Drone Safety For Beginners
I am lucky enough to be living on Cape Cod in Massachusetts year round. The Cape has 2 very different vibes. The winter vibe is a peaceful and calm one. The summer vibe is altogether different and much more alive as people open their summer homes. Summer brings lots of visitors and lots of drones.
Flying a drone can be a lot of fun, especially on the Cape, but it does come with legal requirements to follow the safety regulations laid out by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) as well as some of the local municipalities. If you are new to drones, please take a moment to read this blog for a few safety tips.
First and foremost, did you know that anyone operating a drone for fun is required to have a FAA TRUST certificate? There is no age limit, so anyone, small children or grandpa that flies a drone needs a certificate to fly legally. The police or a FAA official are within their rights to demand to see your certificate if they see you operating a drone.
But don’t panic, TRUST is easy and free to get. The FAA has worked with several online drone schools to make a safety course and test available online for free. Click here for my recommendation. If you complete the online test, it will give you all the basic safety steps you should be aware of before launching your drone into the air. So legal requirement aside, it’s good knowledge and safety awareness to have.
The take off weight of your drone is an important safety consideration. If your drone weighs 0.55lbs or less, and you are using it only for fun, you can fly it without registering it with the FAA. So if you are flying a DJI Mini, Mini SE or a DJI Mini 2 or 3 for example you are good to go. But, if you add any accessories to these types of drones, like a propeller cage or bigger battery, it can push their take off weight above 0.55lbs, requiring you to register it. Any drone that weighs more than 0.55lbs (250g) will need to be registered with the FAA and labeled with the registration number. Registration is fairly easy on the FAADroneZone.faa.gov website.
Another important consideration is location. On Cape Cod for example, there is a busy municipal airport, a busy Coast Guard station and many smaller airports and helicopter facilities. Many of these have controlled airspace around them for up to 5 miles, in which you need to have authorization before you fly your drone, even if it is just a few feet off the ground. So if you are flying a drone for fun, download an app called ALOFT or AIRMAP and check for restrictions in the location where you want to fly. These apps also allow you to request authorization to fly in controlled airspace using a FAA system called LAANC. Usually, you will receive that authorization in a few seconds. Some areas are off limits totally, and you will see these on the apps. On the Cape, some facilities, like the Coast Guard station do not support LAANC, in this case, a request must be made via the FAA on the FAADroneZone.faa.gov website. This can take from a few days to 90 days to receive.
As well as controlled airspace, there are also local restrictions on drone use that you should follow. For example, on the Cape again, some towns like Barnstable ban all drone operation from town beaches. The National Seashore and the Cape Cod canal are also off limits, despite them being spectacular locations for flying a drone. Wilderness areas and nature preserves are also no fly zones. So wherever you plan to fly, do some Googling beforehand to make sure you are following the rules.
One last safety tip is very important, as a recreational flyer, you are not legally allowed to fly over people or moving vehicles. So flying over groups of people on the beach, over moving boats or along a road with moving cars is a definite violation of FAA regulations for obvious reasons. Drones can cause serious injury if they hit someone.
Even though there are many regulations, they make sense for the safety of everyone, so please follow them and have fun, safely.