Is there any law in place preventing an airship from loitering?

Asked by intro24 (1434

) March 28th, 2012

So here’s the scenario. There’s nothing that I can think of (except maybe some kind of blanket law) that would prevent an airship from loitering in the Golf airspace around a city. The catch is that I’m also wondering if it would remain within the realm of legality to maneuver said loitering airship so that it blocks out the sun throughout the day over a patch of land without the land owner’s permission… please don’t think I’m plotting evil deeds. This is just a hypothetical situation that wandered through my head. In general, I’m also wondering if the FAA already has any plans in place to handle weird potential contingencies like the one above. Thanks in advanced.

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6 Answers

Define airship? You mean a blimp? If so, well they move much slower than other air craft sooo, then it would be a matter of determining what “loitering” means on a slow moving blimp. :-?

Coloma (47193

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You can’t really loiter. You are in radio contact with towers and then passed on to whatever frequency you have to talk to in whichever area you happen to be in. You also have to file a flight plan. So if you act really weird, they ask about it, then order you down, and if you don’t obey they send fighters up.

trailsillustrated (16804

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What? I’m not invited to FAA meetings, but I would guess that; no, they don’t have contingency plans for loitering or sun blocking at 5000 feet. Can you imagine how many clouds would be arrested?

Trillian (21153

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Not so much loiter but I wondered if anything could be done about it if someone with a blimp decided to get in front of the sun.

intro24 (1434

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There are altitude restrictions that would make your airship have to be pretty big. I think it’s 1000 feet in a populated area and 500 feet in an unpopulated area.

Judi (40025

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Agreed on that one. I’d still consider it pipe-dream possible though.

intro24 (1434

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