ORLANDO, Fla. – News 6 uses a helicopter for most of the aerial views that you see on our broadcast news programs. But in certain cases, we sometimes use a drone. Several of our staff members have specialized training to fly commercial drones.
News 6′s Erik Sandoval has a commercial drone license. With all the reports of possible unidentified drones being spotted in the Northeastern part of the country, we spoke with him about some of the rules regarding flying drones here in Central Florida.
“Commercial drone licenses fall under the Federal Aviation Administration. The federal government basically lays out all the rules for commercial flying of these. As far as hobbyists go, there are really no hard and set rules,” Sandoval said. “That said, different cities do have rules. The city of Orlando, for example, will not allow you to fly your hobby drone over Lake Eola, especially during special events. You need to apply for a special permit for that, so you need to check with your cities and municipalities to see if there are any hard and set rules that you need to follow as a hobbyist.”
For drone operators, below are some of the federal, state and local regulations to keep in mind:
“NO-FLY ZONES”
The federal government has “no-fly zones” all across the country, and here in Central Florida, we have no-fly zones specific to our area. For example, Disney is a restricted air space.
Although it may be tempting to get video of what is happening from high above, there are absolutely no drones allowed to fly over these sorts of areaa. There are also specific rules for space launches. If a space mission is planned at Cape Canaveral, they temporarily restrict more of the airspace around it.
RECREATIONAL DRONES
If you’re flying as a hobby, make sure to avoid large crowds, avoid airports, avoid theme parks, keep drones in line of sight, and make sure to keep the batteries charged.
Regardless of whether it’s a commercial or recreational drone, they can’t be flown higher than 400 feet.
AIRPORTS
Places like airports are restricted because you might accidentally interfere with planes taking off and landing. That means all area airports, not just Orlando International Airport, are off-limits.
FOREIGN DRONES
If an operator is using a foreign drone, he/she must follow the FAA’s Remote ID guidelines to fly in the U.S.
In addition, foreign drones with FAA remote ID broadcasting capabilities that are registered outside of the U.S. are required to have a Notice of Identification submitted to the FAA before being flown.
For the full list of regulations under the FAA, click here.
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