Delaware Drone Laws
Find out about the drone laws that apply to you when you plan on flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) anywhere in the state of Delaware. This guide provides an up to date look at all of the laws drone owners in Delaware have to comply with on a state, local, and federal level.
Delaware State Drone Laws
State drone laws are applied to the entire state of Delaware and are enforced by local government.
This law prohibits anyone from flying a drone over sporting events, concerts, automobile races, festivals, or any other type of event where 1500 people or more are gathered together. Normally, you might still be able to fly over an event with express permission from event coordinators, but as this law doesn’t make provisions for that, it’s hard to tell if that would be allowed.
The law also states that you aren’t allowed to fly a drone near or over any critical infrastructure, although it does not state the specific distance of “restricted” airspace from the facility. Critical infrastructure is regarded as any facility that provides a function that society needs and includes power plants, government buildings, power utilities, water treatment facilities, oil & gas refiners, and military facilities.
According to this law, drone owners also aren’t allowed to fly:
- Over any incidents where first responders are actively working or busy transporting people.
- Over private property in a way that harasses or violates the privacy of another person. You need written permission from the property owner or occupier to fly over their property.
- In a way that violates any protective order issued by the family court, a court in the US, or Canada (so long as the violation occurred in Delaware).
Although there are some exceptions to these rules where, the drone is used for law enforcement purposes, the drone is operated by an institution of higher education for educational purposes within FAA guidelines, or the drone is used by a commercial operator in compliance with FAA guidelines.
Finally, this law also prevents any local governments in cities or towns from creating their own drone laws.
This act amends Title 11 of the Delaware code above to include a clause that states the use of drones to transport or introduce contraband into detention facilities is prohibited. According to this act, anyone who tries to deliver contraband using a drone will be charged with a class F felony. This is likely due to several incidents n 2018 where drones were spotted flying above correctional facilities in the state.
9201 Regulations Governing State Parks, Section 13
Like most (if not all) other state parks across the country, flying a drone in a state park in Delaware is prohibited. Specifically, this law states that drone operators may not voluntarily bring, fly over, or land an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on any lands or waters administered by the Division.
It does make an exception for anyone who has special written permission from the Division or where drones are flown in areas set aside and designated for such purposes. For those areas, individual parks may post their own rules regarding operation and insurance requirements.
Delaware Local Drone Laws
Even though one of Delaware’s only state-wide drone laws prevents local governments from creating their own drone laws, there is one local drone law currently in effect in the town of Bethany.
Bethany Beach – Chapter 212, Part III
This city ordinance prohibits anyone from flying a drone in public areas within the town limits, including the beach and boardwalk. If you violate this ordinance, your drone equipment may be seized and you could pay a $20 fine for every day that the seized drone is in storage.
Despite the fact that the state law pre-empts any local laws, rendering them invalid, you should consider still complying with this city ordinance if you’re in Bethany. For one, it’s usually not worth the hassle of having to fight it out with local law enforcement and for another, there’s still a chance that a court could side with government officials if you decide to take the matter further. There are plenty of fantastic places to fly in Delaware, fighting over this one stretch of land might not be worth it. But as a drone owner, making that decision is up to you.
Federal Drone Laws
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates what drone owners are allowed (and more importantly, not allowed) to do. One of the most contentious drone regulations to date is the “line of sight rule”, which is part of the Part 107 rules for commercial drone operators. It states that drone owners have to keep their drones within visual line of sight of the pilot or visual observers at all times.
As you can imagine, this has halted a lot of progress in the commercial drone market, since things like drone deliveries are nearly impossible. But the rules are the rules. Thankfully, some progress has been made in this area as the FAA recently announced a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waiver. While this only applies to first responders right now, there is hope that similar waivers or lessening of restrictions may happen in the future.
While recreational fliers don’t need to get a pilot’s licence when they register their drones, commercial drone operators are required to take an aeronautics knowledge test and get their pilot’s licence under the Part 107 rules. Commercial pilots are also not allowed to fly more than one drone at a time, to fly at night, from a moving vehicle, or faster than 100 mph. Although commercial pilots can apply for waivers if they want to deviate from some of these and other rules as well.
On the other hand, recreational fliers have a lot less regulatory red tape to deal with, figuratively speaking. They also need to register their drones via DroneZone if they weigh more than 0.55 lbs and less than 55 lbs, but other than that they just need to follow some simple guidelines and stick to areas where drones are allowed.
Generally, drones (whether flown commercially or recreationally) are only allowed in class G airspace, which is 400 feet or lower from ground level. Drones are also not allowed to be flown within 5 miles of any airport without special permission, which is why you always have to check whether the airspace you plan to fly in is controlled or not before flying.
