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Confused in Norfolk,VA

Joined
Jun 15, 2018
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Hello all. I wanted to try to become part of the hobby and figured I would start out with a Yuneec Breeze, to try it out without spending big money; and to gain some experience. I registered my UAS with the FAA and downloaded their app, B4UFLY. I live in North eastern Norfolk, VA. I am approximately 3 miles from Norfolk International Airport (ORF). On the maps shown on the app, I live in a yellow zone with several restrictions nearby. I am under the impression that living so close to the airport, I must contact them for clearance, yet I also read that as long as I am in yellow airspace, I am fine to fly. Help! If I must check in before flying, how do I do so?
 
Hello all. I wanted to try to become part of the hobby and figured I would start out with a Yuneec Breeze, to try it out without spending big money; and to gain some experience. I registered my UAS with the FAA and downloaded their app, B4UFLY. I live in North eastern Norfolk, VA. I am approximately 3 miles from Norfolk International Airport (ORF). On the maps shown on the app, I live in a yellow zone with several restrictions nearby. I am under the impression that living so close to the airport, I must contact them for clearance, yet I also read that as long as I am in yellow airspace, I am fine to fly. Help! If I must check in before flying, how do I do so?
hey welcome to the hobby, i live in va beach. norfolk is a tough place to find a place to fly with out no fly zones. i fly with a club in va beach. the you should be fine flying the breeze at parks and ov beach, football fields because the range is about 250 ft high and 330ft out. its really not a threatening looking drone like the "h". if you need any more info let me know. oh and calling the control towers is a joke around here. most dont even know why your calling them. just stay away from the airports, military bases, police station; ect. common sense goes a long way.
 
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hey welcome to the hobby, i live in va beach. norfolk is a tough place to find a place to fly with out no fly zones. i fly with a club in va beach. the you should be fine flying the breeze at parks and ov beach, football fields because the range is about 250 ft high and 330ft out. its really not a threatening looking drone like the "h". if you need any more info let me know. oh and calling the control towers is a joke around here. most dont even know why your calling them. just stay away from the airports, military bases, police station; ect. common sense goes a long way.

I appreciate your reply, I guess I'm going to have to find a club. I live in East Beach, and read a post on another forum from someone that lives here also. He stated that he fly's over the beach, and has had no issues so far. I do know that Little Creek (500 yards east) is a restricted area. I just want to get some practice in and maybe some sunset videos.Thanks again!
 
no problem, when you get in to the bigger birds with longer range that when you really need to be concerned. i own 2 "h"s, q500 a mavic and a spark. i take the spark everywhere because it looks like a toy and no threat.
 
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Federal UAS Laws & Guidance

In my opinion, B4UFLY app isn't very good, but if you are within 3 miles of ORF, it should be telling you not to fly.
Norfolk is not the greatest place to fly with ORF and the NAVAL Air Station, which has fixed wing and helo's, Little Creek with places they will not be happy if you venture near. Then you have Oceana, Fentress and some restricted zones at the beach. Get near downtown and the shipyards, especially Norfolk Naval, is not going to be happy if they see you. Hampton/Newport News isn't very good either.

The requirement says that you need to contact ORF to fly. I believe the app has their number in it. When you reach them, they will probably tell you not to call every time you want to fly as long as you do X and Y. Document the call in case something goes wrong.

The FAA expects you to call Heliports within 5 miles too and they are all over (good luck reaching them since they aren't even manned unless flying). If you do reach them, my experience is they will have absolutely no idea why you called or know what to say about it). Even some of the FAA people I've asked are conflicted about that requirement, since it isn't really practical. Almost every Hospital around here has one though.

You may want to try Airmap, which is not perfect, but has worked a lot better for me than the other one.

I have a Breeze though and love it.

Spend a little time looking at the rules. I had an agreement with my local airport (4 miles), Hampton Roads Executive to just limit it to 400 feet (the FAA limit anyway) and not to call them again unless I need to really get close to it. They don't have a tower though.

Chances are, you will never get caught breaking a rule, but sometimes, these drones, especially with GPS and compass, have a mind of their own and wander off. Where they go, when they do that can get people into a lot of trouble so it doesn't hurt to follow what rules you can, if you are ever asked. It's also why most of us that fly FPV (even really badly) have it set, in BetaFlight, Cleanflight, whatever, to drop out of the sky, if it loses controller signal. You can't set the Breeze up to be able to do that. Yours should come back and land where it took off. Make sure you do the calibrations, especially if you move to a different location so it knows where it is.
 
[I really appreciate your response, I am wondering if I should even have bothered. The government is good at making things difficult. I will take your advise to heart and try to sort this out. I bought my Breeze yesterday and have yet to try to fly it.


QUOTE="robport, post: 137020, member: 14805"]Federal UAS Laws & Guidance

In my opinion, B4UFLY app isn't very good, but if you are within 3 miles of ORF, it should be telling you not to fly.
Norfolk is not the greatest place to fly with ORF and the NAVAL Air Station, which has fixed wing and helo's, Little Creek with places they will not be happy if you venture near. Then you have Oceana, Fentress and some restricted zones at the beach. Get near downtown and the shipyards, especially Norfolk Naval, is not going to be happy if they see you. Hampton/Newport News isn't very good either.

The requirement says that you need to contact ORF to fly. I believe the app has their number in it. When you reach them, they will probably tell you not to call every time you want to fly as long as you do X and Y. Document the call in case something goes wrong.

The FAA expects you to call Heliports within 5 miles too and they are all over (good luck reaching them since they aren't even manned unless flying). If you do reach them, my experience is they will have absolutely no idea why you called or know what to say about it). Even some of the FAA people I've asked are conflicted about that requirement, since it isn't really practical. Almost every Hospital around here has one though.

You may want to try Airmap, which is not perfect, but has worked a lot better for me than the other one.

I have a Breeze though and love it.

Spend a little time looking at the rules. I had an agreement with my local airport (4 miles), Hampton Roads Executive to just limit it to 400 feet (the FAA limit anyway) and not to call them again unless I need to really get close to it. They don't have a tower though.

Chances are, you will never get caught breaking a rule, but sometimes, these drones, especially with GPS and compass, have a mind of their own and wander off. Where they go, when they do that can get people into a lot of trouble so it doesn't hurt to follow what rules you can, if you are ever asked. It's also why most of us that fly FPV (even really badly) have it set, in BetaFlight, Cleanflight, whatever, to drop out of the sky, if it loses controller signal. You can't set the Breeze up to be able to do that. Yours should come back and land where it took off. Make sure you do the calibrations, especially if you move to a different location so it knows where it is.[/QUOTE]
 
It's really not as complicated as it sounds, just lots of restrictions where you happen to live. Don't give up. Try the phone call. If you are lucky, they will tell you not to worry about it. There ought to be a rule where you can fly below treetops in urban areas, but the FAA doesn't see it that way.
 

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