Virginia drone laws

Virginia has thought harder than most states about the one thing the FAA left to it: the ground. There is no Virginia statute setting an altitude or a route, and there could not be. What there is instead is a part of the Virginia Administrative Code, effective 25 October 2023, governing how a county, city, town or other political subdivision may regulate take-off and landing on land it owns. Buried in it is the sentence a commercial pilot most needs: no such ordinance may prohibit the take-off or landing of an unmanned aircraft by a commercial operator in compliance with FAA regulations.

Alongside that sit a trespass statute with a fifty-foot rule and a felony tier, a stalking provision aimed at registered offenders and protective-order respondents, a warrant requirement for government drone use, and a wildlife regulation that closes department-owned land absent the director's authorization. State parks are closed by regulation rather than by agency policy, which is a firmer footing than most states manage.

State drone law changes frequently. This page was last checked on 25 August 2026; verify against the current statute before you fly.

What federal law settles before Virginia gets a say

The FAA holds exclusive authority over aviation safety and the efficient use of the navigable airspace. Its State and Local Regulation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Fact Sheet (14 July 2023) draws the line. No state or locality may prescribe flight altitudes, flight paths, aerial routes, mandatory geofencing, or a pilot license layered on the federal certificate. Those are preempted.

What remains to the states is their ordinary police power. The fact sheet's own list includes privacy, voyeurism, harassment, trespass, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, land use and zoning, emergency medical services, search and rescue, delivery of prison contraband, and photography of particular facilities such as prisons, refineries and energy infrastructure. Crucially, it also includes laws about where an aircraft may take off and land, and where the operator may stand. Virginia built its entire local-regulation scheme inside that carve-out, which is why it is far more likely to survive challenge than a blanket municipal flight ban would be. Commercial operators are more exposed to preemption than hobbyists, not less: the Airline Deregulation Act preempts state laws related to the prices, routes or services of an operator with economic authority to provide interstate transportation.

Virginia's drone-specific laws

Va. Code § 15.2-926.3 — local regulation of certain aircraft. Subsection A: "No political subdivision may regulate the use of a privately owned, unmanned aircraft system as defined in § 19.2-60.1 within its boundaries." Subsection B lets a political subdivision adopt an ordinance regulating take-off and landing on property it owns, but only in accordance with rules promulgated by the Department of Aviation, and requires subdivisions to report adopted ordinances to the Department, which publishes a summary annually. Subsection C makes clear that holding a drone does not give you entry to public land you would not otherwise be allowed on. Subsection D provides that nothing in the section prohibits take-off or landing by a commercial operator in compliance with FAA regulations, a landing made necessary by a technical malfunction, a sworn public safety officer in the performance of his duties, or United States government aircraft and its contractors.

24VAC5-20 Part VIII — the Department of Aviation's UAS rules. This is where the detail lives, and it is unusually operator-friendly. Under 24VAC5-20-420, a political subdivision may regulate take-off and landing on its own property in a manner consistent with the part, may set times, and may designate properties of heightened risk — but "every area designated pursuant to this subsection must include a map showing, with specificity, the area of prohibited use," and "the map and any related documents must be provided in electronic, computable, machine-readable, and transmissible form." The same section provides that "no political subdivision shall require a permit for operators for take-off and landing unmanned aircraft in areas designated for unmanned aircraft use" — though that permit bar does not extend to the heightened-risk properties — and that "no political subdivision shall regulate the take-off and landing of unmanned aircraft with a ready-for-take-off weight of less than 0.55 pounds," except on properties regulated under the authority the section gives.

Section 24VAC5-20-430 sets the procedure, and the procedure has teeth. A proposed ordinance may not even be advertised for a public hearing until it has been submitted to the Department for comment and approval of consistency. Every political subdivision must report an adopted regulation to the Department within fourteen days, and — the important part — "no regulation shall take effect until it is published on the department's website." If it is not on the Department of Aviation's list, it is not yet law.

Section 24VAC5-20-440 then lists what no such ordinance may prohibit, starting with "the take-off or landing of an unmanned aircraft by a commercial operator in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations." The same list protects a precautionary landing after a technical malfunction, sworn public safety officers, US government aircraft and contractors, commercial operators responding to a declared emergency, and a subdivision's own employees on its own land. Subsection B adds that no local regulation "shall apply to take-offs and landings on the vehicular travel portions of public highways or streets or to rights of ways adjacent to travel portions of the highways or streets."

Va. Code § 18.2-121.3 — trespass with an unmanned aircraft system. Subsection A is a Class 1 misdemeanor covering three things: causing the aircraft to enter another's property and come within 50 feet of a dwelling house either to coerce, intimidate or harass, or for any other reason after actual notice to desist; taking off or landing in violation of FAA Special Security Instructions or UAS Security Sensitive Airspace Restrictions; and dropping items within the boundaries of, or obtaining images of identifiable inmates or residents at, a state or local correctional facility or juvenile correctional center. Subsection B is a Class 4 felony for knowingly and intentionally causing the aircraft to enter, without authorization, the airspace over public services or utilities, over critical infrastructure as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 5195c including a military base, or over a Maritime Transportation Security Act facility. Subsection D adds a further Class 4 felony for obtaining or attempting to obtain images containing controlled technical information at a contracted defense facility — a live risk in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia — and grants facility owners and employees immunity when preventing a trespass, provided no person is injured.

