As for notices, if you are working near airports with drones commercially, filing a NOTAM is a good idea. If you are Within the airspace, you will need to get permission from the control tower, which requires advanced filing. (Up to 90 days ahead of time). Calling the local tower/airport as a hobbyist is a bad idea. Instead, just fly somewhere else, and NEVER fly above 400 feet or within regulated airspace.
Note that apps like AirMap can help figure this stuff out, however, there are a lot of helipads in the city that make things problematic. Some of which are not actually still there, but which were never removed from the FAA records. However, the UCSF medical center is one which is active. Also, IME tourist/ sightseeing helicopters regularly fly too low in the bay. If a drone causes an accident, even if the pilot of the helicopter is flying illegally low I doubt anyone would side with the drone operator.
Finally, even as a hobbyist, it is worth getting verifly if you are flying in busy areas. Being able to buy spot insurance for flights is great if you are flying somewhere unfamiliar, or testing a new drone.
Yet, that is what the FAA says to do.
Friends in the local flying club are really trying to obey all the rules, and call the tower because they are ~4 miles away from the airport. At first, the people at the local tower were just annoyed by the phone calls and would say, "I don't care if you're flying a toy 4 miles away. Why are you calling?" Now that the new rules are more known, the person who answers is very quick and courteous, "Where are you? Stay under 400, have fun."
> Calling the local tower/airport as a hobbyist is a bad idea.
Please do the spread misinformation like that. You can be perfectly safe if you follow the rules even within the 5 mile radius.
Btw even as 107 certified, you can still always opt to operate a flight as a hobbyist, as long as you meet the 101 criteria (non-commercial, LOS, etc.)
An international flight system is only possible because a highly regulated system exists to ensure that a French plane flying east over Ukrainian airspace won't collide with a Norwegian plane going south, which is why all major flight plans are filed in advance.
If some scrub with $500 and no brain forces a plane to deviate from it's flight path to avoid sucking his $350 drone into its $12,000,000 engine, it could cause a chain-reaction of re-routing that costs tens of thousands of dollars in fuel and delay associated costs.
Don't fuck with airports. If you've got to scratch that public nuisance itch, go fishing with dynamite or something.