What would you have done?

[Hovtech]

Came to Boston with my bird. Yesterday with nephew went to a park that looked down over Boston from Jamaica Plain. FOV went for miles, all downhill. Made great videos. Today went to the Westin by the bay. Walked down to the bay to look if I could fly from end of one of the piers. Saw cop on a bike and asked him if it would be a problem. As usual this is the first time someone asked him. He said " Well first of all the airport is right there (other side of bay). So that's a problem and I guarantee someone will come over to you and ask you what you are doing, but as far as I know it is not illegal, but I would call my desk and ask before I talked to you, because I'm not sure. Besides you don't want to lose your drone in the bay do you?". So I thought long and hard about it and decided not to. What would you have done? The harbor is not on the flight path of the jets, but it is right there. Would have made a great video.

 

[N017RW]

Listening to your 'gut' was the best decision you could make regardless.

Under 400ft is legal if you are at least 3 miles away from airport.

If you have the latest firmware it would not have allowed you to fly if you were too close.

 

[dragonash]

If you can SEE the airport with your eyes, you are too close.

Thats my rule of thumb.

 

[Hovtech]

If you can SEE the airport with your eyes, you are too close.

Thats my rule of thumb.

That's a good rule,sigh, I really wanted to fly around the harbor, but we are the ambassadors of the drone's future and I don't want to give us a bad reputation.

 

[skyhighdiver]

Listening to your 'gut' was the best decision you could make regardless.

Under 400ft is legal if you are at least 3 miles away from airport.

If you have the latest firmware it would not have allowed you to fly if you were too close.

this may have been the right choice but the response by no17rw is not true or correct
it is legal to fly anywhere !
it is recommended not to fly above 400ft or within 3 miles of an airport but if you wish you may.



ADVISORY
AC 91-57
DATE June 9, 1981
CIRCULAR
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Washington, D.C.
Subject: MODEL AIRCRAFT OPERATING STANDARDS L
1. PURPOSE. This advisory circular outlines, and encourages voluntary
compliance with, safety standards for model aircraft operators.
2. BACKGROUND. Modelers, generally, are concerned about safety and do exercise
good judgement when flying model aircraft. However, model.aircraft can
at times pose a hazard to full-scale aircraft in flight and to personsand
property on the surface. Compliance with the following standards will help
reduce the potential for that hazard and create a good neighbor environment
with affected communities and airspace users.
3 0 OPERATING STANDARDS.
a. Select an operating site that is of sufficient distance from populated
areas. The selected site should be away from noise sensitive areas such as
parks, schools, hospitals, churches, etc.
b. Do not operate model aircraft in the presence of spectators until the
aircraft is successfully flight tested and proven airworthy.
CO Do not fly model aircraft higher than 400 feet above the surface.
When flying aircraft within 3 miles of an airport, notify the airport operator,
or when an air traffic facility is located at the airport, notify the control
tower, or flight service station.
d. Give right of way to, and avoid flying in the proximity of, full-scale
aircraft. Use observers to help if possible.

 

[kgarrison]

You can quote that advisory all day long but there are still laws that saw you can't fly some places. Go buzz your Phantom around LAX and see how quick you are locked up. Most major airports have local ordinances to protect their airspace. Even a police helicopter in pursuit cannot violate a major airport's flight paths. So no, it is absolutely NOT true that "you can legally fly anywhere". There are lots of protected airspaces around the country and only a small fraction are included in the current firmware.

 

[SilentAV8R]

Not sure what "bird" you have, but if it has the latest firmware with the flight limits on it you would have been right on the edge of the No Fly zone around Logan. Even if you were outside that you would be very limited on altitude along the waterfront. Most of the bay itself is inside the No Fly zone.

Regardless, I think you made the right choice. I was recently in San Francisco and I had my P2V+ with me and really wanted to fly some in the city but decided the risk of and incident or undue attention was just not worth it.

As far as altitude limits in the law, there are none really. AC 91-57 is entirely voluntary and says 400 feet. I tend not to fly above 400 feet in any case since it gets difficult to keep track of what's going on for me.

The comment about police helicopters not being able to fly across LAX is incorrect. I live here and work around LAX a lot. They do it all the time. They simply call the tower, request a clearance, and away they go. That is the key difference for us. We have no means to communicate and coordinate our flights, hence we need to use greater care about where and how we fly if we want to minimize the chances of becoming one of the "examples" of poor decision making.

 

[jw190d9]

As a pilot I think people often misunderstand what an Advisory Circular (AC) is. An AC a way, but not the only way, to comply with regulations. By complying with the AC, completely and totally, you can be assured that you are operating within the regs. Just because you are not following the AC guidance doesn't mean you aren't complying with the regs. But then you as the operator are expected to meet the regulations.

 

[phantomguy]

Listening to your 'gut' was the best decision you could make regardless.

Under 400ft is legal if you are at least 3 miles away from airport.

If you have the latest firmware it would not have allowed you to fly if you were too close.

this may have been the right choice but the response by no17rw is not true or correct
it is legal to fly anywhere !

Go fly over the White House, Capital, or over CIA Headquarters. See how "legal" that works out for you. :lol:

 

[SilentAV8R]

Listening to your 'gut' was the best decision you could make regardless.

Under 400ft is legal if you are at least 3 miles away from airport.

If you have the latest firmware it would not have allowed you to fly if you were too close.

this may have been the right choice but the response by no17rw is not true or correct
it is legal to fly anywhere !

Go fly over the White House, Capital, or over CIA Headquarters. See how "legal" that works out for you. :lol:

Given that the entire DC area is under a TFR that restricts almost all non-military and non-scheduled airline flying that point is more or less moot.