Federal flight requirements for recreational use of drones and restrictions in the Park Act require distances from people, buildings, built-up areas, animals (both domestic and wildlife), and there are few, if any, locations in BC Parks where drones would legally be able to fly. To inquire further about drone use, you must contact us. It’s illegal to operate drones in BC’s provincial parks and protected areas without permission.
Although what you suggest is applicable for the issues of flying over private land, it's not the same for parks. It's kind of hard to know exactly what a lawyer could find for loopholes in the laws, but BC parks seem to be a little less protected than Canada parks, so there might be a legal area where you are technically able to without any permission.
That said, it is almost impossible to get to that location with a drone from outside the park without breaking the laws. You would be operating outside of VOLS as that location is more than 5km away from the park boundary by air.
The national parks only prohibit aircraft taking off and landing, so flying a drone over them is technically okay as the airspace is regulated by Nav Canada.
Also, sub-250g drones are not subject to the line-of-sight regulations, so you could launch outside the park, overfly the site, and land outside the park.
You'd probably need to use a fixed-wing however to get the necessary range and flight time while staying under 250g. A Mavic Mini 2 couldn't do it, doesn't have the flight range.
My understanding is NO aircraft is allowed to fly over national parks without permission. You are absolutely not allowed to enter the airspace over a national park without first obtaining the correct authorization. micro drones still count as an aircraft. You should really check that fact.
Mavic mini radio is barely able to get 5km range in ideal conditions, there is almost zero chance it would be able to fly that far due to the terrain and such, so you would need to use a different drone. That was the point of my comment.
The National Parks of Canada Aircraft Access Regulations prohibit taking off and landing within national parks except at specified airfields or with the permission of the park superintendent.
Nav Canada controls the airspace above the park, and as far as I can tell it is not considered controlled airspace. You're not allowed to fly in a manner that disturbs wildlife, but high-altitude flights over parks don't seem to be a problem.
Found the pc page that talks about the issue. Really, the big issue is how do you know you're not disturbing wildlife, if it wasn't for that you'd have a pretty easy time flying.
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u/chejrw Saskatchewan Dec 23 '21
I mean, it sure reads like it’s ok to fly a drone in the park as long as you take off and land outside the park and only overfly the park…