ok so I've been trying to get authorization to fly near a small regional airport, nothing crazy, just want to get some footage of the area for a personal project. I went through the LAANC system on aloft and it keeps coming back denied or like "manual coordination required" or whatever. The thing is I drive past this spot pretty regularly and I see other people flying there all the time, like obviously hobbyist type guys with their DJIs and stuff.

Are they just ignoring the rules or is there something im missing about how LAANC works? I feel like i'm doing everything right and getting blocked while other people just... don't bother? I'm trying to do this the right way and it's honestly kind of frustrating.

yeah unfortunately that's just kind of how it is. a lot of people simply don't bother with authorization and the enforcement is basically nonexistent in most places unless something goes wrong. so you'll see people flying all the time in controlled airspace without any approval and nothing happens to them 99% of the time.

that said you're doing the right thing. if something did go wrong - a close call with a manned aircraft, someone calls it in, whatever - the guy who got authorization is in a completely different legal position than the guy who just showed up and flew. the manual coordination thing usually means your request got kicked to the actual ATC facility, which can take days or sometimes they just don't respond. some airports you genuinely cannot get automated approval for because the airspace is too complex or too sensitive, and LAANC just isnt set up to handle it automatically there.

I had the same problem a few months ago. what I ended up doing was calling the airport directly, like just the main number, and asking if they had a number for the tower. explained what I wanted to do and honestly the guy was super helpful and basically said as long as I stayed below a certain altitude and away from the approach path it was fine, but he couldnt do anything official through LAANC from his end. not sure if that actually counts as proper authorization legally but it felt better than just going ahead with nothing.