This is a weird question, and I'm sure it's been covered, but I can't find it. It ties in to the thread about people flying in restricted airspace, but I didn't want to hijack that thread. Sorry if this is one of those "not another one of these threads" threads. I did try to search, I just didn't come up with answers.
So I have 3 apps currently on my phone to monitor flying conditions, Hover, UAV Forecast, and B4UFly. None of them agree about how many airports I'm within 5 miles of. Hover shows one, an actual airport that I'm aware of. B4UFly shows 6. The one I know about, and several that don't exist, near as I can tell. UAV Forecast takes the cake as it shows more airports than I can count. According to it, there is literally no place to fly that isn't within 5 miles of one airport or another. The crazy thing is, no two apps agree. Some show up on each that don't show up on the others.
So my question is this: Is there a way to game the system that people are taking advantage of? Are land owners who dislike drones hip to the knowledge that we can't fly within 5 miles of an airport, so they get their land listed as an airport somehow? Some of the airport names I'm seeing are just like "Brandons Playland" or "Bob's airport", goofy names like that. So depending on where I'm at, if I want to fly for 15 minutes at under 100', I have anywhere from 3-10 airports I have to track down and inform? Weeding through ones that are just anomalies. And what if I go by the information on say Hover, and it misses one that only appears on B4UFly? Am I on the hook for violating airspace because I checked with the wrong app?
I see a lot of tutorials about how to notify ATC and where you can and can't fly, but nothing about all these strange ghost airports that seem to be everywhere.
So I have 3 apps currently on my phone to monitor flying conditions, Hover, UAV Forecast, and B4UFly. None of them agree about how many airports I'm within 5 miles of. Hover shows one, an actual airport that I'm aware of. B4UFly shows 6. The one I know about, and several that don't exist, near as I can tell. UAV Forecast takes the cake as it shows more airports than I can count. According to it, there is literally no place to fly that isn't within 5 miles of one airport or another. The crazy thing is, no two apps agree. Some show up on each that don't show up on the others.
So my question is this: Is there a way to game the system that people are taking advantage of? Are land owners who dislike drones hip to the knowledge that we can't fly within 5 miles of an airport, so they get their land listed as an airport somehow? Some of the airport names I'm seeing are just like "Brandons Playland" or "Bob's airport", goofy names like that. So depending on where I'm at, if I want to fly for 15 minutes at under 100', I have anywhere from 3-10 airports I have to track down and inform? Weeding through ones that are just anomalies. And what if I go by the information on say Hover, and it misses one that only appears on B4UFly? Am I on the hook for violating airspace because I checked with the wrong app?
I see a lot of tutorials about how to notify ATC and where you can and can't fly, but nothing about all these strange ghost airports that seem to be everywhere.