so this happened a few days ago and its still kind of bugging me. was out near this reservoir, not a national park or anything, pretty sure it was just state land, and a ranger came over and told me i had to stop flying. i asked him what the rule was and he kind of fumbled around and said something about permits but couldnt actually show me anything specific.

i packed up because i didnt want a confrontation but im still not sure if he was actually in the right. i had checked airspace on aloft before going out and it was uncontrolled class G, nothing flagged. do rangers have authority to just tell you to stop even if the airspace is legal? feels like this happens a lot and people just comply without knowing if they actually have to

this is a gray area that comes up constantly. FAA controls the airspace but land managers control whether you can take off and land on their property, and those are technically two separate things. so even if the airspace is legal, if you're launching from their land they can technically say no. annoying but thats kind of how it works in practice.

that said a lot of rangers just dont really know the rules either and are kind of winging it. would have been worth asking him to cite the specific regulation. not in an aggressive way just like hey can you point me to where that is so i can look it up. sometimes they back off when they realize they cant actually produce anything.

ive had this happen twice in utah. both times the ranger was just guessing. one time i pulled up the actual land management map on my phone and showed him the area wasnt posted as drone restricted and he just kind of shrugged and walked away. always worth knowing your specific location before you go out honestly