If you read the law carefully, in some states, you CAN fly near an airport as long as you get permission from the airport and control tower.
Has anyone tried and called?

http://thepilotlawyer.com/operatingadronenearanairport/

Yes.......two different airports for 2 different purpose  driven flights.  Both had 24 hour control towers and airport managers.  
Quite frankly the experience couldn't have been better......one airport had never gotten a request while the other is a good size university airport that has a drone program/curiculiem and were well aware how to handle requests.  The first airport manager contacted the FAA for guidence and I was cleared within 30 minutes.  The other airport cleared me immediately as soon as I gave the tower the parameters of my flight.
They put out temporary NOTAM's and said to inform both towers when I was done.
They couldn't have been nicer AND effusively Thanked me for calling in and asking.

On a side note when I looked at the Fly Safe NFZ areas for these airports I was kind of stunned.  The 1.5 mile No Fly Zone is from the dead center of these airports which means the NFZ circle ends barely at the end of some of the runways....really kinda scary.  I now understand why the FAA wants you to inform the tower when your within 5 miles of the field.


In any event it was a great experience.

Having to make four phone calls to fly does not sound like a great experience.  Do you need to do this every time?

spiderbot.sb Posted at 2016-4-14 07:52
Having to make four phone calls to fly does not sound like a great experience.  Do you need to do th ...

I only had to make one call to each.....you call the tower/airport office and they can put you in touch with the airport manager/administrator.  
And again I have to emphasize they could not have been more helpful and accomodating.  I have no problem picking up a phone to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

Would they have know had I not called?  Probably not.......wasn't flying that high at all....but I would have known, and that was enough for me.

It's a small price to pay to make sure everyone is as safe as possible.

It is not my intention to be argumentative but if you have to call before you fly and after you are done flying, to two different airports, as you stated in your original post, wouldn't that be four calls?

I'm just trying to understand.

spiderbot.sb Posted at 2016-4-15 11:38
It is not my intention to be argumentative but if you have to call before you fly and after you are  ...

You call and ask permission for your flight plan which includes start time and finish time.   Only reason you would have to call back after approval is if you need an extension or are changing flight times

I called the airport in Little Rock, AR (Clinton airport) the guys were great to deal with. Called once and had clearance to fly immediately. I found this web page with a lot of different airport towers phone numbers Airport Phone Numbers

Hopefully this helps others in different areas. The guy on the phone admitted they hadn't received many calls and it was all kind of new for everyone. I agree, I felt good knowing I had called and received clearance. I just told them my max altitude and distance I would be flying and the area of town. They asked I call them back after I was done, took all of a few minutes.

I flew about a month ago very close to the airport after notifying the ATC. I went back 3 days ago and my Phantom 3 would not fly. I got an error message about being in a restricted area. The error message help button said to ask for permission on the DJI website. I could not find anywhere on the website to help override the lock out on the drone and controller. Does anybody know how to bypass this lockout? David

I have I live in CC Texas and I am in the 5 mile radius of a no fly zone. I called and talked to the controller and he gave me permission to fly as long as I stay under 100 ft