ok so ive been trying to figure this out for like two weeks and i keep getting confused. i bought a mavic mini 2 a few months ago and mostly just fly in my backyard or empty fields near my house but i want to take it out to a state park this summer. my friend told me i need to register with the FAA but then someone else said thats only if its over 250 grams and the mini 2 is right at that line so im not sure which applies to me. also does the state have its own rules on top of the federal stuff? im in colorado if that matters. i dont want to get fined or have someone confiscate my drone, just trying to do this the right way.

so the FAA registration thing - the mini 2 is 249g so technically under the 250g threshold which means you dont have to register for recreational flying. but dont take that as a free pass because the second you fly it for any commercial purpose, even posting on youtube with monetization, different rules kick in. for state parks in colorado its kind of a mess honestly. colorado state parks technically follow a no drone policy in most areas unless you get a permit, and the rangers do enforce it. i got stopped once at roxborough and the guy was pretty cool about it but he made me pack up. your best bet is to call the specific park ahead of time, took me like 5 minutes and saved a lot of headache.

yeah what he said about calling ahead is real. i learned this the hard way at chatfield. thought it was fine since i was far from people and the drone is small but a ranger came over and showed me a sign i completely missed at the entrance. no drones without a permit basically. the FAA rules and state park rules are totally separate things which is annoying but thats how it is. LAANC authorization is the other thing to check if youre near any airports, you can do it through apps like aloft or B4UFLY.