Read subsection C before you panic about B. Subsections A and B do not apply where consent is given by a person with legal authority to consent or by someone lawfully present, where the operator is authorized by federal regulations and operating in an otherwise lawful manner consistent with them, or where the operator is an employee of the property, utility or facility conducting official business. A lawful, on-contract Part 107 inspection of a utility is squarely inside that exception. An uninvited flight over the same substation is not. Note that subsection D applies notwithstanding subsections A, B and C, so the subsection C exceptions do not reach the defense-facility offense.

Va. Code § 18.2-324.2. A person required to register under § 9.1-901 may not use a UAS to knowingly and intentionally follow or contact another person without permission, or capture images that render a person recognizable by face, likeness or other distinguishing characteristic, without permission. A respondent to a protective order may not use a UAS to follow, contact or capture images of the petitioner or anyone named in the order. A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Va. Code § 19.2-60.1 — public bodies and search warrants. State and local agencies with criminal or regulatory enforcement jurisdiction generally need a warrant to deploy a drone, with listed exceptions including Amber, Senior and Blue Alerts, immediate danger to persons, accident reconstruction, training and consent. Evidence obtained in violation is inadmissible. This section constrains the government, not you.

Where you can and cannot take off

State parks. 4VAC5-30-400 provides that "no person shall voluntarily land or unlawfully operate within or upon any park, any airplane, remote control model aircraft, helicopter, unmanned aerial system, drone, balloon, parachute, or other apparatus for aviation," with "voluntarily" meaning anything other than a forced landing, and an exemption for rescue and evacuation aircraft. Taken at its word, that rule bars putting a drone down inside a Virginia state park at all. What the regulation does not do is set an altitude or a flight path, and it could not: that is federal ground. The Department of Conservation and Recreation hosts further park guidance on its own site, but dcr.virginia.gov refused every request at the last check, so this page has not read that document and will not summarize its terms here. Contact the park or site office directly before you plan a shoot.

Department of Wildlife Resources land. 4VAC15-20-240 makes it unlawful, except as authorized by the director, to use a drone or unmanned aircraft on department-owned lands; to hunt, take, kill, drive or herd wild animals; to harass wildlife; or to hunt on the same calendar day on a property after having used a drone to locate or surveil a wild animal during an open season.

Everywhere else. Ask whether the parcel is owned by a political subdivision, and if it is, check the Department of Aviation's published list. At the last check that list showed a single entry, for the Town of Dumfries, and even its link was a placeholder. An unpublished ordinance is not in force, and a published one still cannot stop a compliant commercial operator from launching.

What still applies everywhere

Nothing Virginia does changes Part 107. You still need a remote pilot certificate, a registered aircraft, and compliance with the federal operating rules: a 400-foot ceiling above ground level or within 400 feet of a structure, visual line of sight, three statute miles of flight visibility, cloud clearances of 500 feet below and 2,000 feet horizontally, and airspace authorization before entering controlled airspace. Northern Virginia adds the Washington DC Special Flight Rules Area and Flight Restricted Zone on top, which are federal restrictions, not state ones — see TFRs and special use airspace and LAANC authorization. If any of this is new, start with how to get a drone license.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Virginia city ban me from taking off in its park?

Not if you are working. Va. Code § 15.2-926.3 lets a political subdivision regulate take-off and landing on property it owns, but 24VAC5-20-440(A)(1) provides that no such ordinance or regulation may prohibit the take-off or landing of an unmanned aircraft by a commercial operator in compliance with FAA regulations. Recreational flyers do not get that protection.

How do I find out if a Virginia locality has a drone ordinance?

Check the Department of Aviation's published list. Under 24VAC5-20-430, a political subdivision must report an adopted regulation to the Department within fourteen days, and no regulation takes effect until it is published on the Department's website. At the last check the list carried one entry, for the Town of Dumfries.

Is flying over a substation a felony in Virginia?

It can be. Va. Code § 18.2-121.3(B) makes knowingly and intentionally causing a drone to enter, without authorization, the airspace over public services or utilities or over critical infrastructure a Class 4 felony. But subsection C exempts an operator authorized by federal regulations who is operating in an otherwise lawful manner consistent with them, and employees conducting official business at the facility.

Can I launch a drone in a Virginia state park?

Not under the regulation as written. 4VAC5-30-400 prohibits voluntarily landing or unlawfully operating any unmanned aerial system or drone within or upon any park, "voluntarily" meaning anything other than a forced landing. DCR hosts further park guidance on its own site, but this page could not open it, so ask the site office what it currently requires.

Does Virginia require a state drone registration?

No Virginia statute opened for this page imposes a state registration or license on a small unmanned aircraft or its pilot. Certification and registration are federal. What Virginia regulates is the ground: where you launch, where you land, and what the camera captures.

Return to the state drone law index, or test yourself with the Part 107 practice test.

Sources

• FAA, State and Local Regulation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Fact Sheet, 14 July 2023
• Va. Code § 15.2-926.3, Local regulation of certain aircraft
• Va. Code § 18.2-121.3, Trespass with an unmanned aircraft system; penalty
• Va. Code § 18.2-324.2, Use of unmanned aircraft system for certain purposes; penalty
• Va. Code § 19.2-60.1, Use of unmanned aircraft systems by public bodies; search warrant required
• 24VAC5-20-420, 24VAC5-20-430 and 24VAC5-20-440, Virginia Department of Aviation, Unmanned Aircraft
• 4VAC5-30-400, Virginia State Parks Regulations — Aviation
• 4VAC15-20-240, Use of drones for certain activities prohibited
• Virginia Department of Aviation, Airport Safety Zoning and Local Drone Operations in Parks