went out to a national forest last weekend to get some footage, pretty remote area, no airports anywhere close. figured it would be totally fine. my buddy who also flies told me afterwards that a lot of national forests have their own drone restrictions on top of the FAA stuff and now im kind of worried i was flying illegally without even knowing it.

like is there a way to check this ahead of time or do you just have to call the ranger station or something. i looked on the b4ufly app before i went and it showed all clear but im guessing that only covers the FAA airspace side of things and not like land management rules. this stuff is way more complicated than i thought when i got into this hobby

yeah your buddy is right unfortunately. b4ufly and LAANC only deal with airspace, they dont know anything about ground-level land use rules. national forests, national parks, BLM land, state parks ? they all have their own policies and some of them ban drones entirely or require a permit. national parks are basically a blanket no unless you have a film permit which is a whole process. national forests are more hit or miss, some districts allow it some dont. calling the ranger station is honestly the best way, or check the specific forests website. its annoying but thats just how it is

ive been caught out by this exact thing. flew in what i thought was just open wilderness and got a very unhappy ranger explaining that the area had a seasonal closure for nesting birds and drones were specifically prohibited. didnt get a fine that time but he made it pretty clear i was lucky. now i always call ahead if theres any doubt, takes like 5 minutes and saves a lot of stress