The Wire · Drone & FPV News
By Justin Davis, Drone Camps RC · October 4, 2026
The FBI announced a no-drone zone over Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta and described it as running for the whole event. There’s just one problem: the FAA’s own notices — NOTAMs FDC 6/5920 and 6/6087 — say the restriction runs 10.5 hours a day, in two windows, not around the clock.
The restriction itself is justified. A balloon pilot steers only by climbing or descending into different wind layers — there’s no rudder, no way to dodge. A drone wandering over the launch field is a hazard the balloon physically cannot avoid.
What’s objectionable is the messaging. Precise rules get obeyed; vague ones teach pilots that TFRs are guesswork. The World Cup earlier this year showed where that leads: some 700 drones seized and about a dozen arrests — which reads as hundreds of pilots who never checked the airspace in the first place.
If you’re in Albuquerque this week: pull up both NOTAMs in B4UFLY, and leave the drone in the bag whenever balloons are in the air — TFR or not.
