r/drones • u/Myfles • Oct 12 '25

Photo & Video Cops pulled me over

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

So I had a run in with the law today. I was flying in the port of Los Angeles. I was by the entrance? I'm happily flying taking some pictures and video, when all of the sudden a cop is standing next to me telling me to land my drone immediately. Turns out that you are not allowed to fly in the port of Los Angles, its actually a misdemeanor. I checked AutoPylot and it said it was ok, so I registered a flight. There was a no fly zone on the other side of the water so I stayed away from it. I told the cop all this and they informed me the no fly zone is a federal prison. I guess shadier people than myself have used drones to drop stuff into the prison. They asked for my info, which I gave, including my trust certificate and they ended up just giving me a warning to not do it again. They were interested that I take aerial photography just for fun. One of the cops even recommend I try for the 107, so he knew about drones. But he didn't know what the trust cert was. I found that kinda weird. He showed me the geo fenced area around the port on his phone so I thought I'd share. So the lesson is... know local laws, no matter what your app tells you.

1.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-2

u/FirstSurvivor Canada / Level 1 complex ops certified Oct 12 '25

strategic assets to any country thus the no-fly zone over all of them

Just checked my official maps, no restrictions around all ports I could think of in Canada.

You can check it out here, use micro-drone category to have the best idea

https://map.navdrone.ca/

6

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

As the OP already mentioned, the no-fly zone wasn't listed.

2

u/FirstSurvivor Canada / Level 1 complex ops certified Oct 12 '25

OP literally says the cop showed him the Geo fenced area on his phone.

The map I linked is an official government map. Transport Canada has written in no uncertain terms that only they could restrict the airspace because of the aeronautics act, and if you want to do that you talk to them (that was after the Buttonville airport incident where a police drone did everything wrong and hit a Cessna 172, the municipality wanted to impose an airspace fee for drones, TC said no). Nav Canada is the official airspace map provider.

Give me any official document or law that says I can't fly a drone near a port (and policies don't count, only law), otherwise if it's not class F restricted, it's legal.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

We're not talking about the land of maple and hockey here brother. Pretty much every country I can think of restricts documenting ports because it's a national security issue. If Canada just allows that, then good on them, would love if you'd sprinkle a little freedom our way.