ok so this happend to me last weekend and im still not totally sure who was right. was flying my air 3 at a state park (not national, state) and a ranger came over and told me i needed a permit. i had checked the faa map and there was no restriction shown, airspace was class g all the way up

i told him that and he said the park has its own rules separate from faa and i need a permit just to launch from park property. i honestly didnt know that was a thing? like i thought if the airspace was clear you were good

ended up packing up and leaving but now im reading and it seems like yeah, land management rules are totally separate from airspace rules and a lot of parks have their own bans regardless of what the faa says. feel pretty dumb for not knowing this but also why isnt this more obvious when youre planning a trip

the ranger was right unfortunately. this trips up a ton of people. faa only covers airspace, it has nothing to do with whether youre allowed to take off from a specific piece of land. state parks, national parks, county parks, private property — they all have their own thing going on and it has zero to do with the airspace class above them

i always check the specific park's website now before any trip. some are totally fine with drones if you get a free permit in advance, others just ban them outright. its annoying but once you know it its just part of the planning process

same thing happened to me in a state forest once, except the ranger was way less chill about it. i think the rules vary a lot even within one state depending on who manages the land. i just ask at the entrance now tbh, saves a lot of stress