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No drones in the park.

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There's a location I have to go back to frequently to updates on a construction project.

While on location if I have to do maintenance on one of the drones or test something new out I've been going to a large wide open park for test flights. After I found the park on the map I did extensive research on whether or not drones could be flown in the park. The first thing I looked at was the state laws. The state passed a law that counties, cities and towns must specifically state which parks drones are not allowed to be flown in and that it must be prominently posted in the park that drones are prohibited.

The park is a county park so I checked the website for the county parks and didn't find anything saying you couldn't fly in that park or any of the county parks at all. I checked the page for the specific park and there was nothing saying I couldn't fly in that park.

So after flying in that park on multiple occasions over the course of a year a park employee drove his truck across the grass, pulled up as I was landing one of the drones and yelled, "You're going to have to put that away. No drones in the park!"

I complied and after I had put it back in the car I went looking for their "prominent sign." All I found was an 8.5x11 piece of paper posted on a bulletin board that had the park rules on it. About two thirds of the way down there was a sentence that read as follows, "Remote-controlled aircraft/drones are prohibited."

I went back and checked the county web page and they had added a section that now stated that drone flying was prohibited in all parks except those that have designated areas for remote-controlled aircraft and drones." Which there is one park that has an AMA field.

They actually broke state law by posting a blanket statement and failing to prominently post the prohibition against drones.

While the AMA field is a place where I can fly test flights it's a lot further away and there's a lot of air traffic there so it's definitely less convenient.

I've thought about notifying the county that they aren't in compliance with the state laws but I don't feel it's worth the trouble and won't really benefit me since they clearly will just change the way their drone prohibition is worded and will post signs so I get nothing for my trouble. The part that does annoy me is that lots of people walk their dogs in the park and most of them don't keep them on a leash as the 8.5x11 park rules clearly states and the numerous signs around the park clearly illustrate.

The spot I always flew in was on the edge of the park away from the trails and I actually had the drone over a swamp that was just outside of the park. It's actually far more likely that an unleashed dog would harm a human or wildlife than a drone would but the park employees don't seem to think that's an issue at all.

What my point actually is that if you make it difficult for people to find out they can't fly a drone somewhere than people are going to fly their drones in your park. Maybe I should've periodically checked the county website but they clearly should've posted prominent signs as the state law required.

End of rant.
 
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I feel your discontent. I am an FAA registered hobby flier. I always check the FAA B4Ufly app before taking off.
The only problems I have had was with dog owners. One was bad when a guys dog attacked my 500 helicopter as I was landing and the carbon fiber blades did a number on the dog and cut it up real bad. The park is posted no dogs as the responding police officer stated. The second time was at the beach. I had already been flying when some guy came up to me and said his dog hates drones. I looked at him and said " The one that's not allowed at the beach?" He didn't say any more and left me alone.
As a registered pilot I feel if the local government doesn't want me to fly somewhere they should add it to the FAA app. If something is supposed to be prominently posted but not, then fly away. If the law breaks the law then there is no law.
I see more violations from manned aviation than unmanned. All summer long you can see planes and helicopters flying bellow minimum altitude. I watched a private plane land at the local airport and forgot to lower the wheels. I feel the pilot should have at least lost his license or a hefty fine, but no. Nothing more than a recovery bill. Shouldn't lower landing gear be number one or two on the check list?
Like Mr. Bruce Simpson from RC model reviews and Xjet said. Where's the risk assessment? No one has been killed by model multi rotor aviation. Why should the penalties be so high and manned aviation get free rides from regulators?
I'm stepping down off the soapbox now.
Thanks.
 
I feel your discontent. I am an FAA registered hobby flier. I always check the FAA B4Ufly app before taking off.
The only problems I have had was with dog owners. One was bad when a guys dog attacked my 500 helicopter as I was landing and the carbon fiber blades did a number on the dog and cut it up real bad. The park is posted no dogs as the responding police officer stated. The second time was at the beach. I had already been flying when some guy came up to me and said his dog hates drones. I looked at him and said " The one that's not allowed at the beach?" He didn't say any more and left me alone.
As a registered pilot I feel if the local government doesn't want me to fly somewhere they should add it to the FAA app. If something is supposed to be prominently posted but not, then fly away. If the law breaks the law then there is no law.
I see more violations from manned aviation than unmanned. All summer long you can see planes and helicopters flying bellow minimum altitude. I watched a private plane land at the local airport and forgot to lower the wheels. I feel the pilot should have at least lost his license or a hefty fine, but no. Nothing more than a recovery bill. Shouldn't lower landing gear be number one or two on the check list?
Like Mr. Bruce Simpson from RC model reviews and Xjet said. Where's the risk assessment? No one has been killed by model multi rotor aviation. Why should the penalties be so high and manned aviation get free rides from regulators?
I'm stepping down off the soapbox now.
Thanks.
Well having my license since 1975, I rather have people flying drones learning the in's and out's of aviation so to better understand the complexity of flying.
One thing I was taught "ignorance of the law is no excuse"!
If not sure "ask"!

