so this was a few weeks ago and im still kind of annoyed about it tbh. was flying my avata 2 at a state park in virginia, not over any crowds, just kind of cruising over an open field near the edge of the park, and a ranger came over and told me i wasnt allowed to fly there without a permit. i asked him where that rule was written and he kind of fumbled around and said its a park policy

i looked it up when i got home and it does seem like virginia state parks have their own drone policy that requires you to get permission ahead of time, which i genuinely did not know was a thing. i always figured if the FAA airspace was clear then you were good to go but apparently thats not how it works at all. the ranger was nice enough about it but i felt kind of dumb for not knowing. does anyone else run into stuff like this? feels like theres a million different layers of rules depending on where you are

yeah this trips up a lot of people. FAA controls the airspace but it doesnt override land use rules. so a state park, national park, city park, whatever - whoever manages that land can still ban drones on their property even if the airspace above it is technically uncontrolled. national parks are a complete no-go without a permit btw, like across the board. state parks vary a lot by state, some are fine some are not. its genuinely one of the more confusing parts of this whole thing

ive started just calling ahead or checking the specific parks website before i go anywhere new. takes like 5 minutes and saves the awkward ranger conversation

same thing happend to me at a county park last summer. i had checked the airspace and everything was green but the county had their own ordinance that i had no idea about. honestly the patchwork of rules is kind of a mess. federal airspace rules, state laws, local ordinances, then on top of that individual land manager policies... its a lot to keep track of for something people just want to fly for fun