so i just got my first drone a couple weeks ago, nothing crazy just a mini 3 pro, and ive been trying to figure out where i can actually fly the thing without getting in trouble. theres a big park maybe half a mile from my house and i went there once and just hovered it around for a bit and nobody said anything but now im reading stuff online and im not sure if i was even supposed to be doing that

like i know theres the FAA rules and you need to register if its over 250g which i did, but then i also read something about how states and cities can have their own rules on top of that? is that actually true because that seems insane to keep track of. how does anyone know what theyre allowed to do

yeah unfortunately its true, the FAA stuff is the federal baseline but local governments can absolutely layer their own rules on top. so a city can ban drones in all city parks even if the FAA airspace is totally clear. your best bet is to look up your specific city ordinances because theres no single place that tracks all of them reliably. B4UFLY app is decent for the airspace side of things but it wont tell you about a city park ban

honestly most park rangers wont know the specific rule either, ive had a few tell me i couldnt fly somewhere and they were just guessing. but that doesnt mean you should push it, if someone official tells you to stop you stop and sort it out later

same thing happened to me when i first started, just assumed parks were fine because it was open space lol. ended up getting a firm talking to from a parks department guy even though the airspace was class G and totally uncontrolled. turns out my county had passed some ordinance years ago that nobody really publicized. definitely worth a quick google of like "[your city name] drone ordinance" before you go out