I don't know. As a pilot of a small plane, I'd say you need to spend at least an hour to plan a flight, if not more. Familiarise yourself with departure and arrival airport and alternates, the route, weather and airspace along the route (you do not want to wander into Class B or or restricted airspace by accident), TFRs (temporary flight restrictions), NOTAMs (notices to airmen), and more. If you're very familiar with a route, it might be less, and if it's a totally new area/route for you, it might be more.<p>If you pilot a plane, and you make a mistake, your own life is on the line.<p>When you fly a drone, you still constitute a danger to other aircraft and the people in it, or people on the ground. Why should you be subject to fewer rules, just because <i>you</i> are not aboard the aircraft, and thus not at risk?<p>Imagine remote controlled cars on the road. Should we allow some drunk kids without license on their computer at home to control cars on the road (and endanger everyone else), just because <i>they</i> are not in danger? Of course not.<p>So, my sympathy for people clamouring for less restricted drone flights is limited. Having said that, there are tools that facilitate planning a flight (in a safe and lawful manner), and having something similar for drones would obviously be great.
I decided today to look into what I need to do to legally fly my drone in Canada. I've owned it over a year, but since new regulations came in I've been afraid to use it in case it was done incorrectly. What I've learned so far is that in order to legally fly my drone, I must:<p>1. Register the drone online for $5 (done, took 2 minutes).<p>2. Take an exam. They won't tell me what's going to be on the exam, but instead recommend I go to one of a long list of "drone schools" who have 'self declared' that they can teach what will be on the exam. The exam is $10, but who knows what these schools will charge or if they're even reputable.<p>3. Not be within 5 miles of most airports, or 1-3 miles from most helipads. (Didn't we convert to metric before I was born?). At least they've made a helpful tool with that <a href="https://nrc.canada.ca/en/drone-tool/" rel="nofollow">https://nrc.canada.ca/en/drone-tool/</a>. The tool also helpfully shows that oh right, most lakes are used for sea-planes to take off and land so avoid those too.<p>4. Never fly within 100 ft (30m) horizontally of any 'bystander', ie: they aren't with me flying the drone.<p>What this all boils down to is that there's no reason to own a drone anymore unless you own a very large property far from any populated areas. There is no place less than a 20-30 minute drive away from my home that I can even legally fly it. Even then, any park or place I might legally go to without trespassing will have too many people to be more than 30m from anyone else. Even the less-populated parks and recreation areas- how do I even tell if there's someone 29m away from me through a forest or behind something?<p>All the while: for what benefit? Who has been seriously injured in Canada by drone accidents?
I have a very hard time taking most of the drone pilot complaining seriously. RC aircraft have been around for ages and subject to nearly all of the same regulations as modern drones.<p>The problem I see is drone manufactures marketed their products such that "they're just another toy". It's led to drone operators acting like they're entitled to fly wherever they want. Combine that with pressure to capture an incredible shot for Insta/Pinterest/etc, and you get people that have completely disregarded for long standing rules designed to keep people safe.<p>The reality is drones are able to operate in vastly more areas than RC aircraft have in the past. Clearance from bystanders/structures, height restrictions, airport proximity, etc have all been things RC operators have dealt with for ages. Problem is people don't just want to fly a drone, they want to operate them in dangerous manners and in places they really shouldn't.
I fly recreationally with a Spark. There is a class B airport and a few helipads in my vicinity (urban city) and a large national park not far away. As long as there isn’t a TFR, rescue, or police operation not going in the immediate vicinity it’s not too difficult to let the ATC know you are flying. And if you use KittyHawk or AirMap you can submit a flightplan within the app.<p>Launching is a different matter and the author is right. You can certainly fly in a lot of places but touching the ground can be tough. Public parks can be difficult and depends on the whim of whoever is on duty. One park I flew out for months then one day a ranger tells me there is no flying there. Nothing is posted and when I go to challenge this imaginary rule it only made the ranger angry. Now I fly from public easements: sidewalks, river fronts, jetties, high tide lines. There appears to be no central authority. And the people who would try and chase you off don’t think they have authority there (lots of waterfront is Corp of engineering)
Summary: The FAA's B4UFLY app only tells you whether you can _fly_ a drone somewhere. It doesn't tell you whether you can _take off, operate, and land_ from there because that is up to the property owner (whether private or government owned).
Here's a solution:<p>Congress should pass a law that says state and local jurisdictions must register their anti-drone laws with the FAA in a formal way by January 1, 20XX otherwise they are legally unenforceable.<p>Then there's a guarantee that what the app gives is valid information, and it's incumbent on local governments to make sure of that, and drone users aren't liable if they don't.
The article uses three different apps to determine if it's OK to fly a drone in a particular area. When all three said he was good he then did extensive google searches to find things as random as press releases where someone is quoted as saying no drones allowed.<p>If you used this level of due diligence on whether it's permissible to do anything, you'd find you're allowed to do nothing.
It's a shame you can't land or take off from a national park.<p>Rules and advises about using it would be better than the current prohibition.<p>I understand no one wants ten jerks flying their loud drones during summer time at Yosemite's most crowded areas... but this ignores the fact that you can drive 1h inside the park and find a place no one will be bothered.<p>Regarding dealing with wild life, etc. the best thing would be advises on how to deal with such an encounter. You can fly a small plane near a whale, and no one will complain... but try to fly a small drone 100m away, and suddenly, you'll be shamed for scaring the huge mammal.
