"You Can't Take The Sky From Me"...Except Maybe The Sky Over Chicago

Written by Andre Louis-Ferdinand

As many of you have heard, Chicago is now essentially a "No Drone Zone." The co-sponsor of the legislation, Ald. Edward Burke (of the 14th ward) played to the fears of the public by citing, you guessed it, a possible terrorism threat to rationalize this legislation. After passing this legislation he said, “I don’t know what the ability is for these devices to carry a payload, but it would seem that the potential for danger is unlimited." If you are in shock by this statement, you are not alone. After successfully passing this legislation, stating possible terrorism as his reasoning, he said he didn't know the ability of a small UAS to carry a payload. Shouldn't he probably know that and the U.S. government's threat assessment on drones' ability to be used as weapons before he championed legislation against them?

Initially, while looking at this new legislation, we didn't see anything too restrictive beyond the FAA's current AC 91-57A. Chicago's legislation states, "Operators may not fly within 5 miles of the city’s two airports; outside of the operator’s line of site, higher than 400 feet, during bad weather (in the windy city, that eliminates flight for six months of the year unfortunately) or between dusk and dawn." However, here is where the ordnance gets extreme. It states, "that an operator may not fly over any unconsenting person or over any “property the operator does not own.”

This is absolutely asinine! Do manned aircraft fly only over property they own? This would restrict a drone operator to only operating over his/her back yard. After reading this, we immediately contacted the FAA to ascertain if this was even legal. After citing legal precedents, our local FSDO (Flight Standards District Office) convinced us that the FAA has historically sided with additional legislation from large city governments. For example, cities like New York have many rules on helicopter noise and operating altitudes, etc. However, it remains to be seen if Chicago can legally make this a requirement in their ordinance. It has not been directly challenged in a court yet. This legislation essentially makes it illegal for all Section 333 Exemption holders (FAA approved drone companies) to operate within the city of Chicago off of their own property. We anticipate a strong legal challenge in the near future and would wholeheartedly support one as this legislation is illogical.