So I attempted to contact the local air fields and...

[Bob N]

Yesterday was my first Phantom 3 A flight. I'm registered and knew I needed to contact two local air fields because I'm within 5 miles of their locations. I contacted one air field and left a voice message of my intentions of taking off and left my phone number. The second field the phone number has been disconnected. I guess I will be sending them a letter.

The other thing I did was join the Flight Service website and post a notice that for the next year I would be flying from sun up to sunset.

Today I received a call from the first air field operator and he invited me to FLY from his airfield. It's a grass strip "in the country".

What do you all think? Bad idea. The more I think of it, I think it is a bad idea. One thing to notify air fields, quite another to fly from them.

 

[WetDog]

Yeah, I can't imagine why the guy wants you to do that unless to drum up business. I thought the idea was we stayed away from manned aircraft.

Maybe he thought you were an Amazon representative?

 

[QuadBart]

I think I would go fly there as a "good will" gesture.

 

[Crawdaddyjc]

I think that some of these strip and helipad operators are curious. They probably never received phone calls in regards to their airspace and now they are. I would go there for sure. Show them all the cool stuff with the quad. It cant hurt having these guys on our side. Anything positive is a win. Maybe take someone with you for safeties sake.

I have a grass strip and a helipad near me. One of them i call and it just rings and rings. The helipad guy is cool. He always says have fun. Today i called him before my flight and he was at a golf tournament in florida and he said enjoy the clear skies!

Go for it and have fun!

 

[Gary M]

I called a local "airfield" as well to announce my intentions. This guy's airfield rarely ever actually gets used. In fact many grass strip airfields are not in heavy use. Remember, this is usually just some pilot who happens to have enough room to put a little airstrip on his land for his own use. MAYBE another pilot buddy of his may stop in to say hi, but this is nothing like O'Hare by any stretch. If he says come fly from his airport, go for it. I agree with other posters that it may help in the "drone relationship" thing. But I really wouldn't worry about other air traffic in this case. That airport is his domain and he knows the turf and how to run it safely. He won't want the liability of something happening for something unsafe. If he says its safe to fly from there I think you can take his word on that.

 

[normr]

Where do you live?


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[normr]

You can go to this link on the aopa site and get airport info

AOPA Airports is an online database of thousands of public- and private-use airports. Airport listings include airport diagrams, fuel prices, and more.


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[Donnie73]

I used to fly all the time fixed wing planes from a small private airstrip. Best flying I ever had. I would hear a plane come in and would land. Some pilots used to say " why did you land I was having fun following you" lol But that was in the 1990's though

 

[TWP723]

Sounds like he's more curious than anything else. Go fly there...I would.

 

[BigAl07]

Take this opportunity to be an ambassador for our industry and shed some GOOD light on us.

 

[TWP723]

Take this opportunity to be an ambassador for our industry and shed some GOOD light on us.

Yeah!! Just don't crash into anything!

 

[Skywalker]

When I called our municipal airport to notify them, I gave them all the info about where and when, etc., he was asking about my drone. I ended up going to the airport and we flew from the parking lot. We had a great hour or so session.

 

[Choad McDaniel]

There is a grass runway airport near me. The local RC club flys there 1 day a week. probably a pretty common arrangement. I also have another RC field I can see from my house. May try talking to them sometime.

 

[Richard Walker]

Contact your local POC for FAA. Almost all heliports are in class G airspace unless they are within the airspace of a higher class airport like a B or C or D, etc. I am told by the POC in my area that you can fly your radio controlled craft in class G airspace up to 400 feet and don't need to contact the parties at that heliport or non towered small airports. Glass G is actually 700 feet but 400 feet is the AMA limit and also the guideline of the FAA regs for UAS.

You are wise to use the information regarding the small airports and helipads to keep a close eye on traffic and avoid it at all costs.

Don't just take my word for it. Contact your local point of contact for FAA.


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[Bob N]

Where do you live?


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Tallahassee, FL

 

[normr]

Tallahassee, FL

Here is what comes up for Tallahassee, which one are you near? Just go to the AOPA (Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association) site here and use it to find out the info you need to contact the tower: AOPA Airports is an online database of thousands of public- and private-use airports. Airport listings include airport diagrams, fuel prices, and more.

 

[Bob N]

Here is what comes up for Tallahassee, which one are you near? Just go to the AOPA (Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association) site here and use it to find out the info you need to contact the tower: AOPA Airports is an online database of thousands of public- and private-use airports. Airport listings include airport diagrams, fuel prices, and more.

Thanks Normr. The B4UFLY app has the fields listed but it is not useful to the UAV operator because it doesn't have contact information. I googled the two airfields within 5 miles of me. And I knew about the third which will come into play if I launch from the airfield that invited me. AOPA had the same contact information that I found. Same dead phone number for the one field ' Angel's Field. But it has a different alternate phone number that I haven't tried yet so that's a plus. The rest of the info match. I bookmarked the site for future reference. Thanks again!