Where to fly drones
How to fly a drone Anywhere | Where to fly a drone legally Step by Step Tutorial
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if you're watching this video whether
you're an experienced pilot or new to
the industry you probably realize by now
that there's more to flying your drool
legally than looking at the FAA
guidelines setting up in a parking lot
and taking off into the sky what about
state regulations is there any
restricted airspace around what about
local ordinances are the local police
going to show up park ranger well in
this video I'm actually going to go
through a real-world experience one I
wanted to go on vacation in an area that
I never flew in before I'm gonna go step
by step on how I researched how I got my
answers so I was fairly confident that I
was going to be able to fly legally once
I got there and I knew what footage I
was gonna be looking for once I showed
up now if you came here for an easy
answer this is what you have to do ABC
two minutes and you're done
sorry you're probably not gonna like the
answer
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hi this is Keith with daily injure
thanks for stopping by the channel I
always appreciate it's good to see you
so if you're new to the channel I do
mostly drone tech photography tips and
tutorials and new product reviews
related to drones in photography mostly
so if this is something that might
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available that may be of interest to you
so as I mentioned in this video I'm
going to go through my experience and
actually finding out how to fly my drone
legally now there is again as I
mentioned more to it than simply
following the FAA guidelines looking on
air map or looking on before you fly and
finding out if there is a restricted
airspace with regard to what the FAA
says there's a lot of local regulations
different states different
municipalities have different rules and
regulations on drones and you might find
that you think you're in good shape and
the police are actually going to show up
so believe it or not local police and
Park Rangers for instance have the
authority to actually give you a ticket
for doing something wrong and not only
can they give you a local ticket they
actually are in cooperation with the FAA
to refer incidents which they figure are
beyond their jurisdiction but might fall
into the FAA stirrers diction for
further prosecution at a federal level
so this is important stuff and what I'm
going to do is go through an experience
that I had and how this started was I
was going to take a few weeks and go to
California I love to surf love to get
out and I wanted to go to a new place
and fly the Mavic I'm gonna run through
the steps that I took and show how
things unfold it as I sequentially went
through the different things so first of
course when you start looking at where
you're gonna fly your drone the FAA and
that the federal guidelines are actually
going to be one of the most important
factors if you can't fly because of a
federal rule or an FAA guideline or a
restriction you're pretty much done that
is going to be the top level of the
authority then we're going to run
through some actual state laws and they
are going to vary and then I'm actually
going to peck into the local ordinances
a little bit so let's
with the FAA so I was going to
California gonna run to San Clemente
California and first I wanted to find
out if there was any restricted airspace
that I really needed to worry about air
bunk an open air map however you can use
any of the FAA authorized type
applications whether it's before you fly
things like that so first I'm gonna
actually go to San Clemente which is
where I was going to be going and here
we are okay so first things first we're
gonna find out if there's any major FAA
restrictions which are going to prevent
us from actually flying there so right
away we noticed that just south of San
Clemente there's going to be a huge area
of which is going to be completely
restricted and we have a military base
camp Pendelton which is just going to be
the South San Diego area so we know
we're gonna have to stay north of this
area so this is for the FAA so this is
going to be a controlled airspace so
let's zoom in on this just a little bit
here so I know for instance we're gonna
be up a little farther north so it looks
like according to the FAA here we're
okay with having controlled airspace
where I actually want to take off so the
reason I know I do see this peer
standing out here and I know if I want
to fly this pier and see what's actually
going on there so as we're zoomed in on
this area we notice that there's no
advisories now so one thing we do have
to be careful of if a local temporary
flight restriction comes up from whether
a fighter or responder for some
emergency we have to make sure that if
things change we don't just plot in
there blindly so I would suggest right
before you're good and ready to fly
you would check to make sure no
temporary flight restrictions have
popped up our FAA rules and regulations
are out of the way this is where a lot
of people stop and they actually start
flying now we may be okay but we may
have a local regulation so once we
looked at air map and we found that
there's nothing in the airspace we know
that we fundamentally can't fly in that
airspace however we still have to follow
the FAA rules and of course that video
is up here and actually what the
specific FAA rules are and I'm not going
to go through them in this video again
take some time just go through that
video
we'll go through the FAA rules that you
have to follow while you're navigating
the airspace now one thing that really
helped us from the FAA is a government
regulation that was reaffirmed in 2018
by the Trump administration where they
actually said that the FAA has the
exclusive authority to regulate aviation
safety and efficiency of the navigable
airspace now why this is important is
because up to this point local