Aircraft can fly below minimums, depending on location, and in highly populated areas you can ask for approval.
NOE is (was) challenging and fun!
You and I break laws every day, (driving).
Airport 07FA-BCF90.jpg
 
Something had to of happened for them to post that, or exclude rc's from that park ? There must be open fields around where you can be alone for your test flights, where I'm from their are plenty of open fields, then theres always the ocean ?
 
Something had to of happened for them to post that, or exclude rc's from that park ? There must be open fields around where you can be alone for your test flights, where I'm from their are plenty of open fields, then theres always the ocean ?
There is a large portion of the ocean listed as an NFZ near me. The whole Cape Cod national seashore is NFZ. Some parts of Chatham is open to fly and very picturesque. I sometimes flirt with the border of the NFZ but never cross into it. The harbor master has watched me fly there several times. He gave me his card with his private cell phone number written on the back. He asked me to call that number if I ever spot a large shark or whale enter the cut so he can warn the lifeguards. Minke whales love to chase schools into the cut and sometimes get beached on sand bars.
The bay side of the Cape is open to fly and fun. When the tides are low, the Brewster flats stretch for what seems like miles. But that tide comes in quick and is easy to get caught up to your armpits out there.

Have fun and stay safe.
 
Something had to of happened for them to post that, or exclude rc's from that park ? There must be open fields around where you can be alone for your test flights, where I'm from their are plenty of open fields, then theres always the ocean ?
It's actually in a densely populated overdeveloped area. The park is a repurposed golf course that opened 10 years ago. It's about the only open space where you can fly within 15 miles.

I checked the incident reports for the park, there have been athletic injuries reported on the playing fields, a few collisions between bicyclists and pedestrians on the pathways, 121 dog bite incidents and zero reports of Remotely Controlled Aircraft/Drones causing either property damage or injuries.

That's in the entire 10 years the park has been open to the public. Now to be fair, I've only seen 2 other people ever flying drones in the park so the fact that people don't generally fly drones there may be why there haven't been any incidents.

The park employees may be more diligent about running off drones than I realized. Virtually all the test flights I ran were right around sunrise or sunset which is probably outside of their working hours. When the employee approached me it was an exception to when I normally flew. It was around 11 AM and there was a crew doing hydro seeding in a parking lot they had just added. The park is very large and I was close to where they were working so it probably caught their attention.
 
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It's actually in a densely populated overdeveloped area. The park is a repurposed golf course that opened 10 years ago. It's about the only open space where you can fly within 15 miles.

I checked the incident reports for the park, there have been athletic injuries reported on the playing fields, a few collisions between bicyclists and pedestrians on the pathways, 121 dog bite incidents and zero reports of Remotely Controlled Aircraft/Drones causing either property damage or injuries.

That's in the entire 10 years the park has been open to the public. Now to be fair, I've only seen 2 other people ever flying drones in the park so the fact that people don't generally fly drones there may be why there haven't been any incidents.

The park employees may be more diligent about running off drones than I realized. Virtually all the test flights I ran were right around sunrise or sunset which is probably outside of their working hours. When the employee approached me it was an exception to when I normally flew. It was around 11 AM and there was a crew doing hydro seeding in a parking lot they had just added. The park is very large and I was close to where they were working so it probably caught their attention.
It's not about incidents or property damage. It's media hype and just a couple of idiots who should not have owned a UAV to begin with. Politicians bowing to political pressure. Flying over the public is a no no anyway. I avoid flying over people like the plague. Never across a busy street either. Over 100 dog bites but drones are banned? Seems to me that animals in the park are more dangerous.
 
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I wonder if you could talk to the park district and ask if you can fly just in the area that you mentioned, away from trails and other people. They will likely say no, but often there's someone with common sense, and a sense that they are there to serve the public, and they can help you if asked respectfully.
(I am currently the proud owner of a permit to enter a forest preserve near me after hours, after dark, with my telescope. They were actually excited to help and hope to run in to me some night!)
 
