What is the response when you notify the airport and control tower of your intent to fly near 5 miles of the airport.  For instance, I'd like to fly my Mavic at Santa Monica beach or Marina Del Rey which is both near LAX.  Does the airport treat it as a big deal and take information down or do they just say casually ok.  Just curious as I can see it being a pain having to notify them all the time.  Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

I thought the pier was just North West of the Class D airspace.

Mooney Posted at 2016-11-30 09:31
I thought the pier was just North West of the Class D airspace.

Actually the pier is closer proximity to Santa Monica Airport and not LAX as I incorrectly stated.

Correction, its less than 3 miles and well within D, but outside B.

If I recall the DJI drones won't activate within 3 miles.




[url=]SM Pier[/url]

Mooney Posted at 2016-12-1 02:18
Correction, its less than 3 miles and well within D, but outside B.

If I recall the DJI drones won ...

Then how do you program your DJI to let it know you have an FAA waiver to fly a sUAS AT the airport?

I was just looking this up since I will be going out that way in the next week or so.  Unfortunately, in addition to the 5 mile rule, which states that you could call the airport and let them know where/when you will be flying...there's also this.
http://www.surfsantamonica.com/s ... _Public_Spaces.html
Some additional info here:  (last entry)
https://blog.hivemapper.com/top- ... 3540864e#.ensalbn7l

I live in a community that's 4.2 miles from our airport.   I intend to fly at home a lot, so I called the air traffic control office at the airport to get a sense for what the process would be like before I ordered my Mavic.

The guy I spoke to was really helpful (and even went so far as to remind me that the office is not open on weekends, so please call on the Friday before I intend to fly on a weekend).   It didn't sound like they get a lot of calls for this, and the guy just asked me my name, how high I intend to fly, and when I intend to fly it.   

I'm curious if other folks have had a different experience with their ATC and airport ops notifications.

It's not a big deal to notify ATC. You can even leave a message if no one answers. Just call ATC up to 48 hours before, leave your contact info, where and when you plan to fly, and how high and how far. They need to have the option to call you and say no.

Thank you MyFirstDrone and ctopysf for the info. I'm in the same boat: I live within 5 miles of a local (small) airport and wondered just how to handle flying my (yet-to-arrive) Mavic. In the past I've flown all sorts of birds from home, but nothing too high. I think the Mavic will change that... and I want to play by the rules.

I have a similar question... I live on the coast in east central Florida, and I downloaded the B4UFly app from the FAA, and there are a crazy lot of airports/helipads on the map around my house. I know that I need to notify the main airport, but what about all the rest of them? The hospitals, police stations, Trump mansions (lol) etc that have helipads?

fans6a22d902 Posted at 2017-1-20 19:40
I have a similar question... I live on the coast in east central Florida, and I downloaded the B4UFly app from the FAA, and there are a crazy lot of airports/helipads on the map around my house. I know that I need to notify the main airport, but what about all the rest of them? The hospitals, police stations, Trump mansions (lol) etc that have helipads?

You are screwed with TRUMP...You won't be even allowed to lift off around him  


Protect animal population. Spay or Neutered and license your Pet!

ePetLicensing.c Posted at 2017-1-20 19:49
You are screwed with TRUMP...You won't be even allowed to lift off around him  

No, that was a (bad) joke

I live in Daytona Beach, he's a hundred miles south of here.

florida.flyer Posted at 2017-1-21 19:10
No, that was a (bad) joke

I live in Daytona Beach, he's a hundred miles south of here.

  You are lucky then unless when his flying back and forth from NY to FL and passes over Daytona Beach... Your are done flying for the day!   

Protect animal population. Spay or Neutered and License your Pet!