municipalities started passing their own
laws with regard to airspace but this
means is you might not be able to fly
over an airspace by your neighbor by a
city building by a parking lot by a
city-owned restroom and you would have
no idea in the airspace you would have
you would have no way to identify what
those specifics are because everybody
would have their own ordinances from
County to County from city to city from
district to district and you could be
flying through the air and realize
you're going in and out of some
controlled airspace not from the FAA but
from a local ordinance so the Congress
actually stated that the FAA has
exclusive rights to the airspace which
is awesome because that lets us know if
we are following the FAA guidelines and
the rules and regulations that are put
forth by the FAA we know that in the
airspace we are good to fly now that's
really really a good thing however that
does not regulate where you can take off
land and operate the controls for flying
your drone so what we're going to be
doing now is now we know we have the
airspace cover because we did look up on
the air map that we're OK in this
airspace however let's now get into
where we can actually take off and land
so let's go to the next step so I
started looking for state laws in
California that would apply to drones so
the first thing I came across is the
unmanned aircraft system in state parks
document from the California Department
of Parks and Recreation
so as I browse through this I looked and
it said specifically drones are
currently allowed in state park state
beaches state historic parks and you can
read the rest but boy it is actually
allowed so I was really excited
no worries about state parks can take
right off from those and no hassles
there so no problems from the Park
Rangers I can take off I have this
document and that's one thing I would do
is keep this document in your possession
while you're flying in case somebody
comes up to you again if you're having
to argue with the police you're probably
going to lose regardless if it's on your
side or not
don't argue with that however at least
it gives you peace of mind you tried to
do the due diligence right so the next
thing I looked as I saw well it does
talk about wilderness areas natural
preserves and cultural preserves which
is fair enough however then there was
this little note here that talks about
checking with your local district before
operating it may have its own posted
orders so if the state parks are legal
to fly in except each state park may do
its own regulation I have to look even
closer and drill down into the San
Clemente area and find out where the
state parks are in that area that I may
be taking off from and find out what
those regulations are so digging a
little deeper I found that along this
coast in California it's actually called
the Orange Coast district so I did find
a document that talks about the state
parks in the Orange Coast districts
specifically so this one now you can
tell is a little more anti-drone so what
they've said here is UAVs are an
emergent technology that can have a
negative impact right away we know we're
in trouble right when they start the
paragraph by saying all drones are bad
news they have a negative impact we know
it's not gonna be good so it has a
negative impact on Park resources Public
Safety and generally inconsistent with
the park experience I bet these guys had
the same problem with the horseless
carriage just sayin due to the dramatic
growth and popularity of model aircraft
in the US with the Orange Coast District
and the Resource Public Safety blah blah
blah the restrictions are as follows no
person cell launce
land or operate a model aircraft within
any park unique Orange Coast District
boss at Chico State Beach Huntington
State Beach Corona del Mar State Beach
Crystal Cove the Haney State Beach San
Clemente State Beach Oh Oh San Clemente
sounds like something that may affect us
here exceptions to this directive may
include but are not limited to
commercial scientific other exempting oh
geez so so this is seven of 2019 so this
is only a couple months before I'm gonna
be in the area not good so now I see we
have to look at San Clemente State Beach
words the start where's the stop because
we can't take off or land in these areas
so let's pull that up so to do this
we're gonna actually pull up Google
Earth which is really cool if you
haven't used Google Earth give that a
try it is really pretty cool so sure
enough here we are San Clemente State
Park and here we go I'm going to zoom in
this even a little more see if we can
find that pier that I want to fly and
sure enough right here is the pier here
is San Clemente State Beach so you can
see the State Beach and maybe it's a
little harder to see in this particular
view here but there's the pier that I
wanted to take off in and here is the
state beach here and if we go up the way
here here is some more area here that
we're gonna have to stay out of this is
going to be Tehama State Beach if I'm
saying that wrong please let me know but
for the purposes of this discussion we
realized that we're gonna have a problem
taking off and landing there again for
now flying in that airspace is okay but
just taking off and landing it's gonna
be restricted so we have to make sure we
don't pile it too drunk from there so
here we are so we're in really good
shape here as well so we've dug in dug
in look at that so if I'm down here by
this pier
you know what State Park isn't there I'm
just gonna plop my butt right here on
this pier and I'm gonna sit right at the
base of this pic as look and we don't
have any FAA regulations on our way
airspace is open we don't have any State
Park issues in our way so we've got the
federal and the state out of the way so
there should be nothing preventing me
from actually flying this pier but we
haven't searched our local regulations
yet so let's go search the local
regulations from San Clemente and see if
there's anything that I need to worry
about from a look
