I recently returned from the Outer Banks and made use of both Air Map and B4UFly. I was in Kill Devil Hills, and the closest open, hassle free airspace for me was Kitty Hawk.
As it turned out though, there were two heliports in the area within five miles of where I wanted to fly, one is for the hospital down in Nags Head, one is privately owned. Neither has ATC, however, I thought I'd would check with someone about the hospital pad to try and get a number to call to inform them when I wanted to fly. I first spoke to someone in Kitty Hawk who referred me to the folks who dispatches the helicopter. I explained why I was calling, and they referred me to the hospital. The hospital then referred me back to the dispatch folks who I decided to go ahead and call back. I explained again to the dispatch folks the reason I was calling and that I had been referred back to them. The lady put me on hold, then came back and told me that she would have someone from the Kitty Hawk police department call me back. I missed his call, but he left a message saying that yes, I could fly a drone in Kitty Hawk, but if my drone came down on private property I needed the property owners permission to retrieve it.
So I figured I did my due diligence and finally just flew. Point being, I was a bit surprised that the dispatch organization for the hospital helipad had nothing in place for handling information about drone flights in the area.
As it turned out though, there were two heliports in the area within five miles of where I wanted to fly, one is for the hospital down in Nags Head, one is privately owned. Neither has ATC, however, I thought I'd would check with someone about the hospital pad to try and get a number to call to inform them when I wanted to fly. I first spoke to someone in Kitty Hawk who referred me to the folks who dispatches the helicopter. I explained why I was calling, and they referred me to the hospital. The hospital then referred me back to the dispatch folks who I decided to go ahead and call back. I explained again to the dispatch folks the reason I was calling and that I had been referred back to them. The lady put me on hold, then came back and told me that she would have someone from the Kitty Hawk police department call me back. I missed his call, but he left a message saying that yes, I could fly a drone in Kitty Hawk, but if my drone came down on private property I needed the property owners permission to retrieve it.
So I figured I did my due diligence and finally just flew. Point being, I was a bit surprised that the dispatch organization for the hospital helipad had nothing in place for handling information about drone flights in the area.