so this happened last weekend and its been bugging me ever since. i was flying at this county park, nothing crazy just cruising around filming the pond area, and a cop came over and told me i needed a permit to fly there. i honestly had no idea if he was right or not so i just packed up and left because i didnt want any trouble. looked it up later and cant really find a clear answer on whether county parks can actually ban drones or if thats even enforceable. anyone dealt with this kind of thing before? i have my part 107 if that matters, was flying recreationally though not for any commercial purpose

this is genuinely a gray area and the honest answer is it depends. there's been a lot of back and forth on whether local governments can regulate drone flight because the FAA claims exclusive authority over navigable airspace, which is basically anywhere a drone operates. but courts have been inconsistent about it and a lot of municipalities have passed their own ordinances anyway. county parks specifically ? some have explicit no drone policies in their park rules, some dont. if the county has it written into their park ordinances then technically you might need a permit even if its questionable whether that would hold up legally. i probably would have done the same as you and just left tbh, not worth the hassle.

ive had similar run ins and what I usually do now is just look up the specific park on the county website before i go anywhere. a lot of them have it buried in the park rules pdf or whatever. its annoying but saves the headache. also having your part 107 cert on you is good even flying recreationally, sometimes just showing that changes the whole tone of the conversation with whoever is giving you grief