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Comment by dmitrygr | Hacker News Reader

The law states that FAA owns airspace and that flying within 5nm of towered airport without contacting tower is illegal. Simple.

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I checked, and that means it's basically illegal to fly a drone in the bay area: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DB54FczUQAEQ5D6.jpg:large

That is correct except for places like pacifica

It's not just the Bay Area. The restrictions and FAA guidelines are written in a way that prohibits almost all recreational flying in urban areas. I don't think I've seen a single widely-shared drone video that wasn't afoul of the law.

Depending on your definition of widely-shared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP9KY3lNeBc

.. without notifying the airport, yes. You can fly within 5 miles if you give them notice (it can be a voicemail/email).

Not quite. You can fly below 400 feet AGL as long as you stay out of the immediate part of the class B,c,d airspace that touches the ground. While a lot of the bay is regulated airspace, there is plenty of area below 400feet that is not within he class b/c/d. SFO is class B, but most of the others are class C and do not extend quite so far.

As for notices, if you are working near airports with drones commercially, filing a NOTAM is a good idea. If you are Within the airspace, you will need to get permission from the control tower, which requires advanced filing. (Up to 90 days ahead of time). Calling the local tower/airport as a hobbyist is a bad idea. Instead, just fly somewhere else, and NEVER fly above 400 feet or within regulated airspace.

Note that apps like AirMap can help figure this stuff out, however, there are a lot of helipads in the city that make things problematic. Some of which are not actually still there, but which were never removed from the FAA records. However, the UCSF medical center is one which is active. Also, IME tourist/ sightseeing helicopters regularly fly too low in the bay. If a drone causes an accident, even if the pilot of the helicopter is flying illegally low I doubt anyone would side with the drone operator.

Finally, even as a hobbyist, it is worth getting verifly if you are flying in busy areas. Being able to buy spot insurance for flights is great if you are flying somewhere unfamiliar, or testing a new drone.

> Calling the local tower/airport as a hobbyist is a bad idea.

Yet, that is what the FAA says to do.

Friends in the local flying club are really trying to obey all the rules, and call the tower because they are ~4 miles away from the airport. At first, the people at the local tower were just annoyed by the phone calls and would say, "I don't care if you're flying a toy 4 miles away. Why are you calling?" Now that the new rules are more known, the person who answers is very quick and courteous, "Where are you? Stay under 400, have fun."

They can get a letter of agreement from the tower that says they don't have to call every time. Then they can be legal without annoying ATC.

You are talking about part 107 operations. I was talking about part 101. You can fly in any airspace (because as a hobbyist you're not expected to know airspaces). But you must notify airports within 5 miles, which has nothing to do with airspace.

> Calling the local tower/airport as a hobbyist is a bad idea.

Please do the spread misinformation like that. You can be perfectly safe if you follow the rules even within the 5 mile radius.

Apologies. My mistake. At multiple time during part 107 training they told us not to bug ATC. I didn't realize that the hobbyist restrictions indicated differently.

Ah, I'm sorry for the tone in my comment.

Btw even as 107 certified, you can still always opt to operate a flight as a hobbyist, as long as you meet the 101 criteria (non-commercial, LOS, etc.)

I don't see a legend. What do the areas with diagonal lines mean?

Yes but I would still want applicable laws preventing drone instigated powerouts for the rest of the country not within 5 mi of an airport.

How do they measure 5 nanometers?

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