In Jerome, just off from the Sliding Jail, overlooking the hills of the valley, a sign announces its ban of drone aircraft for fear of interfering with the Cottonwood Municipal Airport.
“No Drone Zone,” the brown sign reads, under a picture of a drone with a red circle crossing it out. “Unauthorized drone operations prohibited within 5 miles of airport (per 14 CFR part 107). Report violations to Cottonwood Airport 928-340-2777.”
However, if you call that number for the Cottonwood Airport, you may be surprised to discover that it did not put up the sign and, in fact, has no idea where it came from.
“That has nothing to do with the airport,” Cottonwood Airport Special Projects Manager Morgan Scott said. He was surprised to find out about the sign at all, especially since it seems to conflict with Federal Aviation Administration regulations about drone use.
Under FAA rules, only the FAA itself can ban drones in a certain location, and since the FAA classifies the area around the Cottonwood Airport as Class E, with relatively lax regulations, drones are not banned from the area by the FAA and cannot be banned by the airport or anyone else in the area.
“The FAA values its partnerships with stakeholders, including airport operators, to promote safe drone operations,” Ian Gregor, Communications Manager for the FAA Pacific Division wrote in an email. “However, it’s important to note that the FAA has sole jurisdiction over the nation’s airspace, including airspace immediately around airports, for the purposes of air navigation. Airport operators can work with the FAA concerning airspace requirements, but they cannot ban drones on their own.”
According to Scott, the Cottonwood Airport is well aware of the FAA rules regarding drones and tries to accommodate them.
“You are supposed to have a license, an FAA license, to fly a drone,” Scott said. “You’re supposed to notify an airport when you’re going to operate within 5 miles of the airport, which is most of the upper Verde Valley — I think Jerome is right at that limit. All someone is supposed to do if a pilot’s going to fly a drone, they’re supposed to call an airport. That airport logs it, and we will notify pilots, especially if it’s going to be somewhere near a flight path. But they’re allowed to fly. They’re just supposed to notify us.”
The town of Jerome passed an ordinance putting up the drone signs in May 2018, after residents complained about drones buzzing over their homes. Jerome Police Chief Allen Muma said that the town was well aware that they were unable to ban drones and that the signs were intended merely to get drone users to follow FAA regulations and avoid looking into people’s houses, not to stop their use altogether.
Muma said that the town of Jerome had not ticketed anyone or confiscated anyone’s drones in conjunction with those signs.
“There’s nothing in there that says you’re going be prosecuted,” Muma said. “If they’re going to operate a drone, they should operate it appropriately, within the constrains of the law. They should. It’s just like driving a car — should you be able to get into a car and drive without a license and not know the regulations?”
Muma insisted that the signs did not imply that drone use was banned altogether, but were there to just encourage anyone interested in using a drone to look up the relevant statutes and contact the airport in order to follow the rules. He said that the signs have been effective in discouraging drone use in Jerome that bothered the town’s residents.
“If you’re a responsible operator of an aerial drone, then you know the laws,” Muma said. “And if you know the laws, then there’s no problem. But if you don’t know the laws, a lot of these things people do — they’ll run down and buy this super fancy drone and then just launch it. When Jerome’s busy, the streets are crowded. You can’t even fly over the streets then — you can’t even fly over a crowded area. So you need to know the laws and as long as you know the laws, I don’t have a problem.”
“And that’s what those signs basically say,” Muma said of the signs that say, “No Drone Zone.”
