I found an awesome location to fly my drone a few weeks ago but turned out it was within a 5-mile radius of an airport. Here’s how I notified the airport of my drone flight.
You can notify an airport by using the LAANC, (Low-Altitude Authorisation and Notification Capability,) on your mobile device or online. The application is extremely easy and almost-instant which then gives you airspace authorization to fly your drone. You can’t just call anymore.
The old method used to require that you call the airport. However recent laws state that hobbyist drone pilots all need to apply for LAANC authorization.
But what is LAANC and how does it work? Is it difficult to use? Fortunately for us, once you’ve done it once, it’s actually pretty damn easy. So make sure you read further to find out exactly how to do it.
The LAANC system, (which stands for Low-Altitude Authorisation and Notification Capability,) used to only be for commercial drone pilots, but now recreational drone pilots or hobbyists have to use it as well if they want to fly within a 5-mile radius of an airport. Basically anyone who wants to fly in restricted air space needs to use the LAANC.
The LAANC is a partnership between the FAA and private companies such as Airmap, DJI, Skyward and Kittyhawk. It is actually pretty easy to use these applications to request authorization to fly your drone near an airport.
The simple steps to request authorization for all the apps is to:
As simple as 1,2,3. Here is a more detailed explanation of how to request access using the two most popular apps.
You won’t get approved if…
These are basic drone rules that apply to all pilots so if you say that you will be ignoring these rules your request will definitely be denied.
Both of Kittyhawk and Airmap are exceptional apps and have a variety of different features to improve your drone flying experience. They both do the same job very well just in a few different ways.
There are other apps out there that you may also use to request authorization to fly near an airport but they are not as good as the ones I have mentioned above.
Sometimes LAANC does not work 100% of the time for a few reasons.
If you avoid these things you should be able to ask for authorization. If you are still not able to get near-instant approval with LAANC then you should try to fill out the FAA’s online airspace authorization form.
After you have submitted this form to the FAA, they will strive to review and issue decisions on authorization requests within 90 days of the submission. The time required to process may be different depending on how complex your request is.
If you decide not to contact the airport through LAANC or you are unable to do so but decide to fly your drone in restricted airspace anyway then this could end very badly for you.
If you would like to get a better idea of what will happen, we dedicated an entire article on this website to discuss the kind of fines you can get for breaking drone laws.
If you fly in a no-fly zone without authorization and are caught you could be fined up to $5,000 and that is if you get off easy. You could face jail time for flying a drone near an airport.
Many fellow enthusiasts have tried to ignore these warnings and fly their drones in restricted air space leading to their drones being confiscated and them spending time in jail.
Flying your drone for 25 minutes is not worth losing it forever and spending time in a jail cell or paying up to $5,000 because of it. Rather stay safe and use the LAANC authorization or do not fly your drone.
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