Flying over Federal Land

[AgentOrange2015]

On Sunday the federal fire fighters were able to put out a small wild fire that had broken out on Corps of Engineers Property that surrounds a lake not far from my home. I could see the smoke coming up through the pine trees and thankfully the wind was blowing away from where most folks live. There were no helicopters or any type of aircraft involved in this fire fighting operation.

I drove over and found the rallying point for all the equipment, which they were in the process of loading up so they could leave. I began talking to a woman fire fighter as she seemed to be the one in charge and I told her I was wanting to put my drone up to get a birds eye view of the burnt property. She was nice and of course gave me the ole thing about not flying over federal property, about flying with helicopters and planes, all of which I agreed with and told her that I would not fly if they were present, but she did agree with me that drone such as mine and I showed her, would be far less expensive to put in the air instead of a helicopter for observation purposes. She was glad to see that I held a FAA License, not that it would make any difference in flying over fed property.

Basically, I almost got into debating with her that the property we were standing on, was in actuality, state property and that the federal government owns no property, they manage it, supposedly, for the general public and citizens of the United States. I am a firm believer in States Rights if you can not tell from this writing.

Anyway, I could not have flown, I had forgot to bring a set of props with me, but if I really wanted to, could have taken off from private property and very easily flown over the rallying point and burned out area after going home and grabbing a set of props.

All in all, I hopefully left the young lady with a Positive Outlook about Drone Pilots, which I am sure will be passed along to her higher ups.

 

[Sinisalo]

Good job giving a good first impression of a drone operator. Hopefully she will pass it on to her higher ups like you said.

 

[Quadcopterpilot]

I could be wrong but I believe that 2 of the main no fly rules are:
1. Over airports
2. Over forest fires

I also now have a checklist for before I leave the house as I've forgotten the SD Card and the tablet cable in the past.

 

[Sagebrush]

When you say an "FAA License" what are you talking about? Is that your registration?

"I almost got into debating with her ... that the federal government owns no property"

Uh-huh.

S

 

[ianwood]

A couple of points:

1. This post has been moved to the General section as it has nothing to do with the P3. Please post in the correct areas.
2. As mentioned, unless you are a certificated pilot, you likely have an FAA registration for your drone. Not a license.
3. Regardless of who owns the property, DO NOT fly near fires! EVER! Unless you are part of the coordinated emergency response and are given explicit permission to fly, you're grounded. Lives and properties are at stake. End of story.

Drones impede air battle against California wildfires. ‘If you fly we can’t,’ pleads firefighter

 

[AgentOrange2015]

A couple of points:

1. This post has been moved to the General section as it has nothing to do with the P3. Please post in the correct areas.
2. As mentioned, unless you are a certificated pilot, you likely have an FAA registration for your drone. Not a license.
3. Regardless of who owns the property, DO NOT fly near fires! EVER! Unless you are part of the coordinated emergency response and are given explicit permission to fly, you're grounded. Lives and properties are at stake. End of story.

Drones impede air battle against California wildfires. ‘If you fly we can’t,’ pleads firefighter

What part of clean up operations don't you understand. They were in the middle of leaving when I showed up. Nobody was fighting any fire, that was finished. I should have also said that I asked permission and when told no, I did not argue the point. The Federal Government owns no property in any state, they only manage and take care of property on the behalf of the people of this country. If you look at a map of the state of Arkansas and look at all the property under federal control it is ridiculous in my opinion. The very next day, the federal boys and girls showed up and did a controlled burn on hundreds of acres just over the ridge from the wildfire. The smoke was extremely heavy and always is when they do these burns and they do them all over the state. If you have never seen a CLEAR CUT where once a huge forest of pines once stood, it makes you sick to see the loss of animal and wildlife habitat. When these huge tracts of pines are harvested, where do you think the money goes. Try the Department of the Interior, it makes huge amounts of money every year from having federal land logged out.

The card I showed the young lady fire fighter was my Registration and not a License, so I apologize for posting that error. But she was happy to see that I was registered and that was in compliance in all ways.