I was surprised to learn that ALL sites administered by the National Park Service are no fly zones. Here is a page from San Antonio Mission:
https://www.nps.gov/saan/learn/management/drones.htm
you can still fly over the land? doesn't that defeat the purpose of the no fly zone? in the newspaper article Tallgrass didn't want drones because of privacy issues and because they don't want drones to start a stampede with the bison and cause them to hurt someone.They are no-fly zones in the sense that you cannot launch from them. They do not have jurisdication over the airspace above their land.
you can still fly over the land? doesn't that defeat the purpose of the no fly zone? in the newspaper article Tallgrass didn't want drones because of privacy issues and because they don't want drones to start a stampede with the bison and cause them to hurt someone.
That's for sure. if someone is offsite flying over they may not know where the pilot is but if people can fly from their land it would be easier for them to keep an eye on the pilot if something is going wrong. it would be better to have contact with the pilot then not.It somewhat defeats what NPS is trying to achieve, certainly, but, since they don't have the required jurisdiction to achieve that there is nothing that they can do about it.
The big surprise for me is that all 400 plus National Park Sites are off limits currently. This includes National Parks, National Recreation Areas, National Monuments, Historic Sites, etc. I also know that many Park Rangers very anti drone use. They don't care where you launch or operate your UAV. I specifically bought my Phantom to photograph scenics over park areas.They are no-fly zones in the sense that you cannot launch from them. They do not have jurisdication over the airspace above their land.
The big surprise for me is that all 400 plus National Park Sites are off limits currently. This includes National Parks, National Recreation Areas, National Monuments, Historic Sites, etc. I also know that many Park Rangers very anti drone use. They don't care where you launch or operate your UAV. I specifically bought my Phantom to photograph scenics over park areas.
It is a shame there can't be exceptions to the rule like they have in Yosemite for hang glider pilots.
question is will the drone have enough range (signal) to reach important areas at the parks when flying from outside the parks?While they may not care where you operate from, if you are outside the Park then you are outside their jurisdiction. If they still attempt to intervene then they are exceeding their authority and, potentially, breaking laws themselves.
question is will the drone have enough range (signal) to reach important areas at the parks when flying from outside the parks?