No Drone Zone - Huntington Beach

Try contacting a local heliport. Such as Hoag Hosiptal which I have never seen a helicopter land or take off as I work nearby. It's that infrequent.
 
If you read public law 112-95, which is where the vast majority of these FAA documents stem from, there's conflicting info re airports and heliports and the use of those two words. This has been discussed in depth over the past year in other threads. No real conclusion has been made, other than we must be aware of a heliport/helipad's existence at the very least and stay clear of any traffic. In my opinion, it's a judgement call whether I contact a heliport/helipad depending on whether it's manned and how busy it is. But that's just my opinion.
 
there's conflicting info re airports and heliports and the use of those two words.

I agree with you on the judgment call on heliports.

I have read that law. I can find heliport only once in the act (and the word helipad isn't in it): "(v) outside of 5 statute miles from any airport, heliport, seaplane base, spaceport, or other location with aviation activities." And that's in reference to the use of public (government) unmanned aircraft.

Unfortunately for the hobbyist flyer, a heliport–that is shown on a sectional chart–falls under the legal definition of an airport.

If I'm wrong, please past the section of the law that is confusing.

SB
 
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I agree with you. You have a valid argument.

But I have to ask myself why does the law include the word heliport? They had already used the word airport earlier in the sentence. So isn't heliport redundant? It appears to be.

Or is it? After all, in sec 336, they didn't bother to use the word heliport? Why not? Is it possible they purposely included it in Sec 335 and purposely excluded it in Sec 336?

AC 91-57A is almost a cut and paste of Sec 336. That was another opportunity to take the mystery out of the equation by including "heliport" in that document, but for reasons unknown, Ms. Ray decided to leave it out. Why? Might be because she didn't want to differ from how it was written in the public law.

Bottom line for me is, the word was included in Sec 335, and excluded from section 336, and that makes the situation re heliports ambiguous. Others will not agree with me, and that's fine.
 
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There's one other thing I'd like to add. My favorite airspace app, AirMap.io, uses solid yellow circles to show airports on the map. But they use dashed lines to show heliports. Why? Why would they do that? Aren't they both the same, as defined by FAA? Shouldn't hobby UAS pilots treat them the same?

It seems to me they see the same problem with the language that we do.
 
I’ve grown up in Huntington.
We have a police helicopter which covers our city & some of the surrounding areas. It often flys low, ask anyone who has seen it at the beach. To add to that; I saw something about the parade. Well, the parade is on Mainstreet & it begins right where the HBPD is located. I think that’s actually it’s home heliport.
 
According to B4UFly/Kittyhawk, HB may not be a TOTAL "NO DRONE ZONE"
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