The FAA has issued a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) that prohibits drone operation within a 32-mile radius of the stadium in Santa Clara, California. The TFR takes effect at 2PM and lasts until 11:59PM Sunday, February 7.
I’m all for drone safety, but doesn’t 32 miles seem a little overkill to ban drones for a football game?
This essentially bans drone flights on Sunday as far north as San Francisco and Oakland and extends south to encompass all of Santa Cruz. Of course, the FAA did the same thing last year at Super Bowl 49 and banned drone flights across a good bit of remote desert terrain as well.
It is totally insane but the FAA hates drones and looks for any and all opportunities to ban them. I don’t know if any drones that have even 10% of the range required to impact the SB from 32 miles away.
If you’ve ever read any of the position papers by the FAA, you’d know this is only not true, but quite the opposite of their position. The FAA is looking to encourage and enforce responsible use. Fixed wing RC enthusiasts have had a long and happy working relationship with the FAA, but so many of the owners of consumer drones are simply tourists, and irresponsible; and have time and time again shown irresponsible use of these tools. It’s ruining it for those who want to use them as serious tools.
32 mile radius? That’s just plain idiotic!
…so is the guy who flew his drone into the Empire State Building
What does that have to do with 32 mile radius?
a vast majority of people flying drones should simply not be doing so. many have no clue about dangers or how to operate safely. you can’t stop every instance, but these restrictions are put in place to prevent this type of garbage happening at large, crowded events that already pose tremendous security problems as it is… I’m NOT saying I agree with the FAA implementation of the drone registration program or their far reaching hands into this territory, but SOMETHING needs to be done before people are killed, either accidentally or intentionally.
Agreed.
I totally agree. Anyone that knows anything about non military drones knows they have a mile or two range at best. The person who replied to your comment clearly has an issue with drones without any real knowledge about them.
There have been ZERO fatalities from drones and there are close to 1 million of them in the USA. Compare that to the 32,000 people who died in car accidents in 2014, (10K from drunk drivers and 10K from people not wearing seat belts) and you have a real problem to be worried about. More people die from pig attacks in the USA, let’s ban pigs.
How about alcohol? “Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence, the World Health Organization warned on Friday.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/alcohol-related-deaths-_n_821900.html
See drones just aren’t really an issue, we just make them into one because the media loves to scream about them anytime one crashes into a building. FLASH NEWS ALERT!! Drone crashes into a building,… says the headline, then you read farther and it says Minor damage, no or minor injuries. That’s not news, it is click bait.
Not really – the SuperBowl isn’t an event that is just restricted to the stadium, but to the entire area. A drone that crashes into a car on the freeway would back up already horrible traffic for miles, there is SUCH a huge influx of people into the surrounding areas that additional disruptions have potential to create issues.
The 32 mile area does seem arbitrary numerically, but there is likely a reason that was studied for this distance (in other words, i doubt someone threw a dart at the map and said, ‘ehh, let’s make it THIS far away…”.
It’s only in effect for 9 hours. Hobbyists can refrain from using them for that short of a period of time.
Here is the final word on this. This article is somewhat misleading and probably click bait. Their restriction has little to do with drones and everything to do with every single flying thing in the area. I retract my initial comment about the FAA and targeting drones. I fell victim to click bait, lesson learned.
“THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS ARE NOT AUTHORIZED WITHIN THIS TFR: UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS), MODEL AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS, MODEL ROCKETRY, FLIGHT TRAINING, PRACTICE INSTRUMENT APPROACHES, AEROBATIC FLIGHT, GLIDER OPERATIONS, SEAPLANE OPERATIONS, PARACHUTE OPERATIONS, ULTRALIGHT, HANG GLIDING, BALLOON OPERATIONS, AGRICULTURE/CROP DUSTING, ANIMAL POPULATION CONTROL FLIGHT OPERATIONS, BANNER TOWING OPERATIONS, SIGHTSEEING OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE TEST FLIGHTS, AND UTILITY AND PIPELINE SURVEY OPERATIONS.”
The FAA has a major awareness campaign pushed toward drone owners. It is very much targeting drones in its public message and is a very real concern for the FAA’s TFR on Sunday.
The video at top is direct from the FAA’s YouTube channel. The FAA’s twitter feed has been littered with the #NoDroneZone message all week.
How far you want to read into all of that from a policy standpoint is up for debate…