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There's a location I have to go back to frequently to updates on a construction project.

While on location if I have to do maintenance on one of the drones or test something new out I've been going to a large wide open park for test flights. After I found the park on the map I did extensive research on whether or not drones could be flown in the park. The first thing I looked at was the state laws. The state passed a law that counties, cities and towns must specifically state which parks drones are not allowed to be flown in and that it must be prominently posted in the park that drones are prohibited.

The park is a county park so I checked the website for the county parks and didn't find anything saying you couldn't fly in that park or any of the county parks at all. I checked the page for the specific park and there was nothing saying I couldn't fly in that park.

So after flying in that park on multiple occasions over the course of a year a park employee drove his truck across the grass, pulled up as I was landing one of the drones and yelled, "You're going to have to put that away. No drones in the park!"

I complied and after I had put it back in the car I went looking for their "prominent sign." All I found was an 8.5x11 piece of paper posted on a bulletin board that had the park rules on it. About two thirds of the way down there was a sentence that read as follows, "Remote-controlled aircraft/drones are prohibited."

I went back and checked the county web page and they had added a section that now stated that drone flying was prohibited in all parks except those that have designated areas for remote-controlled aircraft and drones." Which there is one park that has an AMA field.

They actually broke state law by posting a blanket statement and failing to prominently post the prohibition against drones.

While the AMA field is a place where I can fly test flights it's a lot further away and there's a lot of air traffic there so it's definitely less convenient.

I've thought about notifying the county that they aren't in compliance with the state laws but I don't feel it's worth the trouble and won't really benefit me since they clearly will just change the way their drone prohibition is worded and will post signs so I get nothing for my trouble. The part that does annoy me is that lots of people walk their dogs in the park and most of them don't keep them on a leash as the 8.5x11 park rules clearly states and the numerous signs around the park clearly illustrate.

The spot I always flew in was on the edge of the park away from the trails and I actually had the drone over a swamp that was just outside of the park. It's actually far more likely that an unleashed dog would harm a human or wildlife than a drone would but the park employees don't seem to think that's an issue at all.

What my point actually is that if you make it difficult for people to find out they can't fly a drone somewhere than people are going to fly their drones in your park. Maybe I should've periodically checked the county website but they clearly should've posted prominent signs as the state law required.

End of rant.
I'm in Palm Beach County FL and we have the same rule. I'm not a lawyer, but at least in Florida, certain rules are left to the counties and/or individual towns, not the state. We're not allowed to fly in any state/county run parks, but we do have a massive air park the county owns. It bumps up right against the Florida Everglades (federal land), which you can't fly from. A town near me tried to ban all drones. I had to look hard to figure out where I could and couldn't fly. The only place I've ever seen a no drone sign is in the nature preserves near us. Nothing ever in a park. You're right -- this should be crystal clear for people to understand.
 
There is a large portion of the ocean listed as an NFZ near me. The whole Cape Cod national seashore is NFZ. Some parts of Chatham is open to fly and very picturesque. I sometimes flirt with the border of the NFZ but never cross into it. The harbor master has watched me fly there several times. He gave me his card with his private cell phone number written on the back. He asked me to call that number if I ever spot a large shark or whale enter the cut so he can warn the lifeguards. Minke whales love to chase schools into the cut and sometimes get beached on sand bars.
The bay side of the Cape is open to fly and fun. When the tides are low, the Brewster flats stretch for what seems like miles. But that tide comes in quick and is easy to get caught up to your armpits out there.

Have fun and stay safe.
I still haven't figured out the rules for beach flying near me.
 
It's not about incidents or property damage. It's media hype and just a couple of idiots who should not have owned a UAV to begin with. Politicians bowing to political pressure. Flying over the public is a no no anyway. I avoid flying over people like the plague. Never across a busy street either. Over 100 dog bites but drones are banned? Seems to me that animals in the park are more dangerous.
To be fair, the dog bites are over 10 years so they’re averaging just slightly more than one a month. At first blush it did seem high but spread over that much time it isn’t that alarming. I will say that they do have a big problem with people letting their dogs roam off leash. It probably isn’t as easy to catch as a lone drone flying against a clear blue sky!

In that same 10 year period they’ve had 474 injuries on their soccer fields. Ban soccer!
 
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In that same 10 year period they’ve had 474 injuries on their soccer fields. Ban soccer!

