so anyway this happened last weekend and its been bugging me. i was flying at this local park, nothing special just messing around, and a cop came over and told me i had to land because drones aren't allowed in the park. i checked and the park is run by the city, not state or federal, and i couldnt find anything on the city's website about drone rules. i landed because i didnt want to cause a scene but afterwards i looked it up and im still not sure if he was actually right or just assuming. like can a city actually ban drones in a park? i thought the FAA controlled airspace so local rules dont apply or something like that. anyone know how this actually works

this is actually a genuinely complicated area of law and honestly it hasnt been fully sorted out even with court cases. the general idea is that the FAA does have authority over airspace, which is why states theoretically cant make rules about HOW you fly. but cities and counties have argued they can restrict drone use on their own property as a land use or property management thing, not an airspace thing. basically the argument is they're not telling you where to fly in the sky, they're saying you cant take off or land from their park. some courts have sided with that, some havent. practically speaking though, if a cop tells you to land in a city park you're probably not going to win that argument on the spot and it's not worth the hassle. i'd say look up whether your city has an actual ordinance on the books before going back, because if there's nothing written down that cop may have just been guessing.

yeah the preemption argument (FAA controls airspace so local rules dont count) sounds good in theory but it hasnt really held up cleanly in practice for local parks and stuff. i got into a similar situation at a state park and it turned out there was actually a rule buried in the park's general regulations that covered "unmanned aircraft" that nobody really advertised. so now i always try to call ahead or check the park's specific rules page if they have one, not just the city's main website. annoying extra step but beats the awkward cop conversation.