FAA Registration Rules

Bill Blain · Dec 23, 2015

Has anyone run into a problem with the mandatory safety rules that say you can not fly your drone over sporting events or people. You have to agree to these rules to be allowed to register your Quad and as an owner who strictly uses his Quad to film children's sports in my town this is a HUGE problem! The FAA will not return my e-mail about this issue and I'm pretty annoyed that if you agree to all the "Safety Rules" you basically can no longer fly a quadcopter legally!!!

WTF!!!

brentrh · Dec 23, 2015

If you are a responsible drone pilot you have been following those rules register your drone it is only $5 and it will be refunded

Jaime Ray Vaughn · Dec 23, 2015

Bill, I understand what you are saying. You're doing your thing in a safe way, but you have to agree to not do it before they will let you register. I don't like it when people force you to agree to something, so I would recommend checking the box, registering and then being extra safe. Do a screenshot of the process just in case you need to prove yourself someday.

SanCap · Dec 23, 2015

Flying "OVER" childrens sporting events does not seem like the safest thing to do. Maybe off of the sidelines away from all people would be a better way to do it? If you can not get the shot that way maybe it should not be done. Set up a cable cam system. This is a public forum and you are telling the world that you fly in an unsafe manner. You should be glad that the FAA will not return your emails.

msinger · Dec 23, 2015

Bill Blain, even if you choose not to accept those safety rules, you still must fly your Phantom in a safe manner. If you recklessly fly your Phantom, the FAA can fine you whether or not you've agreed to those safety rules. To give you a better idea of what they feel is safe, here is a section from my approved 333 exemption:

"The FAA is requiring that prior to conducting UAS specific operations all persons not essential to flight operations (nonparticipating persons) must remain at appropriate distances. In open areas this requires the UA to remain 500 feet from all persons other than essential flight personnel (i.e. the PIC and VO)."

So, if you're filming at least 500 feet away from the sporting events (and any bystanders), I think you'll be good to go. But, certainly contact the FAA if you have any doubts.

tcope · Dec 23, 2015

Bill Blain said:
Has anyone run into a problem with the mandatory safety rules that say you can not fly your drone over sporting events or people. You have to agree to these rules to be allowed to register your Quad and as an owner who strictly uses his Quad to film children's sports in my town this is a HUGE problem! The FAA will not return my e-mail about this issue and I'm pretty annoyed that if you agree to all the "Safety Rules" you basically can no longer fly a quadcopter legally!!!

I'm a little lost with this post. So you are saying if you can't fly over an active stadium of a group of small children that you can't fly at all?

Yeah... I have no problem with you not flying then.

kenjancef · Dec 23, 2015

Registered or not, a LOT of places have mandatory rules for drone flying. Baseball stadiums, football stadiums, etc... they all have rules in place. If you're talking about a kids game, I'm sure it can be done... but I'd get permission from the organizers so the parents can know why you are flying there. I am a sports photographer, and a lot of times shoot my friend's kids when they play sports. I always let the coaches on both teams know who I am, and even the league people as well, just so they are informed. Just think about where you're flying, and if there are people involved, ask/let someone know. Better than getting flack from the public or worse...

turbulence · Dec 24, 2015

Sporting events have TFRs. If an airplane can't fly over them than the same would apply to drones.

Matthewd5 · Dec 24, 2015

The FAA and student pilot ground school, at least when I did it 20 years ago, was very big at the core, all about not flying over gatherings of people and only practicing in unpopulated areas...

Can't you fly parallel with the length of the area of activity?

Plus these suckers make enough of a racket to be annoying and quite possibly distracting

Matthew