I've seen a number of people post their opinions on the legality of flying in a park. But I'm curious if anybody has ever successfully argued any of these technicalities with a park ranger that is presenting them with a citation? I'm betting the ranger would most likely say something like "tell it to the judge." In which case, you'd probably either need to pay the fine, or pay the legal fees to fight it in court. In the end, the fine is probably going to be cheaper. But, does anybody know of any counter-examples? Anybody that can say "Yes, I personally explained this to the ranger and they let me go:..."?
Good point and question. My understanding is that the local ranger, if asked would refer the drone operator to "regional administrator's office". That, of course, is the giant bureaucratic red tape hell (for a national park anyway). Here's a list of State "impact studies" they do before approval (There is no process for recreational in National Parks. However, my State Parks went through the same process for my recreational flight - they just lowered the fee to $25. When they reviewed my plan - they saw it was simple, I mitigated all risk and they approved it.) you can imagine what the NPS process is like. They'd probably work on it for 3 months and charge you $1000..
1. Impact on park staff.
2. Loss of revenue to the park.
3. Impact on park operating costs.
4. Facility use fees.
5. Potential damage to park resources (requires bond deposit).
6. Archeological impacts.
7. Historic preservation.
8. Wildlife impact.
There is an advisory committee and an application process in place for "filming". That is prohibitively expensive for a recreational flyer. There isn't an application for a recreational flyer at the National level - it's just banned (for now). So, since there's a process in place, and the local ranger has no authority to allow recreational or non-permitted commercial flying he would likely just say, "No, or apply for a permit - here's the phone number to the regional administrators office".
That's the way it was when I called the local State Park (which is actually also a national park - weird - but the State had authority in this park). The local ranger directed me to the regional office and some higher up had to review and sign it - but I avoided NPS.
As far as auto-takeoff, or flying in from outside the park - you'd just get a ticket for the fine if they caught you. The park rangers have a very wide range of ability and discretion to write tickets. You will not win an argument. That would also piss them off so they'd outright hate us even more. Then they'd obsess over catching the non-compliant flyers - AND discriminate against those of us who follow the law & its intention.