this happened saturday and its still kind of bugging me. i was flying my mavic in a field probably like half a mile away from the local college football stadium, game wasnt even happening it was like a tuesday afternoon, and a cop pulled up and told me i couldnt fly within a mile of the stadium. i had no idea that was a thing.

i didnt argue or anything just landed and left but now im wondering if he was actually right or just going off bad info. i looked it up after and found stuff about temporary flight restrictions during game days but this wasnt a game day. is there like a permanent no fly zone around stadiums in the us or is it only during events because the faa app showed the area as clear when i checked it before flying. genuinely dont know who was right here

the tfr around stadiums only kicks in during actual events, specifically when they have over 30000 people capacity and the event is in progress. outside of that the airspace isnt automatically restricted just because a stadium exists. if b4ufly or the faa map showed clear and there was no active tfr, the officer was probably working off a misunderstanding. happens more than you'd think, local law enforcement often dont know the actual federal rules and sometimes cities pass their own ordinances that may or may not even be enforceable when it conflicts with faa jurisdiction.

you werent wrong to land and leave, thats always the smart call in the moment. but you probably could have been flying legally. worth knowing for next time.

ugh this kind of thing is so frustrating. i feel like half the time its just whoever shows up deciding on the spot what the rules are. i had something similar at a beach last year, security guard told me drones were banned on the entire county coastline and i later found out that was just made up or at least massively overstated. i think some people just dont want drones around and they use authority to make it stop without actually knowing the law