FAA Drone Airspace Checker — Batch LAANC & No-Fly Verdicts

Batch-check any list of lat/lon points against the FAA's official UAS airspace GIS services and get one clear verdict row per point: LAANC grid ceiling, every intersecting prohibited/restricted area, and a conservative flight_category (PROHIBITED → UNCONTROLLED_CHECK_LOCAL). No API keys, no scraping — this reads the same FAA Aeronautical Information Services ArcGIS layers that power the official UAS Data Delivery System.

Seven FAA layers checked per point (all live):

Layer	What it catches	Severity
laanc_grid	UAS Facility Map LAANC grid ceilings (0–400 ft)	drives ceiling
prohibited_areas	P-areas (e.g. P-56 over the White House/National Mall)	PROHIBITED
national_defense_tfr	National Defense Airspace TFR areas	PROHIBITED
special_use_airspace	Restricted areas (R-xxxx), MOAs, Alert & Warning areas	R = RESTRICTED, others ADVISORY
part_time_nsufr	Part-time National Security UAS Flight Restrictions (14 CFR 99.7)	RESTRICTED
stadiums	Stadium game-day TFRs — flags any point within 3 NM of a listed stadium	ADVISORY
recreational_flyer_sites	FAA-recognized fixed flying sites	ADVISORY

Disclaimer — read this. Output is advisory data derived from FAA public GIS services. It is not an FAA authorization, LAANC approval, or legal clearance, and layers may lag reality (event TFRs, NOTAMs, and DC FRZ/SFRA specifics are not fully covered). Always confirm with an approved LAANC provider / FAA B4UFLY and current NOTAMs before flying. Every result row carries a disclaimer field.

Who uses this

• Drone service providers & operators — pre-qualify a week of job sites in one run: which sites are auto-authorizable via LAANC (and to what ceiling), which need a manual waiver, and which are hard no-fly.
• Drone insurance underwriters & risk teams — score the airspace risk of insured operation locations in batch; a CONTROLLED_LAANC_0 or PROHIBITED verdict is a very different risk than rural Class G.
• AI agents (flagship MCP use) — a grounding primitive for any flight-planning, compliance, or real-estate/roof-inspection agent: feed coordinates, get a structured verdict to reason over before recommending a flight.
• Drone software builders — enrich mission-planning or fleet-ops tools without standing up your own GIS stack.

Example input

{
  "points": [
    { "lat": 39.86, "lon": -104.67, "label": "Job site near Denver Intl" },
    "38.8977,-77.0365",
    { "lat": 38.9072, "lon": -101.05, "label": "Rural tower inspection" }
  ],
  "layers": ["laanc_grid", "prohibited_areas", "national_defense_tfr", "special_use_airspace", "part_time_nsufr", "stadiums", "recreational_flyer_sites"],
  "maxPoints": 500
}

Points may be {lat, lon, label?} objects (latitude/longitude aliases accepted) or "lat,lon" strings. layers defaults to all seven. One bad point never kills the run — it is skipped (unparseable) or emitted with flight_category: "ERROR" (all queries failed).

Output fields (one row per checked point)

Field	Meaning
label, lat, lon	Your point, echoed back
flight_category	PROHIBITED | RESTRICTED | CONTROLLED_LAANC_0 | CONTROLLED_LAANC | UNCONTROLLED_CHECK_LOCAL | ERROR
max_laanc_ceiling_ft	Min ceiling of intersecting LAANC grid cells — the max altitude eligible for auto-authorization. 0 = controlled airspace with no auto-auth. null = outside the grid
laanc_grids_hit	Number of UAS Facility Map cells intersecting the point
nearest_airport, nearest_airport_name, airspace_class, laanc_enabled	Controlling facility for the lowest-ceiling cell (e.g. KDEN, Class B)
restriction_count, restrictions[]	Every intersecting restriction: { layer, type, severity, name, details }, sorted most-severe-first (altitude band, times of use, POC schedule where available)
layer_errors[]	Any FAA layer that failed for this point (isolated — other layers still count)
checked_at, disclaimer	ISO timestamp + advisory-data disclaimer

Verdict logic (conservative)

1. Any intersecting prohibited area or national-defense TFR → PROHIBITED.
2. Else any restricted SUA (R-xxxx) or NSUFR → RESTRICTED.
3. Else inside the LAANC grid with ceiling 0 → CONTROLLED_LAANC_0 (manual FAA authorization required; no LAANC auto-auth).
4. Else inside the grid with ceiling > 0 → CONTROLLED_LAANC (auto-auth possible up to max_laanc_ceiling_ft).
5. Else → UNCONTROLLED_CHECK_LOCAL (likely Class G; still check NOTAMs and local rules).

Stadium (3 NM) and recreational-site hits are attached as ADVISORY restrictions — they never soften a harsher verdict.

Use as an MCP tool (flagship use case)

This actor is built to be a pre-flight grounding primitive for AI agents via mcp.apify.com. The input is a plain points array and the output is one flat, fully-described row per point, so agents like Claude, Cursor, or custom LangChain/CrewAI stacks can chain it with zero glue code:

1. Agent geocodes an address (any geocoding tool).
2. Agent calls faa-drone-airspace-checker with the coordinates.
3. Agent reads flight_category + max_laanc_ceiling_ft and tells the user whether a drone flight is plausible, needs LAANC, needs a waiver, or is a no-go — with the named airspace (P-56, R-4808N, …) as the citation.

Typical agent prompt: "Can I fly a drone at 123 Main St, Denver? Check the airspace first."

Pricing

Pay-per-event: you are charged per checked point (one dataset row each). Batch 500 sites in a single run; no subscription, no key management.

FAQ

Is this legal clearance to fly? No. It is advisory data from FAA public GIS layers. Get authorization via a LAANC provider (Aloft, AirHub, Avision, …) or FAA DroneZone, and check NOTAMs/B4UFLY before flight.

Why did my point return CONTROLLED_LAANC_0? It sits in a UAS Facility Map grid cell with a 0-ft ceiling (typically right over a runway approach). LAANC auto-approval is unavailable there; you would need a manual FAA authorization/waiver.

max_laanc_ceiling_ft is null — does that mean I can fly? It means the point is outside the UAS Facility Map grids, which usually indicates uncontrolled (Class G) airspace. Part 107 rules still apply (400 ft AGL, visual line of sight), and TFRs/NOTAMs can still restrict it — hence UNCONTROLLED_CHECK_LOCAL.

Does it cover event TFRs, the DC FRZ, or full-time DoD NSUFR boundaries? Not yet. Pop-up event/VIP TFRs are NOTAM-driven and not in these GIS layers. The DC area is partially covered (P-56 + SFRA rings via SUA). The FAA org only publishes a dated full-time DoD NSUFR service, so v1 wires the stable part-time NSUFR service; the full-time layer is scaffolded for a future version.

Are stadium hits real TFRs? The stadium layer flags points within 3 NM of listed venues. The TFR (surface–3,000 ft AGL) is only active around scheduled MLB / NFL / NCAA Division 1 football / major motor-speedway events — that's why it's ADVISORY.

Can I check points outside the US? No — FAA data covers US airspace (incl. AK, HI, and territories where mapped). Non-US points return UNCONTROLLED_CHECK_LOCAL with no grid data; don't rely on that.

How current is the data? Layers are maintained by FAA Aeronautical Information Services and queried live on every run. The UAS Facility Map itself is updated on the FAA's 56-day chart cycle.