ok so ive been flying my mavic for like 8 months now and mostly stick to open fields and stuff but i want to get some shots of downtown for a personal project, not commercial or anything just for fun. my app is showing the area is in class B airspace or maybe C i honestly cant tell the difference still and it says i need authorization but then theres this LAANC thing and i dont know if i just click approve and go or if theres more to it than that

i dont want to get in trouble obviously and i definitely dont want my drone confiscated. someone told me LAANC is automatic but another guy said some areas you still have to wait for manual approval and now im just more confused than before. any help would be appreciated

yeah LAANC is mostly instant but it depends on the altitude you request and the specific grid you're in. some grids are set at 0ft automatically which basically means they wont approve anything through the instant system and you have to do a manual waiver through DroneZone on the FAA website, that can take like 90 days so plan accordingly. for downtown areas of a city youre probably looking at class B which is a lot more restrictive than C in terms of those grid altitudes

the app youre using, is it B4UFLY or Aloft or something else? Aloft is what most people use to actually submit the LAANC request. its pretty straightforward once you get past the first time. just make sure your drone is registered and you have your TRUST cert if youre a recreational flier because they are technically supposed to be shown on request

also worth knowing that even if you get LAANC approval that doesnt mean you can just do whatever. there might still be local ordinances layered on top of the federal stuff. my city has its own rules about flying over public parks and certain streets and the FAA authorization doesnt override any of that. learned that one the hard way when a cop told me to land even though i had a perfectly valid LAANC approval on my phone. he was wrong technically but i wasnt gonna argue with him lol