Where can you fly?

[Drpepper]

Recently got a mavic and would love to fly it. Everywhere I look, national, state, county, town parks all restrict flying. Private hotels/resorts...also banned.

Make 107 certification mandatory, charge fees for permits, restrict flying times or launch areas, whatever....but these outright bans in the interest of safety/privacy are just wrong and I am not aware of any proof that drones are dangerous or violate privacy if operated in a safe manner with some reasonable privacy standards.

Is anyone aware of any local groups of UAV pilots who have successfully lobbied for permission to fly?

I am hoping that with the AMA getting friendlier to drone pilots there will be some strength in numbers.

 

[P1XL]

Various locations can always limit your ability to fly from/take off from/land on their property, but they can't restrict the airspace above the buildings or structures on the property. Just fly from private property with permission, or from non-restricted public property. Where I live there's a national park that takes up a considerable amount of my area, but it's still perfectly legal for me to stand in my friend's driveway and fly across the street into the park airspace. Some of the beaches here have no-drone restrictions at a city-level, but you can absolutely fly over them from an adjacent private beach, lawn, or parking lot.

One of my least favorite parts about the regulations is the letter from the NPS director telling park superintendents not to even give permission to people who ask. That's not helpful, and removes the purpose of having individual park supers instead of just one central director controlling everything. I've met with our nearby park super a few times socially, and I bet he'd give permission in a heartbeat if his boss hadn't told him not to.

What we really need is for the FAA to stand behind their regulations and start enforcing basic drone rights. They should be sending C&D letters to anyone who attempts to illegally regulate airspace, and enforcing drones as aircraft and prosecuting people who attack them. The NPS is using drones themselves now for SAR operations, so they should be able to come up with safe operation guidelines that aren't just "Don't fly here". Personally, I blame those idiots who go harass deer, sheep, moose, birds, whatever, for these bans.