The vast majority of those injuries involve children... stop this irresponsible behavior and ban children :p
 
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There is a large portion of the ocean listed as an NFZ near me. The whole Cape Cod national seashore is NFZ. Some parts of Chatham is open to fly and very picturesque. I sometimes flirt with the border of the NFZ but never cross into it. The harbor master has watched me fly there several times. He gave me his card with his private cell phone number written on the back. He asked me to call that number if I ever spot a large shark or whale enter the cut so he can warn the lifeguards. Minke whales love to chase schools into the cut and sometimes get beached on sand bars.
The bay side of the Cape is open to fly and fun. When the tides are low, the Brewster flats stretch for what seems like miles. But that tide comes in quick and is easy to get caught up to your armpits out there.

Have fun and stay safe.
Nice I'm on the Southcoast as well, haven't ventured to the cape yet, but its on my list ?
 
There's a location I have to go back to frequently to updates on a construction project.

While on location if I have to do maintenance on one of the drones or test something new out I've been going to a large wide open park for test flights. After I found the park on the map I did extensive research on whether or not drones could be flown in the park. The first thing I looked at was the state laws. The state passed a law that counties, cities and towns must specifically state which parks drones are not allowed to be flown in and that it must be prominently posted in the park that drones are prohibited.

The park is a county park so I checked the website for the county parks and didn't find anything saying you couldn't fly in that park or any of the county parks at all. I checked the page for the specific park and there was nothing saying I couldn't fly in that park.

So after flying in that park on multiple occasions over the course of a year a park employee drove his truck across the grass, pulled up as I was landing one of the drones and yelled, "You're going to have to put that away. No drones in the park!"

I complied and after I had put it back in the car I went looking for their "prominent sign." All I found was an 8.5x11 piece of paper posted on a bulletin board that had the park rules on it. About two thirds of the way down there was a sentence that read as follows, "Remote-controlled aircraft/drones are prohibited."

I went back and checked the county web page and they had added a section that now stated that drone flying was prohibited in all parks except those that have designated areas for remote-controlled aircraft and drones." Which there is one park that has an AMA field.

They actually broke state law by posting a blanket statement and failing to prominently post the prohibition against drones.

While the AMA field is a place where I can fly test flights it's a lot further away and there's a lot of air traffic there so it's definitely less convenient.

I've thought about notifying the county that they aren't in compliance with the state laws but I don't feel it's worth the trouble and won't really benefit me since they clearly will just change the way their drone prohibition is worded and will post signs so I get nothing for my trouble. The part that does annoy me is that lots of people walk their dogs in the park and most of them don't keep them on a leash as the 8.5x11 park rules clearly states and the numerous signs around the park clearly illustrate.

The spot I always flew in was on the edge of the park away from the trails and I actually had the drone over a swamp that was just outside of the park. It's actually far more likely that an unleashed dog would harm a human or wildlife than a drone would but the park employees don't seem to think that's an issue at all.

What my point actually is that if you make it difficult for people to find out they can't fly a drone somewhere than people are going to fly their drones in your park. Maybe I should've periodically checked the county website but they clearly should've posted prominent signs as the state law required.

End of rant.
I would completely ignore their illegal rule. Park outside the gate of the park, and fly in, do all the legal flying you want, obviously in line of sight etc.... then fly out of the park and land.
Nothing they can do. We all know stupid drone rules are put in place by stupid people. Its better to spend some time and find out who was behind the rule and then have them fired.
 
Park outside the gate of the park, and fly in, do all the legal flying you want, obviously in line of sight etc.... then fly out of the park and land.
Nothing they can do.
That's exactly what I tell my brother to do in areas he knows people go all "Karen" in. Follow the real laws, and just don't launch from known problem areas. By the time the idiots trying to make their own laws up find you, you'll be packed up and leaving anyway.
 
I understand what everyone is saying about various parks and their no drone rules. I too have flown in parks and have had a Ranger or two come up to me and ask me to simply put it away. They didn't write me up or get nasty. A Ranger 2 years ago told me it's more about privacy than that the drone may cause harm to a park visitor. It is true that most all drones have cameras attached to them and very good cameras they are. And, many people go to parks to "make out" with others that they may not be connected to or supposed to be with. I'll stop here for I think that all will know where I'm going with this. I still fly in some parks during very early morning hours and where people don't usually go. I feel that it's a shame that most parks are there for us to enjoy nature's beauty, but, that we most enjoy it from some trail that is only allowing us to see a small part of that beauty.
 
I've never understood people who go to public places then complain about privacy... It's not the camera's fault if you're feeling guilty about something.

Same story comes up every time a new technology comes along. People don't like being told they're possibly going to get caught doing something they know they shouldn't.
 
