do you have a link for that regulation? does that mean "property" or the "physical structure"?
In US. Is it safe to fly over the neighborhood?
- Thread starter Hasan Ahmad
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do you have a link for that regulation? does that mean "property" or the "physical structure"?
as per a Supreme court ruling, its not a regulation its precedence
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/05/30/317074394/drone-wars-who-owns-the-air
But once hot air balloons and airplanes came into the picture, things got a lot more complicated. In 1926, Congress created what we now call the FAA, and declared that the air above 500 feet is the public domain. But what about the air below that?
Thomas Causby was a chicken farmer in North Carolina who lived near a tiny airport. During World War II, the Army took over the airport, and suddenly big military planes were flying over Causby's chicken coops all the time. The planes scared Causby's chickens. They flew into the walls of the coop and died.
Causby sued the government, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. In the end, the court sided with Causby, ruling that landowners own the sky above their homes up to at least 83 feet.
Cy's lawyer told me that the FAA has been sending out cease-and-desist letters to commercial drone pilots all over the country, threatening big fines for flying little drones. The FAA says that, for safety reasons, it is regulating the airspace between 83 and 500 feet.
Drone pilots are fighting this in court, trying to reclaim that airspace.
That made me chuckle quite a bit. Nothing could be farther from the truth than that. FAA "Property"? I don't think so.
I still don't see how that equates to your original statement of the FAA owning the airspace above 80 feet.... that NPR article barely scratches the surface of the debate.
Try this one instead: http://www.stroudlaw.com/hey-thats-my-air-trespass-by-delivery-drone/
Try this one instead: http://www.stroudlaw.com/hey-thats-my-air-trespass-by-delivery-drone/
ianwood
Taco Wrangler
Interesting assessment. I take from that:
- The law is unclear about overflight below 500ft.
- The lower you fly, the more frequent you fly, the more intrusive the flight is (noise, filming, etc.), the more likely it is to be considered trespass.
I always try to stay around 200 to 250 feet up when flying in a neighbor hood. That is high enough were most people can't locate the bird right away and low enough to stay out of the way of manned aircraft. So far, I have never had a problem, and when people ask, I usually have keep pointing out where the bird is before they actually see it.
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