West Chester, PA

[PWIdmayer]

I am in West Chester - Where are my fellow droners?

 

[macoman]

I am in West Chester - Where are my fellow droners?

Northeast Philly

 

[DenzilWithAnI]

I though you can't fly in PA State Parks?

Hey Jay, you can actually fly, launch, and operate from designated areas in the following parks in Pennsylvania: Unmanned Aerial Systems and Drones

As far as flying in other parks is concerned, I have seen many conflicting and incorrect statements in this thread. Of course they (the NPS) won't say it on any of their websites, but the legislation regarding flying in state and national parks is massively misunderstood, and, in short, just as it is 100% legal to fly over an individual's private property, it is 100% legal to fly over a state or national park! This is how it works: the FAA is the ONLY government entity that has legal jurisdiction over air space! In other words, the air above a national or state park is NOT LEGALLY CONSIDERED A PART OF THE PARK! As such, despite what they may think, the national park service has absolutely no say in matters regarding what happens in the airspace above their land. What they DO have a say in is what happens on the LAND, aka regarding the control of activities in the space that is within their jurisdiction; namely whether or not you can launch, land, and operate in the park (you can't). With the exception of the 6 parks linked above, the national park service currently does NOT allow any of these things (launch, operate, land) from/in state or national park boundaries. So, what that this means is that if you can find an area to launch and operate from just OUTSIDE of a park, you can still fly over it 100% legally. The difficult part will obviously be finding a spot wherein 1) you can maintain VLOS and 2) maximize range well enough to enter the airspace over the park.

I am sure that many park rangers and others would really like to tell me that I'm wrong on this point, but that is the way the legislation is currently structured. I suspect that this will change soon (3-5 years), but for now, fly away! You should probably just be sure to buy some solid range extenders if you are going to do this though, because I would put my money that a flyaway/crash in a park would amount to a confiscated drone in most situations...