Should It Be Illegal To Fly an RC Plane Within 3 Miles of a Sports Game?
If you live near a sports stadium and own a remote control toy, you might have committed a federal crime without even realizing it.
After 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned all flights below 3,000 feet within 3 nautical miles (around 3.5 land miles) of certain sports games. Since then, Congress has made the rule permanent, and the FAA expanded the restriction to all “unmanned aerial systems,” including drones and model planes.
Many hobbyists have run afoul of the rule without realizing it, and some have caught serious federal charges. Now the Drone Advisory Council, an industry association, is pushing the FAA to nix the restriction. In a paper published last week, the council urged the FAA to exempt unmanned aircraft from the 3-nautical-mile no-fly zone.
The huge radius “makes sense if you’re concerned about airspace security from a traditional airliner crashing into the stadium, but not for a drone,” the paper says. Instead, the council is calling for a permanent ban on drone flights directly over stadium property.
As it stands, temporary no-fly zones around stadiums put 125,000 square miles of airspace out of commission for drone pilots every year, according to the Drone Advisory Council. And it’s often prime airspace in the middle of cities. Look at the stadium airspace in San Francisco, for example:
Or Chicago:
Unlike in controlled airspace, there is no way for remote pilots to get automated FAA approval to fly through stadium no-fly zones. Making chunks of major cities off-limits to drones could hinder the development of industries like drone delivery, the Drone Advisory Council paper warns.
To make matters worse, it’s hard to know exactly when the no-fly zone is active. The FAA restriction applies to “any stadium having a seating capacity of 30,000 or more people where either a regular or post season Major League Baseball, National Football League, or NCAA division one football game is occurring,” as well as NASCAR, IndyCar Series, and ChampCar World Series races, from an hour before the game starts to an hour after the game ends.
“The NOTAM [notice to air missions] does apply to a MLB game with 1,000 people in attendance, but not to a pre-season NFL game with 50,000 people in attendance,” the Drone Advisory Council paper points out. For that matter, concerts aren’t covered by the restriction, a huge oversight if drones really are a threat to the audience.
Unlike other airspace restrictions and NOTAMs, which pilots can easily find on the FAA website or an FAA-approved drone app, the stadium flight restriction requires pilots to look at the schedules for nearby stadiums and figure out which games qualify. Not everyone bothers to do so—and some people end up in serious trouble.
In 2020, a man was charged with flying a drone over Miami when the city was under a temporary flight restriction for the Super Bowl. The following Super Bowl, two men were charged with doing the same thing in Tampa. None of them breached the stadium itself. The tempora
Article from Latest
The Reason Magazine website is a go-to destination for libertarians seeking cogent analysis, investigative reporting, and thought-provoking commentary. Championing the principles of individual freedom, limited government, and free markets, the site offers a diverse range of articles, videos, and podcasts that challenge conventional wisdom and advocate for libertarian solutions. Whether you’re interested in politics, culture, or technology, Reason provides a unique lens that prioritizes liberty and rational discourse. It’s an essential resource for those who value critical thinking and nuanced debate in the pursuit of a freer society.