Hi Clipper707 - well I bought my Phantom last Friday, met up with the guy at a local Irvine shopping center parking lot, he flew the drone for like a minute to show me it works, picked it up and left, drove home parked my car and I walked across the street, there is a grass area across my place, no one was insight except for maybe 1 or 2 passersby walking there dog, I flew the phantom up with no problems (my first time every flying one) - about 10-15ft or so made a few turns to test the camera, went about 20 feet away from me, I did not want to fly to far since I was new to this, landed my phantom picked it up and walked back home - total flying time was about 5 or 10 minutes the most.
As I was leaving the house I realized I left the lens cap and the gimble plastic protector thing on the ground where I took off, so I walked back out to go find it and pick it up as soon as I did a cop showed up and he asked if I was flying "the drone" - then asked my license and asked if I was ever arrested before - he ran it and all came clean and just said - that could have been a violation.
he said in all of irvine there is a municipal code that bans all drones, airplanes, helicopters, rockets from flying anywhere except for a portion of the great park where you need to be a member.
I mentioned to him i am a photographer (still and video) wanted to add this as a service - then he said oh you need a pilot license to do so, I am getting one myself thats why I know this - he chuckles
He came and said I know its a cool toy, I would fly it to, but just not here - you can do that here.
I did not know any restrictions except for airports and state parks and the no fly zone map when I did my research when buying the phantom.
It's funny I live in Portola Springs area and I have seen at least in 2 occasions some guys flying there drones in the open area - one time I saw 2 guys together which I thought was pretty cool and one night at around 10pm - I saw some guy parked on the side of the street in Modjesak and Irvine Blvd. flying a huge drone (looked like one of those spider looking ones)
So all the while I thought it was OK
Oh well - I need to do more research and I hope I can fly it sometime this week and shoot some cool aerials of the sunset.
Any suggestions?
Thanks