Police Departments

R.Perry · Dec 9, 2021

I have a new job that has turned into a pain. It is right next to the police department. It is also in restricted air space. Got authorization to fly. I was to map a city block adjacent to the police department. Site of the new court house. Well you guessed it; PD locked out a significant portion of the area I was to map. Went over to talk to the police and see if they would shut down their transmitter long enough for me to do my job. Showed them my FAA authorization to fly, and the area to be mapped. You talk about bureaucracy, you would think I had asked them for the keys to the city. Not only that the first few officers I talked to had no idea what I was talking about.
Has anyone else dealt with anything like this?

dirkclod · Dec 9, 2021

Have you talked with the Chief yet ?

dirkclod · Dec 9, 2021

dirkclod said:
Have you talked with the Chief yet ?

Seems the PD would be on city property as well as the courthouse
they are wanting to build. Talk to the Mayer.

BigAl07 · Dec 9, 2021

I'd have the city/town Manager give the Chief a call and work it out if you're doing the mapping for them. If it's a 3rd party get ready for several hoops to jump through.

WildDoktor · Dec 9, 2021

Interesting; do you mean they have the area locked down with a TFR, or it's locked down because their infrastructure is emitting so much electronic / frequency interference?

Fred Garvin · Dec 9, 2021

WHO has hired you? A construction company, an architectural firm, the city?

THAT will determine where to go next. (All path's lead to city management, but who hired you determines who goes)

R.Perry · Dec 10, 2021

Well hired by construction company. There is no TFR there, only at the jail. PD put up their own blocking both 2.4 and 5.8.
I dropped this in the lap of the construction company. Apparently the superintendent is pretty tight with the Chief and the Mayor.
Altitude restriction is 100 feet. New Court house is going to be 185 feet, so as construction progresses I will need to try to get authorization for hopefully 300 feet. I went over to flight services and talked to the folks at the airport and they have no problem giving me the altitude but as you all know they don't have authorization to do so. Once I get the authorization they will want NOTAMS filed for flight dates and times. The good thing is it isn't a busy airport, only one commercial scheduled flight out each day, remainder is general aviation. Reality is general aviation can be more problematic than commercial. Blue building is the PD department.

R.Perry · Dec 10, 2021

You can see why it is problematic with G Aviation, the left hand runway is for the general aviation and normally departs to the North West runway is 28. If I can get the airport to give straight out or right hand departures there shouldn't be any conflicts. Thing is many of the departures from this airport are headed towards the SF bay area and they would want the left hand departure. I have flown out of MOD many times and know the folks over there pretty well. It is big brother that makes the rules though. The thing is shortly after takeoff most are handed off to Oakland Center so now they need to get involved and that is just creating more fun.

Fred Garvin · Dec 10, 2021

Man, that looks like a pretty long way from the airport. I would think a plane at 300' that far away....might be a whole other issue.

Isn't it illegal to jam radio frequencies? Is the FCC okay with this?

Vic Moss · Dec 11, 2021

Fred Garvin said:
Man, that looks like a pretty long way from the airport. I would think a plane at 300' that far away....might be a whole other issue.

Isn't it illegal to jam radio frequencies? Is the FCC okay with this?

Yes. Local entities are not allowed to jam frequencies w/o about 1000 hoops to jump through. Someone needs to follow up on this. It's not blocked by DJI.

Vic Moss · Dec 11, 2021

R.Perry said:
I have a new job that has turned into a pain. It is right next to the police department. It is also in restricted air space. Got authorization to fly. I was to map a city block adjacent to the police department. Site of the new court house. Well you guessed it; PD locked out a significant portion of the area I was to map. Went over to talk to the police and see if they would shut down their transmitter long enough for me to do my job. Showed them my FAA authorization to fly, and the area to be mapped. You talk about bureaucracy, you would think I had asked them for the keys to the city. Not only that the first few officers I talked to had no idea what I was talking about.
Has anyone else dealt with anything like this?

