Is It Legal to Fly a Drone in Philly?

Absolutely, yes! I get asked this question all the time. "Do you have to get special approval to fly there?" "Is it legal to fly around the buildings?". Anything you can think of, people have asked me. What makes it legal to fly in Center City? Well for starters, we are out of the Class B airspace starting about 10 blocks south of Washington Ave. Technically, it is legal to fly there also as long as you get approval from the FAA, but that's a conversation for another time.

The FAA also has some rules about flying under 400 AGL. Now, this is what confuses a lot of people. According to the FAA, "The maximum allowable altitude is 400 feet above the ground, and higher if your drone remains within 400 feet of a structure." That structure, being the Comcast Technology Center or Liberty One. If I went 400 feet above those buildings, I would be flying my drone illegally. This is the super short and sweet answer to the question. There are a lot of other factors that go into flying your drone in Philly so please do not take this article as a end all be all to the question. This is not legal advice, this is just simply informing you of some knowledge that I have.

If you have any questions or would like clarification on something, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message! As always, if you enjoy my work please follow me on Instagram @cgregory422!