so this was kind of embarrassing. drove like an hour and a half out to this state park because i saw some footage online from there and figured it was fair game. had my mavic 3 all set up and a ranger comes over and tells me drones are banned throughout the entire park. i had checked the airspace beforehand and it was totally clear, no TFRs nothing, so i figured i was good. turns out the airspace being legal doesnt mean the land use is legal and these are apparently two completely separate things. i knew this in theory but i guess i just forgot to actually look up the park's own rules. anyway wasted trip but lesson learned i suppose. anyone have a good way they check both things before heading out somewhere new

ugh this happens to so many people and honestly the way the info is spread across different agencies makes it really easy to miss. national parks are a straight up blanket ban unless you get a special use permit which almost never happens. state parks vary wildly by state, some are fine, some ban everything, some require you to contact the specific park office. what i do now is google the specific park name plus drone policy before i even look at airspace. usually someone on reddit or a forum has already figured it out. also the Regrid app can sometimes show land ownership and management which helps piece things together

yeah airspace and land access are totally different buckets and it trips everyone up at least once. FAA only controls the air, the land manager controls whether you can take off and land on their property. technically if you could somehow launch from outside the park boundary you'd be legal airspace wise but good luck with that lol. i just call ahead now if im going somewhere i havent flown before, takes five minutes and saves the wasted drive