Flying at a reservoir this weekend...

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I was flying out in the boonies at a local reservoir this weekend and had a county ranger stop me. It seems that for public safety, despite nobody around for miles, it's illegal to fly there. In fact after some discussion with her it seems there's nowhere to legally fly in my area beyond a private field or two used by RC plane clubs. The fields are of course boring as hell with nothing worthy of photographing.

People on here often worry that their sport might soon be outlawed but it apparently already is (in my area at least). What's the point in owning a phantom if you can't actually fly it anywhere? Anybody want to buy a nearly new P3A?
 
Betting it's just that person not knowing the limits of their authority and thinking they have the ability to make crap up. But yes, more and more agencies are making knee jerk laws and regulations against flying drones. Your best bet is to become educated about your local laws and your rights. Usually if you do this they will see that they can't easily lie to you.
 
Betting it's just that person not knowing the limits of their authority and thinking they have the ability to make crap up. But yes, more and more agencies are making knee jerk laws and regulations against flying drones. Your best bet is to become educated about your local laws and your rights. Usually if you do this they will see that they can't easily lie to you.
+1. She probably had no idea and just took the safe route of saying you can't do it. I bet you can.
 
Betting it's just that person not knowing the limits of their authority and thinking they have the ability to make crap up. But yes, more and more agencies are making knee jerk laws and regulations against flying drones. Your best bet is to become educated about your local laws and your rights. Usually if you do this they will see that they can't easily lie to you.

From my research this weekend it seems she is correct. The county and city are basically locked down where I live when it comes to RC craft.
 
Downside is we are getting hit with regulations that were made 20+ years ago against RC planes. My area (Fairfax County, Virginia) prohibits RC aircraft in all of their parks except two that are leased to a local RC club. I've seen other people flying at a nearby county park several times during the middle of the workday when no one is around, but I suspect that if I was to fly during busy weekend soccer games someone would freak out and call the cops (not that I would be dumb enough to fly near large crowds of people).
 
Wish it were easier to figure out where it's OK to fly and where it's not. I know about DJI's no-fly map, but it seems there are all of these local jurisdictions that have their own little rules.
 
I guess the best thing is to go by the DJI map in the app until somebody proves otherwise. At least if you're hassled you can show them the map.
 
One thing to consider. Not that I agree as I got spanked last fall by Rangers.

Anything federal like lakes and rivers that the Army Corps uses for flood control falls under the cant fly on Federal property policy. Although my local flood control reservoir is a far cry from the white house no one was willing to differentiate and say it was OK to fly at the lake.

The online no fly zone map means nothing here. The rangers will tell you to pack up and go home.
 
One thing to consider. Not that I agree as I got spanked last fall by Rangers.

Anything federal like lakes and rivers that the Army Corps uses for flood control falls under the cant fly on Federal property policy. Although my local flood control reservoir is a far cry from the white house no one was willing to differentiate and say it was OK to fly at the lake.

The online no fly zone map means nothing here. The rangers will tell you to pack up and go home.
Federal can't fly?
 
From my research this weekend it seems she is correct. The county and city are basically locked down where I live when it comes to RC craft.
Of this is the US then counties and cities have no jurisdiction over airspace. If you were to take off and land from outside of the area they manage, that can't do anything about flying over and around the dam. They can file a report with the FAA but that should not go anywhere.
 
What is your area. We can look up the laws.
If you mean me, I'm in Maryland. But for instance there are some reservoirs around me. I'm gathering they're off limits as they're connected to the area water supply?
 
Devils Advocate. It's a reservoir and after 9/11 they don't want anyone near them now, whether it's to fish or fly a drone. Just a reality which is unfortunate.
 
If you were to take off and land from outside of the area they manage, that can't do anything about flying over and around the dam. They can file a report with the FAA but that should not go anywhere.

This is exactly what I do. I live about 1.8 miles from the spillway at the dam. So I take off from home and fly up the river and directly over the dam. I was told I cant take off or land there.

Personally I don't think it was there intent to limit flying at places like this. It was just easy to make a blanket regulation that covered all federal government land until the figure it out. Course who knows our government is pretty screwed up...

For those that don't think this covers much, the entire Missouri and Mississippi river is flood control (as far as I know) and ran by the Army Corp. If you go by the letter of the law you really cant take off and fly from either river area.
 
A reservoir is considered critical infrastructure for obvious reasons. People don't want to drink your LiPo battery. There should be plenty of places to fly that aren't critical infrastructure.
 
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Only the FAA can create a "no-fly" zone. All the local authorities can do is probit takeoff and landing.
 
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A reservoir is considered critical infrastructure for obvious reasons. People don't want to drink your LiPo battery. There should be plenty of places to fly that aren't critical infrastructure.

Our reservoirs in this state doesn't make it more likely to "drink your lipo". They don't pull water from our lakes. They are just dammed up rivers.
 
Our reservoirs in this state doesn't make it more likely to "drink your lipo". They don't pull water from our lakes. They are just dammed up rivers.
The main ingredient in LiPo batteries is Lithium. Something prescribed for paranoid people.
It might do some good.
 
Our reservoirs in this state doesn't make it more likely to "drink your lipo". They don't pull water from our lakes. They are just dammed up rivers.
How many drones have gone into reseviours? So there is no real indication that this is an issue. I don't want Styrofoam in my drinking water either, are they banning cups from the area?
 
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