Recreational / Hobbyist UAS pilot reported losing visual line of sight of their UAS and flying within an active TFR without authorization.

Date: 2025-11 · Aircraft: DJI Air 3S · Phase: takeoff

Anomalies: airspace-violation-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-unauthorized-flight-operations-uas|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy

Synopsis

Recreational / Hobbyist UAS pilot reported losing visual line of sight of their UAS and flying within an active TFR without authorization.

Narrative

On Day 0; at approximately XA:30; I; remote pilot in command; inadvertently operated my UAS inside of the boundaries of an active Temporary Flight Restriction established near Location X and the surrounding cities. I was operating under the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations over a residential area while maintaining public safety of pedestrians and staying away from crowds; where my goal was to capture recreational arial photography of the sky. I did not have any authorization or waiver to operate in this prohibited space. This violation was caused by a failure in my pre-flight planning and cross-checking procedures. I was completely unaware that the TFR was active and covered my launch site; in addition to its large length; being approximately XX statue miles in diameter; and I failed to perform a manual check of the official FAA TFR website prior to launch. This significant lapse in situational awareness led me to assure that the area was safe to operate. I cannot definitively confirm if the aircraft was within my unassisted visual line of sight during the flight; as my attention was primarily on the RC controller display to monitor flight status and to capture arial photography. To prevent recurrent; I have immediately implemented redundant safety and airspace checking from 2 FAA supported sources; such as the FAA TFR Map and the AirHub Portal app in order to check for TFRs.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.