ok so this happened last week at bryce canyon and i still kind of cant believe how it went. i knew NPS rules, i wasnt flying in the park, i was literally on the road just outside the boundary on public land. had my phone out showing the guy the airmap overlay and everything. he was convinced i was breaking the law and called it in to someone else and we stood there for like 25 minutes while they figured it out

turned out i was totally fine and he just kind of walked away without saying much. but it shook me up a bit honestly. i always do my research before flying somewhere new and its still this stressful. just a heads up for anyone doing national park adjacent stuff in the southwest, rangers sometimes dont know the exact boundary rules either

ugh yeah this is so common. ive had similar at lake powell, guy had no idea that the recreation area and the actual NPS monument had different rules in different sections. the problem is even the rangers get confused because the jurisdictions overlap in weird ways. carrying a printed copy of the relevant regs has saved me a couple times, people seem to take paper more seriously than a phone screen for some reason

25 minutes tho that sounds awful. glad it worked out but honestly why do we have to fight this hard just to fly somewhere legal lol. i've started just noting the GPS coords before i launch anything near a boundary so if someone questions me i can show exactly where i took off from