Bionic Man wrote:
FirstTracks wrote:
Bionic Man wrote:
I am NOT trying to give you a hard time, rather just inform you. Use of drones is illegal at Lake Powell. Not sure if it is enforced, but thought you might want to know.
Powell Rules
Oh ****. Thanks for letting me know! I thought that only applied to National Parks, and not NRAs. And oddly, the DJI app that controls the drone is designed to alert me when I'm in a no-fly zone. I've deliberately powered on the app within National Parks to check, and verified that it alerted there, but it didn't do so at Powell.
Again, sincere thanks for letting me know.
Sure thing. I think it is a stupid rule, and I hope that it is rescinded.
It really makes no sense. I understand and actually agree with the rules for National Parks -- can you imagine what a junk show that would be with every kid with a drone launching theirs?
However, NRAs just make no sense to me. Most National Parks are densely populated by visitors, whereas nost NRAs I'm familiar with are a) massive; and b) very sparsely populated by visitors. I mean, GCNRA alone is
1.25 million acres! That's nearly
2000 square miles! When I flew at Alstrom Point near the end of the video, I swear that there wasn't a soul within 10 miles of where I was standing. Exactly who would I be bothering?
In my opinion, restricting someone from flying a drone in a 2,000 square mile area just because the NPS manages the land, is a ridiculous overreach of their administrative authority. And to be technical, the NPS has no authority over the airspace, the FAA does. Which means you could launch from, and return to land immediately adjacent to the NRA and fly over it completely legally. That's why the NPS can't keep airplanes from flying over NRAs. Using a drone to reach a spot in the middle of a 1.25 million-acre plot is virtually impossible. However, I would have been able to legally fly over Lone Rock Beach as there is non-NRA land within 7 km of the camping area, which is the operating range of my drone. I could have simply driven over there, launched my drone, flew the same flight pattern and landed back where I took off from, and that would not have violated anything.
If you will, imagine the loud uproar if the NPS decided to declare a 2,000 square-mile area encompassing all of Lake Powell a non-motorized area, with no vehicles allowed? Access could only be by foot, which would take many days to reach certain parts. No land motor vehicles, no power boats. I sincerely doubt that rule would be passed without opposition as this one apparently was, yet in reality the principles behind this hypothetical rule are not any different than they are behind their no-drone policy.
I wouldn't hold my breath for the rule to be rescinded anytime soon, for the percentage of people engaging in drone photography is still miniscule, and therefore lacks the clout to resist that rule. Look at the recent roller coaster where recreational drone enthusiasts had to register their aircraft with the FAA, then were told they didn't, then were told again that they had to, all within the span of less than a year. The industry still lacks sufficient critical mass to stand up to such shenanigans. However, as the number of aerial photographers increases sometime down the road that may change.
Apologies for venting and thread drift.
