so this is kind of embarrassing but last weekend i took my drone out near this reservoir area and i didnt check any apps beforehand because i go there all the time and figured it was fine. turns out when i got home and looked it up there was some kind of temporary flight restriction in place, i think because of wildfire stuff in the region even though it wasnt anywhere near where i was flying

nothing happened, no one said anything, i didnt see any other aircraft and the flight was maybe 15 minutes total under 200 feet. but now im reading about fines and certificate suspension and im kind of freaking out a little. i dont even have a part 107, im just a recreational flier. does this kind of thing actually get enforced or am i overtheyinking it

TFRs for wildfires are serious and the FAA does not mess around with those specifically because drones have actually grounded firefighting aircraft before, there was a whole thing in california a few years back. that said realistically if nothing was reported and you werent near active suppression operations you are probably fine. they dont have the resources to go after every single violation especially ones with no incident attached

just dont do it again and honestly start checking before every single flight, like make it a habit same as checking your battery level. Aloft or even just the B4UFLY app takes like 30 seconds to check. TFRs can pop up really fast and cover huge areas

im in a similar boat honestly, i flew near a stadium once not knowing there was a game day TFR and only found out afterwards. been way more careful since then. the apps help but i also just signed up for email alerts from the FAA for my general area, i think its through their NOTAM system or something. havent missed a restriction since