I understand what everyone is saying about various parks and their no drone rules. I too have flown in parks and have had a Ranger or two come up to me and ask me to simply put it away. They didn't write me up or get nasty. A Ranger 2 years ago told me it's more about privacy than that the drone may cause harm to a park visitor. It is true that most all drones have cameras attached to them and very good cameras they are. And, many people go to parks to "make out" with others that they may not be connected to or supposed to be with. I'll stop here for I think that all will know where I'm going with this. I still fly in some parks during very early morning hours and where people don't usually go. I feel that it's a shame that most parks are there for us to enjoy nature's beauty, but, that we most enjoy it from some trail that is only allowing us to see a small part of that beauty.
Pretty much everybody has a cell phone now that can take pictures and shoot video. You’d actually be less likely to notice somebody shooting video of you from the ground than you would notice a drone highlighted against a bright blue sky.

I seriously doubt that there’s a real issue with people flying drones in a park trying to record people cheating. Now, if a drone is flying 40 feet off the ground near your backyard while your daughter is sunbathing in the backyard you may have an actual problem.

And never mind that if you’re in a park today it’s almost guaranteed that you’re on a surveillance camera!
 
There's a location I have to go back to frequently to updates on a construction project.

While on location if I have to do maintenance on one of the drones or test something new out I've been going to a large wide open park for test flights. After I found the park on the map I did extensive research on whether or not drones could be flown in the park. The first thing I looked at was the state laws. The state passed a law that counties, cities and towns must specifically state which parks drones are not allowed to be flown in and that it must be prominently posted in the park that drones are prohibited.

The park is a county park so I checked the website for the county parks and didn't find anything saying you couldn't fly in that park or any of the county parks at all. I checked the page for the specific park and there was nothing saying I couldn't fly in that park.

So after flying in that park on multiple occasions over the course of a year a park employee drove his truck across the grass, pulled up as I was landing one of the drones and yelled, "You're going to have to put that away. No drones in the park!"

I complied and after I had put it back in the car I went looking for their "prominent sign." All I found was an 8.5x11 piece of paper posted on a bulletin board that had the park rules on it. About two thirds of the way down there was a sentence that read as follows, "Remote-controlled aircraft/drones are prohibited."

I went back and checked the county web page and they had added a section that now stated that drone flying was prohibited in all parks except those that have designated areas for remote-controlled aircraft and drones." Which there is one park that has an AMA field.

They actually broke state law by posting a blanket statement and failing to prominently post the prohibition against drones.

While the AMA field is a place where I can fly test flights it's a lot further away and there's a lot of air traffic there so it's definitely less convenient.

I've thought about notifying the county that they aren't in compliance with the state laws but I don't feel it's worth the trouble and won't really benefit me since they clearly will just change the way their drone prohibition is worded and will post signs so I get nothing for my trouble. The part that does annoy me is that lots of people walk their dogs in the park and most of them don't keep them on a leash as the 8.5x11 park rules clearly states and the numerous signs around the park clearly illustrate.

The spot I always flew in was on the edge of the park away from the trails and I actually had the drone over a swamp that was just outside of the park. It's actually far more likely that an unleashed dog would harm a human or wildlife than a drone would but the park employees don't seem to think that's an issue at all.

What my point actually is that if you make it difficult for people to find out they can't fly a drone somewhere than people are going to fly their drones in your park. Maybe I should've periodically checked the county website but they clearly should've posted prominent signs as the state law required.

End of rant.
Technically the only regulation you have to follow is that when they say you can't fly there the regulation is that you cannot "operate" inside the park which means you cannot base there for takeoff and landing. If you can find a place that you can operate from outside outside of the park you can fly there all you want as long as you stay at least 50ft from people and structures. Of course you can't fly directly over people but I think most of us are smarter than that. Unfortunately near none of the parks are on any of the LAANC enabled maps and they do not coordinate with the FAA. I have seen National and a few State Parks but even many of them allow you to request a filming waiver which would let you fly from the park.
 
...as long as you stay at least 50ft from people and structures...
Is this something new? Or, local to the OP?

It's a shame they won't let you fly in your parks. I'm lucky, my parks actually encourage it. When I got my first drone, capable of flying outside, (after learning on a cheap Syma X5 and a Tello) I was scouting parks and approached a police car parked in the lot and asked about places to fly. He told me about 3 big parks in the area where people "fly all the time"....I usually fly out of my backyard and around the neighborhood when not at the park or on a job.
 
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