New to the drone world

jlien619 · Sep 17, 2018

I'm new to the drone world and was curious to see what all these circles meant. I know the red are off limits, and the larger orange circles are the 5 mile airport limits.

Now my question, am I allowed to fly the drone in the city? Above the skyline and inside golden gate park?

From my understanding, if its near a heliport...I have to call them and notify them them that I'll be flying a drone near their airspace.

DanMan32 · Sep 17, 2018

Flip up the bottom panel. It will give you more details.

LarryM · Sep 18, 2018

Welcome to San Francisco. The red shaded areas are National Park (Golden Gate National Recreation Areas) which are all no fly zones. Many state, county and local parks and bay area open space reserves have their own no fly rules which are not (yet) in the Airmap maps. I strongly expect drones are not allowed in Golden Gate Park or other city parks for that matter.

Don't think you will ever be able to contact a heliport. Better just be aware of them and keep you drone in sight if you are anywhere near one.

Flying around inside the city, while maybe FAA legal, you just don't want to bother or endanger people. Many people mention flying at Treasure Island is ok (I need to get up there some day). TI has nice views of the city and bridges and is outside the airport zones.

What's disappointing so far there are AMA fields (green circles) all over the place and it would be nice if you could just fly your drone at these without a hassle. It would be nice to have designated places where drone use is documented. I only know of one in the South Bay.