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- Nov 25, 2017
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Hi all, one of my first posts, I’ve been reading a while and enjoy the forum. Hopefully I’m posting this in the correct area.
I am vacationing up in the town of Mammoth this week with my two kids and my folks have joined us also. We visited the skate park today and I checked B4UFLY to make sure there were no restrictions in the area. The only restriction was a 150m height restriction, which is higher than the legal 400ft requirement anyway. The park had other skaters in it, but I put my bird up and stayed to the outskirts away from being “over” them. I only flew for less than 10 minutes, just to try and get some shots and video of my kids riding back and forth in the park, and then went up pretty high to nab one straight down shot of the whole park, then I brought my bird down. As I was putting it away one of the skaters came over and asked if I could not fly my drone over the park. I was already putting it away any way, so rather than confront I just told him I was done anyway and no problem.
-I am 103 certified, carry a card with me with my credentials, try my best to always fly legally, also my drone is appropriately labeled with my FAA numbers.
I was sort of put off as this is my first instance of someone being upset about the use of my drone. It prompted me to look and see if there was anything on the net about drone use in mammoth. Sure enough...
thesheetnews.com
Some recent town ordinance was put in place that restricts flight to faa certified pilots, but also required obtaining a “town permit” to fly. So I tried to find where to locate a town permit, to no avail. Am I missing something? Has anyone else flown in this area and encountered this? Does anyone know where to find this magical permit? Isn’t the FAA in control of airspace and not the town? I want to take some back woods shots tomorrow and I’m concerned I’ll get flak again if anyone is around. I want to be armed with the correct information to defend myself if necessary.
Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to be as inclusive as possible with my info and side of the story. It’s frustrating that every time I turn around I hear more and more encroachment and limitations imposed on our hobby.
Thanks in advance,
Jon
I am vacationing up in the town of Mammoth this week with my two kids and my folks have joined us also. We visited the skate park today and I checked B4UFLY to make sure there were no restrictions in the area. The only restriction was a 150m height restriction, which is higher than the legal 400ft requirement anyway. The park had other skaters in it, but I put my bird up and stayed to the outskirts away from being “over” them. I only flew for less than 10 minutes, just to try and get some shots and video of my kids riding back and forth in the park, and then went up pretty high to nab one straight down shot of the whole park, then I brought my bird down. As I was putting it away one of the skaters came over and asked if I could not fly my drone over the park. I was already putting it away any way, so rather than confront I just told him I was done anyway and no problem.
-I am 103 certified, carry a card with me with my credentials, try my best to always fly legally, also my drone is appropriately labeled with my FAA numbers.
I was sort of put off as this is my first instance of someone being upset about the use of my drone. It prompted me to look and see if there was anything on the net about drone use in mammoth. Sure enough...
DOWN WITH THE DRONES | The Sheet
A New Mammoth Lakes ordinance limits drone use Drones are being restricted on Town of Mammoth Lakes land. The Town Council approved an ordinance at its Wednesday meeting to require[...]

Some recent town ordinance was put in place that restricts flight to faa certified pilots, but also required obtaining a “town permit” to fly. So I tried to find where to locate a town permit, to no avail. Am I missing something? Has anyone else flown in this area and encountered this? Does anyone know where to find this magical permit? Isn’t the FAA in control of airspace and not the town? I want to take some back woods shots tomorrow and I’m concerned I’ll get flak again if anyone is around. I want to be armed with the correct information to defend myself if necessary.
Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to be as inclusive as possible with my info and side of the story. It’s frustrating that every time I turn around I hear more and more encroachment and limitations imposed on our hobby.
Thanks in advance,
Jon