remember the police can still give us a
ticket up to thousands of dollars in
fines and jail time so we want to make
sure that we respect the local
ordinances as well even though they
can't legally restrict the air space
they can restrict the takeoff and
landing so I actually went to the San
Clemente website and they did say they
had an issue with some drones in certain
areas of course I don't know where that
is
give some of the rules and regulations
that are going to be required so I
started going through these regulations
and you can see these are ordinance
numbers here and I got down and talked
about a visual line of sight and 25 feet
in for another individual seems fair no
problem there and then I got to see no
person shall take off land or operate a
UA on or over private property without
the written or electronic consent of the
property owner if the property owner is
a person other than the UA operator when
the consent to up or UA is required to
take off land or operate a UA on or over
private property UA
operators must have in their possession
a copy of the written or electronic
consent from the owner of the property
properties over which they take off land
or operate a UA no way this is not cool
I know that the city of San Clemente
cannot have an ordinance that prevents
me from flying over private property
Congress has provided the FAA with
exclusive authority cities and
municipalities are not permitted to have
their own rules or regulations governing
the operation of an aircraft so that is
not true
FAA can only do this now I was concerned
about it maybe I was misunderstanding
something and there was some uniqueness
to this area so I contacted the FAA
directly so I'll show you the email that
I actually sent to the FAA to clarify
this matter and it says I'm planning to
pilot a UAV in the near future in the
area California and researching the
local ordinance the city it states and I
took this directly from the San Clemente
ordinance no person shall take off land
or operate you a on or over private
property without the written or
electronic consent of the property owner
I continue by saying the way I
understand you
in law humans municipality cannot
restrict the airspace by stating that no
person may operate over private property
I am part 107 I understand taking off or
landing however I'm confused that the
municipality can regulate airspace can
you clarify so quickly I did receive a
response from the FAA and it said key
thank you for contacting us you are
correct local municipalities can
regulate the launch landing recovery and
manipulation of the controls on the
ground so the requirement of taining
property owner consent to take off land
or operate on private property is valid
however quote the require owner consent
to operate a UA over private property
part is beyond the scope of the
authority airspace is considered public
use and it's exclusively regulated by
the FAA if you have any further
questions please let us know so I was
correct now this being said even though
the municipality cannot regulate the
airspace I contacted them again and I
talked to a gentleman actually at the
city and said how can you regulate the
airspace according to the FAA you cannot
do that and their response was we are
not attempting to regulate the airspace
but you cannot operate the controls over
private property not fly your UAV but
operate the controls so they said on or
over and the way I take this is they're
trying to be purposely deceitful so when
somebody looks into flying your drone in
San Clemente they will scare you from
doing it that you cannot fly over
private property so I believe it's
probably purposely deceitful just to try
to keep people from launching because
they're too scared because it says you
can't fly over our private property they
must know what they're doing I don't
want to have a problem at the local
police but that is not the case they
said it is only operating the controls
over so don't lean over the private
property when you're operating the
controls with the remote and you'll be
fine so since we know now that San
Clemente does have some areas which they
will not allow you to operate your
remote we do have to find out what those
are to make sure that when you pull up
in a parking lot or along a road that
we're not standing in an area which
going to actually send the local police
and give us a ticket we don't want to
have that so I contacted the city for
specific information and they did send
me a few documents and directed me
towards a website which has some of this
information so here's one of the
documents that they sent me and they
said these are the areas where you
cannot they said operate you know
flyzone areas of course now take off
land or operate is not true we know that
but operating the controls taking off or
land is valid so we can certainly fly by
most of these with exceptions of prisons
and such however these are some areas
will be certain you don't want to pull
in a parking lot and take off because
we're gonna have an issue it is specific
to their ordinance so the ones that were
close to where we're going to be taking
off or down here you're talking about
Linda Lane talking these restrooms in
here base of the pier pier restrooms
this is all the pier that we were
talking about taking off from and this
is an actual map of where they
restricted the operation of the controls
in the cell San Clemente area so again
we want to be focusing on the pier area
because that's where we decided we're
going to fly so here we are and here's
the pier going out into the water and
look at that they did restrict by local
ordinance that we cannot take off or
land from this area they have a 500 foot
buffer around these so 250 foot radius
500 foot diameter we were thinking about
taking off the pier no can do we know we
have a state park right down in this
area we can't take off from there
however I want to fly this pier don't
know why it's just something sticking
out in the water but I wanted people to
