...it only applies to launching or landing in the park. If you launch outside of the park and merely fly over it, the park cannot interfere (only the FAA has jurisdiction in that event).

A few years back a guy decided to paraglide over Sequoia National Park just south of Yosemite. Paragliding is strictly prohibited in the Sierra parks, and the prohibition is rigidly enforced, so the rangers chased him for many miles beyond the park boundary so they could seize his equipment and fine him. They went away empty handed when he was able to demonstrate that he'd both launched and landed outside of the park. Because he never set foot in it, their regulations didn't apply.


This should eliminate 99% of it though.

The people who fly them need to be real close to these helicopters, they can't be miles away. Usually they have to actually see them from the ground. Some newer ones allow you to see the flight via a small monitor, but those are still can't be flown from 50 miles away.

The idea is to get aerial footage. Like the radio controlled airplanes that hobbyist fly, these can't be flown long distance.

The issue is the noise... they are loud. And potentially could be a danger to others, they can crash into someone. They are small, no bigger than 3 feet wide.

To be more accurate, my 17 year old son owns two quadcopters (and several conventional nitro heli's).

There are already several GPS apps available that allow Android devices to control quadcopters remotely. The phone controls the quadcopter navigation, and relays the drones position, altitude, battery level, and other pertinent information via IP to the remote controller. Amateur copter makers are building these today.

The only things limiting the range of these drones are battery life, cell signal quality, and the law (doing this is illegal, though I haven't heard of anyone being arrested or prosecuted yet). In theory, a nitro quadcopter in an area with decent cell reception could fly for hours.

and I don't know anyone who is risking losing their gear flying long distances. And the GPS apps are really so that they can control the flight path, specifically so they can come back and land on a specific spot, especially with trees.

There is no way people are going to be able to set flight path over 100 miles... lack of battery power and fuel for one. Most run 20 mins in the air.. max.

In Yosemite Valley, there have been plenty of filmmakers using the helis, but all within viewing distance. It is so popular, that is has caused this ban. I think the word "drone" is misleading... and most people think of large military type aircraft.

I just wanted to make it clear these are tiny hobby size crafts that can barely take off with a small camcorder aboard.

Some of my sons friends have sent their copters a few miles away, and one of them climbed his to nearly 10k feet once. My son wants to build a long range octocopter hybrid so he can do this kind of thing himself, but I keep telling him that he has to wait until after his 18th birthday so he can pay his own FAA fines

FWIW, none of them are flying the cheapie off the shelf quadcopters. All of them are building their own copters from plans and ideas they're finding online. There's a huge community of people who are really doing some astounding stuff with this technology.

The key to good video footage is having a 3 axis gyro stabilizer system, and that costs about as much as the copter. Then you have to add a camera.

And for now, they can barely accept the weight of a DSLR -- and are more geared towards a GoPro or a small compact Point and Shoot camcorder.

For every pound of weight, the performance takes a huge hit - they run on batteries and are not running on gas based fuels. Throw a stabilizer and a DSLR with lens... and you have a $10K copter. And that is something you don't want to lose in the woods. The GPS systems allow a pilot to program an exact take off spot, and in an emergency - there is a "go home" button that will return the system to the same spot, within a few feet.

There was an incident in Australia where a copter crashed into a crowd of people, and woman was hurt. You might want to consider some kind of insurance if you are flying these copters.