okay so this is kind of embarassing but i took my mini 3 out last weekend near this reservoir area, there was no signage or anything saying no drones and i flew for maybe 20 minutes before some guy walking his dog came over and told me it was a no fly zone. i landed immediately obviously but now im kind of paranoid. how are you supposed to actually know before you go somewhere? like is there one app that covers everything or do you have to check like five different things every single time. i checked the dji fly app before i went and it showed the area as green which is why i thought it was fine

DJI's geofencing only covers FAA airspace stuff, it doesnt know anything about local ordinances or land management rules. a reservoir could be managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, a state park authority, local municipality, tons of possibilities ? and a lot of those agencies have their own drone rules completely separate from the FAA. green on the DJI app just means the airspace is okay, not that the actual property allows it. its a really common misconception. going forward i'd check who manages the land before you go out, usually a quick search for the area name + drone policy pulls something up

ugh yeah this is honestly one of the most confusing things about this hobby. i've been flying for two years and i still find myself double checking every single time because the rules feel like they come from like 4 different directions at once. FAA covers the airspace, but then you've got national parks, state parks, city parks, private land, it's a whole thing. the guy probably wasnt even right tbh, not every reservoir is a no fly zone, but also hard to know without actually looking it up for that specific spot