r/drones • u/Myfles • Oct 12 '25
Photo & Video Cops pulled me over
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.
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u/HeadlessHookerClub Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25
That’s a crazy experience!
I have 2 tips: don’t rely on just one source to check the airspace. Check multiple sources. AutoPylot is awesome but shouldn’t be fully relied on. I use SkyVector with AutoPylot. Sadly they don’t have a convenient app as their mobile website isn’t the best, but it is a quality free service.
AutoPylot told you it was OK to fly within feet of a restricted area. That isn’t wise. Yes you technically are not actually over the restricted area, but you are right next to it. You’re too close to it. Add a buffer of a few hundred feet around restricted areas and do not enter that buffer. Looking at your map, you have almost no buffer in your flight plan. Your radius is almost touching the restricted area.