's against city ordinance here to fly a drone in a city park. However, it's perfectly legal to fly one in a city park as long as I (the remote pilot) am not physically in the park.... lol
 
Funny story, there's a huge park around me thats better than ideal for flying. As per usual I checked to see if there was any rules against flying. Nothing on the park website, and its not registered as a no fly zone. Low and behold police arrived within 15 minutes or so of me flying telling me I couldn't fly there because it wasn't permitted. They were very nice, but I asked them where it was written that flight there wasn't permitted. They were unable to show it wasn't permitted and allowed me to continue flying.

As long as you're in a public spot, not over people yada yada and its not written anywhere that flight isn't permitted, go for it. They can't ticket you for rules they make up on the spot.
 
They can't ticket you for rules they make up on the spot.

They can and often do ticket people for such . You can fight it in court but there are many arrested and ticked wrongfully every day .
 
As someone else alluded to, I don’t believe the town has the legal authority to stop you from flying in the airspace of the park so long as you are not physically in the park and take off and land outside of the park. Of course, you are still subject to the same rules governing drones (maintaining VLOS, not flying over people unless they are under a protective structure, observing time of day restrictions, etc.). The airspace is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the FAA.

Also, make sure your drone is marked with your registration number and carry proof of registration.

If you do run into trouble with local law enforcement, I wouldn’t engage in debate. If the officer is not immediately open to being educated in this topic, you’re not going to get anywhere by escalating things.

Fly safely, have fun and don’t forget to contact the FAA objecting to the proposed rule making to be published in a couple of days or the days of our ability to fly freely may be numbered.
 
I would just fly anyway. If someone tells you something else like it’s against the rules simply say you are sorry land and leave. Be aware of AirMap.

It‘s easier to say sorry than not get the shot you want.

And... as I tell everyone don’t take off in a crowded area and don’t draw attention to yourself.
 
What type of park....state, county, local authority?
 
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