Overflying Government Land

[Pointyhead]

In the neighborhood where I grew up is an FCC monitoring station. It's a large chunk of land, over 200 acres, that now is located in the middle of many subdivisions. It's fenced, although it's mostly wooden rail. As kids we even built a backstop and played baseball inside the fence.

It's still active, and I doubt they are doing any top secret stuff there now. I found out from a Ham Operator friend that in the 60's they used a satellite to beam an extremely narrow beam back to the site with data collected over the USSR passes. But I digress....

Is it strictly forbidden to fly over federal lands such as this. I know that there are no flight restrictions on any sectional nav charts for the area. Planes fly over it all the time. You can see the whole thing from Google maps.

My brother-in-law has a Phantom 2, but won't go near it. I don't see a problem if you launch from a house next to it and go up a couple hundred feet.

I guess my thought process on this is that it's ok to fly over government lands like parks and ranchlands and such, shouldn't this also be the case?

Note: I will not be the first person to be a test case for it. I may be crazy but I'm not stupid!

 

[Deputy Dog]

In the neighborhood where I grew up is an FCC monitoring station. It's a large chunk of land, over 200 acres, that now is located in the middle of many subdivisions. It's fenced, although it's mostly wooden rail. As kids we even built a backstop and played baseball inside the fence.

It's still active, and I doubt they are doing any top secret stuff there now. I found out from a Ham Operator friend that in the 60's they used a satellite to beam an extremely narrow beam back to the site with data collected over the USSR passes. But I digress....

Is it strictly forbidden to fly over federal lands such as this. I know that there are no flight restrictions on any sectional nav charts for the area. Planes fly over it all the time. You can see the whole thing from Google maps.

My brother-in-law has a Phantom 2, but won't go near it. I don't see a problem if you launch from a house next to it and go up a couple hundred feet.

I guess my thought process on this is that it's ok to fly over government lands like parks and ranchlands and such, shouldn't this also be the case?View attachment 44183

Note: I will not be the first person to be a test case for it. I may be crazy but I'm not stupid!

You say it's fenced, are there any No Trespassing signs? If it's fenced and there are signs and your bird goes down, you'll face arrest for going in and getting it. If no signs and a little wooden fence, fly free, just don't go near their equipment.

 

[LSZ1318]

FAA recommends you not fly over 'sensitive infrastructure'. This probably qualifies but is it an absolute restriction? I doubt it.

What does the FAA app say on the map? Is there any indication of RED?

 

[Pointyhead]

FAA recommends you not fly over 'sensitive infrastructure'. This probably qualifies but is it an absolute restriction? I doubt it.

What does the FAA app say on the map? Is there any indication of RED?

Not a thing. Closest runway is over 10 miles away with Dobbins ARB.

 

[Pointyhead]

I guess I'm still fascinated with it because a buddy I spent a lot of time with lived right next to it, and we'd spend hours looking at the buildings through binoculars and playing ball on our homemade field inside the fence. I see via Google street view that they now have a 4 foot high black or brown chain fence around it now.

 

[LSZ1318]

Nice. Reminds me of the famed Number Stations!

The spooky world of the 'numbers stations' - BBC News

Numbers station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would absolutely positively fly your Phantom over there and check it out. How could you not?? LOL.

 

[LSZ1318]

Capture1JPG

• LSZ1318
• Feb 18, 2016

I found it on Google. Very creepy how there's this huge circle (seen in your shot as well) that appears to have rocks or something circling it every 15' or so! haha. Very cool.

 

[Pointyhead]

Capture1JPG

• LSZ1318
• Feb 18, 2016

I found it on Google. Very creepy how there's this huge circle (seen in your shot as well) that appears to have rocks or something circling it every 15' or so! haha. Very cool.

Apparently, they have some sort of testing station there, it occasionally changes. And when we played there back in the 60s sometimes there would be all kinds of lights on the field at night, and if an animal like a deer would run across, the lights would all go out. Very X Files.

 

[LSZ1318]

I cannot imagine what that would be - unless there's some sort of large dish buried just a ways beneath the soil?? haha. Maybe they are creating some sort of field and then placing objects in the center? When you search Google for FCC ground station, in the image results you get a ton of drone shots. !!