so i've been trying to get authorization to fly near my local park and every time i submit through aloft it just comes back denied almost instantly. like within a few seconds. i checked on the FAA drone zone map and the area shows a ceiling of like 100ft which i thought meant i could get authorization, not that it was a flat no-fly. been flying for about 8 months and this is the first time ive actually tried to do this properly instead of just... not thinking about it, so im a little lost on what the difference is between a 0ft ceiling and just getting denied outright. my request was for 50ft so i thought that would be fine?

do i need to do something else or is there an appeals process or whatever. drone is a mini 3 pro if that matters

yeah so the ceiling on the map is the maximum LAANC can auto-approve up to, but some areas inside that zone are actually set to 0ft which means LAANC cant approve anything there at all - you'd need to go through the full Part 107 waiver process which takes way longer and isnt guaranteed. the park you're looking at might overlap with a class B or D surface area or something that the FAA has specifically blocked out. zoom way in on the map and see if theres a darker shaded overlay, sometimes its hard to see. also double check you're not accidentally near a stadium or something because those have their own restrictions that arent always obvious

I ran into the exact same thing a few months back. Took me a while to figure out but the area I was trying to fly had a 100ft ceiling on the outer edge and then 0ft right in the middle where I actually wanted to be. The map looked fine until I zoomed in properly. ended up just driving like 10 minutes further out and got approved no problem. Not ideal but sometimes its just easier than fighting it