okay so this is kind of stressing me out. i was flying at a park near my house a few weeks ago, nothing crazy just some low slow flying to practice, and now i got what looks like a formal letter - not from the FAA but from the county parks department - saying i violated their drone ordinance and i might have to pay a fine.

heres the thing, i checked the FAA maps and the area is totally uncontrolled airspace, like class G, no airport nearby, nothing flagged in any of the apps i use. so i figured i was fine. but apparently the county has its own rules about drones in parks? i genuinely did not know local governments could do that. i thought it was all federal

the letter is kind of vague and doesnt give a specific fine amount yet, just says i need to respond within 30 days. do i just write back explaining i didnt know? has anyone dealt with this kind of thing before

ugh yeah this is one of those things that catches people off guard. FAA controls the airspace but local governments - counties, cities, state parks - can regulate where you take off and land from. so even if the airspace above is perfectly legal to fly in, if the land underneath is public property with a no-drone ordinance you can still get in trouble at the local level. its kind of a weird split jurisdiction thing and honestly the FAA vs local authority line is still being argued in courts in some states.

id suggest responding to the letter, be honest that you werent aware of the local ordinance and that you checked federal airspace requirements. most parks departments arent trying to nail recreational flyers with huge fines especially for a first offense with no incident. just dont ignore it, that usually makes things worse

same thing happened to a guy in my flying club, different county but same situation. he just wrote a polite response explaining he was a recreational flyer who verified FAA airspace and wasnt aware of the park-specific rules, and they basically let him off with a warning. i dont think they really want to pursue it most of the time, they just want people to stop flying there