Public parks would probably the best places to fly your drone as a hobbyist drone pilot. There’s one around every corner, they’re usually empty if you time it right, and there’s a lot of space. But are you legally allowed to fly your drone in a public park?
In most cases, you are allowed to fly your drone in a public park. There aren’t any FAA regulations that restrict this, however, you need to double-check that there aren’t any county or city level laws against flying in your park, and you need to make sure there aren’t any flight restrictions over the park.
So even though that in most parks this would be perfectly legal, at the end of the day it depends on local drone laws, and if there are any flight restrictions over the park. There are a few easy ways you can make sure of this before flying your drone.
There are some simple things you can do to help you find out if you’re allowed to fly in your public park or not.
The FAA has partnered with apps such as the airmap app to give drone pilots an easy way to see if there are any flight restrictions in the area. If you don’t have the app you can also use airmap.com.
Airmap will give you more than enough information to decide if it’s legal to fly at your local park. Here’s how you can do this.
If there are advisories, such as “airports in the area,” then you’ll need to apply for LAANC authorization, which stands for low altitude flight authorization. Doing this is actually pretty easy and it can be done within the Airmap app or at airmap.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Even hobby drone pilots need to apply for LAANC authorization if they fly within a 5-mile radius of any airport.
The process is simple and authorization generally happens instantly after the online application has been submitted. I wrote an article on how you can notify the airport as a hobbyist drone pilot here, so make sure you read it if you need to apply.
LAANC authorization is simply designed to let air traffic controllers know that there are drones operating in the area, to keep other aircraft safe.
If there are any military bases or airports in the area then this might be a clue that you won’t be allowed to fly in the public park. FAA rules determine that you can’t fly your drone within a 5-mile radius of an airport, or close to any government buildings.
Google has all the information in the world. If you would like to know if there are any local restrictions at your local park, then simply google the park’s name followed with “drone laws.”
City-level drone laws are localized and they are changed frequently, so they might not show on the airmap. Which is why you would want to do some extra research before taking to the skies.
Just to give you an example, some parks will have drone laws that only go into effect during events such as concerts and festivals etc. This would be something that would only show up in your city’s drone laws.
If you’re new to flying drones or new to the area, try meeting some other drones pilots that have been flying in the area for a while. There’s no better way to find out other than getting first-hand advice from other pilots.
This also saves you from learning from trial and error. Who knows, it might even save you a fine.
Here are some places that you can look for other drone pilots in your area:
Hope this helps your hunt for some new friends!
Now that you know you’re allowed to fly in your public park, you need to be careful not to attract any unwanted attention by breaking FAA drone laws. There are a lot of people who despise drones, so they’ll be watching you closely for any mistakes. But as long as you stick to the law, there shouldn’t be any problems.
INSIDER TIP: Public parks are generally a lot quieter in the morning on weekdays, so if you want as little people around as possible then try to stick to the quieter times. The fewer people that are around, the fewer problems you’ll have.
Here are laws to follow that will keep you out of trouble:
If you’re curious about what kind of fines and penalties you can get for breaking these drone laws, I wrote a full article on it here.
There are probably more places that you can fly your drone than not. But you need to do your research first. Here are some of my favorite places to fly a drone to help make your research a bit easier.
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