This doesn't pass the sniff test. Local PD are not allowed to jam any frequencies.

Did they confirm they were? If so, someone needs to get the FCC involved.

dirkclod · Dec 11, 2021

Kinda ot @Vic Moss but here our SO is surrounded by a NFZ , is not large but is there . Tested there to see what happened when you fly into it and it just stopped me. Could fly around it but was checking if it would make me land. It didn’t. Even tryed spinning up in the circle . No but walk outside of it yes.

Vic Moss · Dec 11, 2021

dirkclod said:
Kinda ot @Vic Moss but here our SO is surrounded by a NFZ , is not large but is there . Tested there to see what happened when you fly into it and it just stopped me. Could fly around it but was checking if it would make me land. It didn’t. Even tryed spinning up in the circle . No but walk outside of it yes.

DJI will GEO some PD, but only if they ask. I checked, and the DJI GEO Map doesn't show Modesto PD as GEO Fenced. If the OP is GEO Fenced out, he can apply for a custom unlock and use the term "overly broad GEO fence" to get an unlock from DJI. He doesn't need permission from the cops.

Fred Garvin · Dec 11, 2021

No, but the Blue Zone for the airport is pretty close. Anytime I'm within a mile or so of one, I'll go ahead and unlock it just to make sure. It's never been an issue, so it's a "just in case" thing.

Hammerhead 6 Actual · Dec 11, 2021

Vic Moss said:
This doesn't pass the sniff test. Local PD are not allowed to jam any frequencies.

Did they confirm they were? If so, someone needs to get the FCC involved.

Agreed. PD can not jam radios freq. tThis certainly does not pass the sniff test. That said, perhaps the radio signal the PD is using is causing interference with the OP’s signal. This seems more likely.

Dave Pitman · Dec 11, 2021

R.Perry said:
I have a new job that has turned into a pain.

You must really be bored to interrupt retirement for problem-child projects. It must be the challenge !

R.Perry · Dec 11, 2021

First of all I'm not going to tell the PD what they are allowed or not allowed to do. I will contact the FCC because there is no question they are jamming. As soon as the drone got close to the intersection it locked up. I needed to hit RTH to get it back. I made three attempts with the same results.
I was able to do a mapping by reducing the area. The contractor wanted the streets close to the PD mapped as well.

As for being bored, you got it, the rocking chair isn't for me. I've been retired for several years. Did all the traveling, fishing, hunting, and playing the first few years. Reality is, I'm really enjoying life and staying out of my wife's hair. It isn't about money, it's about feeling I have a purpose.

R.Perry · Dec 11, 2021

Fred the issue is many pilots flying out of Modesto do so VFR (visual flight rules) so once they get out of the airport traffic area they pretty much do what they want. Most aircraft should be above 500 feet in that area. However a few like Cessna 152 with a student pilot may not be because that aircraft with two adults in it has a very poor rate of climb.

Dave Pitman · Dec 11, 2021

R.Perry said:
As for being bored, you got it, the rocking chair isn't for me. I've been retired for several years. Did all the traveling, fishing, hunting, and playing the first few years. Reality is, I'm really enjoying life and staying out of my wife's hair. It isn't about money, it's about feeling I have a purpose.

I get that. But you've also been on here trying to give away gigs 'cus you've lost interest. Then you're back with a problem-child. Why not just take the gravy?

Anyway, not trying to hijack. Carry on with problem solving...

R.Perry · Dec 19, 2021

Dave Pitman said:
I get that. But you've also been on here trying to give away gigs 'cus you've lost interest. Then you're back with a problem-child. Why not just take the gravy?

Anyway, not trying to hijack. Carry on with problem solving...

Element of truth, reality gave away the ones that had become a pain in the ( Mod Removed Language)or more travel than I wanted. There is always going to be problems, I consider this one a minor one.