A uas pilot flying his aircraft low near his home realized it was in pdk class D airspace. He was un...

Narrative:

I was flying a drone over my house and realized I was technically flying in class D with no permission to fly there. Drones create a new and unknown area of operations as this case demonstrates. I was well far from the airport (almost at the lateral class D limits); and I was flying very low; so I was not endangering any traffic. However; it has been bugging me that I did fly in class D without permission. I have been thinking about what I would do differently. For example; perhaps I would try to contact the tower with my hand-held radio. This would be difficult because I am not high enough to get a good signal to the airport. Should I have given them a call to let them know? Would they think I was nuts if I called them about a little drone that would not have an effect on their operations? These questions do need to be answered; and it is not clear to me where the line is drawn. For example; it would be too conservative to suggest that I could not fly the drone 4 feet above the ground; or even up to roof top level. I felt compelled to write this not only to admit I may have done something I should not have; but also to spur the conversation of what should and should not be done with drones in technically controlled airspace.note: this was the third or so occurrence of this operation in the past couple weeks; and the reported date only reflects the most recent occurrence.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A UAS pilot flying his aircraft low near his home realized it was in PDK Class D airspace. He was uncertain what action he should take to notify ATC about his intended flight.

Narrative: I was flying a drone over my house and realized I was technically flying in Class D with no permission to fly there. Drones create a new and unknown area of operations as this case demonstrates. I was well far from the airport (almost at the lateral Class D limits); and I was flying very low; so I was not endangering any traffic. However; it has been bugging me that I did fly in Class D without permission. I have been thinking about what I would do differently. For example; perhaps I would try to contact the tower with my hand-held radio. This would be difficult because I am not high enough to get a good signal to the airport. Should I have given them a call to let them know? Would they think I was nuts if I called them about a little drone that would not have an effect on their operations? These questions do need to be answered; and it is not clear to me where the line is drawn. For example; it would be too conservative to suggest that I could not fly the drone 4 feet above the ground; or even up to roof top level. I felt compelled to write this not only to admit I may have done something I should not have; but also to spur the conversation of what should and should not be done with drones in technically controlled airspace.Note: this was the third or so occurrence of this operation in the past couple weeks; and the reported date only reflects the most recent occurrence.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1435461
Time
Date	201703
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	PDK.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Operating Under FAR Part	Other 107
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Rotorcraft Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 1250 Flight Crew Type 2
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A uas pilot flying his aircraft low near his home realized it was in pdk class D airspace. He was uncertain what action he should take to notify ATC about his intended flight.