I don't think that 'responsibly' is the correct term to use here. Legally, perhaps.<p>The distinction is huge. Consider 'responsible drug use'. Is a 20 year old in a bar being irresponsible because they're in the US and not the UK?<p>(ok, they probably are, but in a different way entirely...)
Wherein the author discovers we have a federal system of government with diffuse responsibilities such that no one group has any clue what the other groups are doing.
So, long story short, run the app and then blame the FAA for a myriad bullshit rules 5 levels deep?<p>In reality perhaps what we really need is a queryable API for state and local laws? I know DC has their primary legal codex as a GitHub repo. Surely they could provide links where a state law or fed law is modified ?<p>With this many laws, and bureaucracy creating laws within laws with no oversight, how can we mere humans be expected to follow said laws?
I don't know, maybe the app is different, but if you go to:<p><a href="https://kittyhawk.io/b4ufly/" rel="nofollow">https://kittyhawk.io/b4ufly/</a><p>with a browser this is pretty clear:<p>>State and Local Drone Rules<p>>B4UFLY shows airspace rules provided by FAA data sources.<p>>B4UFLY does not include local rules which may affect your planned operation – including your ability to land and take off your aircraft from certain areas.
>While the FAA is the sole regulator of the National Airspace System and governs aircraft operations once airborne, entities such as cities, states, parks, and private landowners may regulate your ability to land and take off your aircraft from certain locations. Please make yourself aware of any local rules prior to your planned operation.<p>So, I understand the frustration in not having a definite, single, authoritative source, but the critique about the tool being deceiving appears excessive.
This is for sure going to be unpopular, but folks here need to hear it:<p>The reason for the byzantine complexity about drone regulation isn't that some Big Government is injecting its ham-fisted regulatory appendages into a problem that it doesn't understand.<p>It's that, for the most part, <i>no one wants your drones in the air at all</i>. People don't like these things. They're noisy. They're scary. Their operators tend to be pushy jerks more often than not. They just aren't what a median voter wants to see on a nice sunny afternoon in the park or trail or whatever. And those voters governments, at all levels, are responding to that desire.<p>Basically: drone operators are the mid-life-nerd-crisis version of skate punks. No one wants them hanging around either, and skateboarding regulation is at least as complicated as drone rules.
This is a tricky one; maintaining people's safety/ privacy while giving drone pilots 'freedom' is quite a balance. For instance, in the UK you must maintain a physical line of sight with the drone at all times, this makes flying winged craft virtually pointless.<p>Right now the geo-fencing of where you can fly is very rigid, with no provisions for altitude and distance, this could be improved to include glide-paths near airports for instance. It could also be tiered depending on the pilot's qualifications (similar to scuba diving) and if the drone is fitted with a transponder, or if they have submitted a flight plan. With these, there's no reason a drone pilot can't have similar freedom as a helicopter pilot.<p>I think most of these problems stem from technology being ahead of legislation, as always.
It would be a lot easier if the law clearly spelled out who owns the air, and if there was some way to push back on the FAA's unilateral decision making processes. Below this altitude, you own it. Above this altitude, government owns it. Is it OK for Amazon to make a drone superhighway 10 feet above my house?<p>In our state, even the governor has tried to get the FAA to stop routing jumbo jets so that they're causing noise problems several miles from the airport to no avail. Jets regularly pass by at 2000 feet or so even though the airport is several miles away. They didn't used to do this.<p>When a plane or drone flies over my house at low altitude, can I charge them a toll? How high up do I own? The FAA seems to assume I own nothing at all an inch above my land.
Yeah, it all depends. I certainly don't want people buzzing me with their drone when I'm out enjoying nature with my kids. As a result, when I take my drone out, I am very certain to be far from others, and not to bug them. By default, in our state, drones are not permitted in any state park, however I have flown in a state park in our state by getting permission two times (one told me no the first time, then said ok when I asked if they could make an exception since I'm FAA certified, fly very responsibly, etc).<p>There seems to be a need for an I'm-not-a-douche-bag certification that can be used to make exceptions for folks like myself. I try hard not just to be responsible, but also not be a douche bag with my drone.
It seems like the only solution will be for the FAA to flex it’s regulatory muscle on this, and become the sole authority on where you can fly a drone. Much like the FCC did with small satellite dish prohibitions. <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/installing-consumer-owned-antennas-and-satellite-dishes" rel="nofollow">https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/installing-consumer-own...</a>
> At the absolute minimum, the B4UFLY app should not tell users that they’re “good to go” unless they are flying from an area where drone use is explicitly permitted, like national forests.<p>Even then... I thought I saw a sign asking people not to do that during wildfires so as not to interfere with firefighting operations. Do these things make it into some kind of temporary no-fly zone for drones?
Airmap app has been mentioned here and I use it for every flight. For my area, Sydney, it covers many local regulations as well as the usual air restricted areas such as airports. It also let's you submit flight plans which before available to authorities.<p>It would be great if the no fly zones could be uploaded to the drone itself so it would simply refuse to take off in those areas for instance.
OT: Why don't most quad-copters/toy-drones come with blade protection that also duct* air flow for better thrust?<p>* tighter clearances<p><a href="https://img.eachine.com/eachine/products/original/201707/1499137982_24.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://img.eachine.com/eachine/products/original/201707/149...</a>
Yeah, it'd be fun to have a drone, but not sure there's anywhere in Chicago I can legally fly it. Probably need a "drone park" like we have skate parks...