A friend posed a question to me today to which I did not have an immediate answer. I know my airspace pretty well and I'm very familiar with the rules pertaining to airspace for UAS pilots. Here's the question I had not been confronted with before:
"If I am operating in Class C Airspace (within the 5 mile radius of the airstrip, and the airstrip itself is at 900 msl...the Class C is SFC to 4700 but the airstrip is at the top of a small mountain placing it at 900 msl, and I'm flying from a standing location in the valley putting me at 300 msl, do I need tower clearance to fly since I'm below the msl of the sfc of the actual strip?"
My guess is "no, you do not need atc permission," but I didn't feel comfortable telling my friend to go fly there since I wasn't certain. He's traveling to do the flight at the location and he is afraid he might be in controlled airspace and even get geofenced and have wasted a trip. He's flying a M2P Zoom.
Anyone faced that situation before?
Thanks.
"If I am operating in Class C Airspace (within the 5 mile radius of the airstrip, and the airstrip itself is at 900 msl...the Class C is SFC to 4700 but the airstrip is at the top of a small mountain placing it at 900 msl, and I'm flying from a standing location in the valley putting me at 300 msl, do I need tower clearance to fly since I'm below the msl of the sfc of the actual strip?"
My guess is "no, you do not need atc permission," but I didn't feel comfortable telling my friend to go fly there since I wasn't certain. He's traveling to do the flight at the location and he is afraid he might be in controlled airspace and even get geofenced and have wasted a trip. He's flying a M2P Zoom.
Anyone faced that situation before?
Thanks.