Rich QR
Well-Known Member
The other point that was made is that you can be prohibited from operating the drone within the park. In this context, "Operate" means more-or-less "hold the controller and manipulate it while standing on the property in question"
The idea is that property owners or governments are clearly allowed to make rules that regulate what you can do while you're on their land. They probably can't regulate what you do in the airspace above their land (though the avigation easement idea may, depending on how legislatures and courts rule, allow landowners to have some rights to regulate some airspace over their property).
So if you live next to a park, you can legally take off and land in your yard, and you can stand in your yard while you're operating your drone. You can fly your drone above the park, without running afoul of FAA rules, (assuming there's not an issue of flying over people, entering controlled airspace, or some other situation prohibited by the FAA). But the park is allowed to prohibit you from entering their land while you're holding the controller that's controlling that drone. In other words, they can prohibit you from "operating" the drone from their land.
Of course the FAA requires you to maintain VLOS. Having to stay outside the park boundaries while maintaining VLOS may have the effect of denying access to some low-altitude airspace, depending on the terrain.
