Hi
I live in Raleigh, NC and I like to hike. In North Carolina there are many nice trails which are ask to be captured by drone. But most of my destinations are in wilderness areas which are no-fly zones according to "UAS are considered to be both “motorized equipment” and “mechanical transport” as such they cannot take off from, land in, or be operated from congressionally designated Wilderness Areas" rule.
For instance there is a Table Rock trail which is on the edge of Linville Gorge wilderness. DJI application doesn't show this area as no go zone. Airmap and b4ufly also don't show this area.


I would like to ask how the heck do I know I can fly there or not? Every maps tells "I am the best, use me" but in other hand responsibility is on the pilot side and before I fly I need to google a lot if some areas are locked or not. For instance Raleigh has stupid rule that you need to have a city permision to fly in city limit. And guess what, I got this information from city park employee who told me that I cannot fly in a park without permission.


How do you guys solve such problems? I don't want to spend hours on googling given area.

The answer is simple, the current NFZs are well-defined areas that are documented by aviation authorities world-wide. Wilderness areas may or may also be NFZs, but in almost all cases, this is recent practice. Considering that the NFZ database must deal with all countries in the world, it is not surprising that these additional areas are not yet defined. There are also hundreds of places that local authorities designate as areas where you cannot fly, and more of these are added each day. However unlike airports, there is no requirement for the local authorities to notify any central organisation of their actions, and for that reason alone, DJI (or the company that manages the NFZs for them) will never find out about these zones.

You need to follow your local rules not DJI's, if a zone is marked by DJI it might lead to trouble performing a flight you are allowed to do.
I have the opposite problem, my whole area is defined in DJI's system as one big blob of overlapping EWZ even the real zone's goes from the coast line out the sea in some bird sensitive places.

As far as I can tell, you're right, you can't launch/land in Linville Gorge, or any other congressionally designated wilderness areas for the reasons you state.  

Here's a list of wilderness areas deemed such by the U.S. Congress:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Wilderness_Areas

You're right again - most of these areas are not shown as restricted on any air maps that I know of.  Why?  Because these UAS air maps, like the hobby and the industry, are an evolving process.  

Thanks for posting

A good source to check when going into new areas would be the FAA's Sectional Aeronautical Chart.  Not only does it display class B, C, D & E airspace, restricted and prohibited areas, etc., it also shows the boundaries of National Parks and Wildlife areas.  It will also display Temporary Flight Restrictions (VIP visits, wildfires, space launches, baseball games, etc.)  A good source is the online charts available at https://skyvector.com/ - Use the layers to select TFR's if you want them displayed on the basemap.

Oldav8tor Posted at 2018-4-21 17:31
A good source to check when going into new areas would be the FAA's Sectional Aeronautical Chart.  Not only does it display class B, C, D & E airspace, restricted and prohibited areas, etc., it also shows the boundaries of National Parks and Wildlife areas.  It will also display Temporary Flight Restrictions (VIP visits, wildfires, space launches, baseball games, etc.)  A good source is the online charts available at https://skyvector.com/ - Use the layers to select TFR's if you want them displayed on the basemap.

Thanks for the info.

Another source of online sectional charts is http://vfrmap.com/ - did I mention both online charts are free?  vfrmap lets you zoom in a bit more and also lets you toggle between a simple roadmap and the chart. The reason they show on sectional charts is because pilots are supposed to stay at least 2000 feet above such areas. This shows the area around Linville Gorge

Wow that toggle feature is nice!  

Thanks for posting.

I hope we never stop caring about those with four feet...




I wouldn't even use my drones to scout for unwary wildlife to bowhunt...

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