B4UFLY Drone Airspace Safety

I feel it’s pretty amazing that a government agency would take the time to put this together. I think it speaks very highly of the FAA. I read a few comments that the maps are not up to date, however, it still shows if it’s safe and allowable to fly in certain locations by a simple push of a button. With so much bad press occurring with drones, I believe this is a great tool that will allow drone users many years of fun, safe and compliant flying. Thank you to the people of the FAA for providing this.

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I was contemplating purchasing a drone but live less than 1 mile away from a moderately busy small airport. While scouring the FAA website and other official resources for any safety information I could find, the FAA site recommended installing and using this app. It seemed like exactly what I wanted until I tried it. Regardless of where I drop a pin, it says it’s safe to fly. I was initially happy it said it was safe to fly in my backyard but felt it may have been inaccurate because I can almost see the runway of the airport from my backyard. So I dropped a pin directly in the airport and the app said it was “good to go”. Dropped a pin directly on the airport runway. Same thing, “good to go”. Dropped a pin on the runway of Philadelphia International Airport. Yep, it said “good to go”. The only way I could get this app to finally say “prohibited from flying” was to drop a pin directly on the White House. Now I have to hope the Secret Service doesn’t come kicking down my door thanks to a stupid experiment with an app. This is a pretty useless app if trying to find areas to safely fly anywhere outside of Washington DC. And DC is likely only accurate because everyone knows you can’t fly over DC. Do not trust this app, especially if you live near an airport.

LAANC is misleading and need to be updated. According to the current FAA guidelines there is not longer a need to notify aiport if one is flying within 5 miles. In LAANC menu when you select frequently asked question link. The question is: Do I have to notify all airports within five miles of where I want to flyrecreationally? Yes, you must contact any airports (including heliports and sea-based airports) and air traffic control towers within five miles of your proposed area of operations if flying under. This is incorrect there is no requirement to contact the airports. In addition in LAANC if you pin your proposed operation in the Yellow area LAANC does not provided what action one must take. It only populates the airport distance. This is not helpful and confusing. LAANC needs to advise the operator what action is needed when proposing to fly in the yellow circles. Thanks.

I've been a long time user of the B4UFLY app and the new update with the inclusion of Kitty Hawk has been a tremendous help! It does a great job breaking down each area where an air space restriction may apply and gives insight as to why that restriction is in place. Keep up th great work!

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Nice app but the data is out of date! Map shows local airport that I should be aware of before flying. Trouble is it has been closed (and torn down) for MORE THAN 25 YEARS!!!!! Same for MULTIPLE Helipads. Doesn’t really matter, within 5 years of this posting the model aviation hobby will be completely gutted by over government control. It’s not liberal vs conservative it is deeper than that and much simpler to understand. Basically the Government, Local, State and Federal do not want private individuals to have certain capabilities like all the new “tech” in our hobby provides. Those capabilities are only for “THOSE IN POWER”! That is the real reason behind the FAA’s airspace grab. Safety is just the buzz word used to limit your rights.