do it and I want to do it legally
so looks to me if we go down here far
enough down pass these Linda Lane here
looks like we can probably fly from
there keep our visual line of sight and
fly down to this pier and in the ocean
along there and then up up the beach as
well so if we go into our friend Google
Earth again and we look at where we are
here's the pier this I know is the
building and there is a pure restroom of
another building in here this is the
Linda Lane and
that we just saw in this other map here
so if we were a dirt down in this area I
think we can take off and actually get
down to this pier so that's exactly what
I did when I got to the area we drove up
actually figured out where we were and
boy look at that we came right in here
this is white this guy wasn't there by
the way
however we weren't right down in here
went down in the corner went down a
little ways here so we knew we were far
enough away from the ordinance area that
Brewster cured us and look at that
there's the pier we can still keep on
UAV within a visual line of sight go up
along the tracks here really nice so not
only can we fight the fly the beach here
maybe get some footage of some of the
surfers that are along the beach all
along the pier so according to the FAA
we're good controlled airspace we're
good local ordinances we're good for
taking off and landing we are good to go
so we have a spot and we're actually
going to be able to take off from here
legally now does that mean that
somebody's still not gonna come and
harass you and say that you can't fly
here it's possible but you will have
done your research you will have done
your due diligence so you will be as
confident as you can yes I have done my
due diligence I've done my homework to
try to do that best I can will it be
perfect not necessarily so but you know
you've went through the federal
guidelines we've checked for controlled
airspace we've checked for temporary
flight restrictions on air map we've
checked for our state regulations with
the state parks where we can and cannot
take off and worthy boundaries are we've
checked the local ordinances and
regulations of where we can control our
remote from where we can take off and
land and of course while we're doing
this we are going to follow the FAA
regulations and rules that keep us and
everybody around us safe we're gonna
still not fly above the 400 feet we're
not gonna fly over people we're not
gonna harass any wildlife of course all
the things that we normally would do as
a responsible drone owner that is how I
would approach anywhere that you're
unfamiliar with even if you're familiar
with it even if it's a home area start
with your federal your FAA
controlled airspace then go to your
state level then go to your local level
do your research
contact the county personnel contact
your state parks if you're not sure
contact national parks if you're not
sure and even if you're on the ground
and you see somebody walk up introduce
yourself you are a responsible drone
pilot and just say hey I plan on taking
some footage over here you know just
making sure you don't have any problems
with that I'd be happy to take your
suggestions if you have maybe you want
to stay over in this area because people
walk what have you you always just want
to be a good neighbor when you're flying
your drone is well you don't want to be
that drone guy that ends up on a
national news right so that's all I have
for you today I hope it was useful to
you and you found some interesting
information that you didn't have before
you watch the video and if so consider
hitting the like button I always
appreciate it lets me know that
something that I was doing was useful to
you with that I do want your comments
let me know down below have you had any
areas where you've had hassles or you've
done your research and somebody has
still given you a hard time or did this
was this useful to you well have you
done your own research and found
something similar I just want to know
well let's start a conversation for the
community so that we can all learn from
it so comment below I always do
appreciate that and if you have any
questions of course let me know those as
well I'll be happy to answer them if I
can hey you're still here that's awesome
since you're still here I'm gonna give
you one piece of advice that was given
to me a while ago by a fellow drone user
and that advice is fly it like you stole
it now while this is not a
recommendation to be a wild man when you
fly your drone it does have some
validity now hear me out
so what this fly it like you stole it
mentality means is when you're ready to
fly an area get some great footage
whatever you're going to do research
that area figure out what you're gonna
do first without your drone and when you
show up make sure your batteries are
charged all your equipment is ready you
unpack you go to a little bit less
populated area take that drone out do
what you've got to do exhaust a couple
of batteries get your footage and move
on if you're going to need to get some
more batteries charged up don't sit
there and
middle of everybody and be a spectacle
take your battery someplace else charge
them up in your car whatever and don't
sit in the same area for six hours
fiddling with your drone because there
is going to be somebody that's going to
be a jerk they're out there they're
gonna say you know what I don't like
drones are noisy you're spying on me
they're gonna hurt me whatever there is
people that don't like anything if you
give me one hobby I don't care what it
is somebody's gonna say they don't like
it for some reason and just try to make
your life hell so it's not worth it
so flying it like you stole it really is
good advice in that you go in you get
what you need to you get out so that you
just avoid some conflict that is likely
going to happen at some point in time
while you're flying your drone so with
that I do appreciate you being here this
long and until next time good flying
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