Maryland Drone Laws 2026: The Complete Pilot's Guide

A drone pilot in Carroll County reads the county parks rules, sees a list of where drones are and aren't allowed, and tries to follow them. A pilot two counties over in Howard finds no such list and assumes anything goes. Both are working from the wrong map. In Maryland, the county rules mostly do not count — and the reason is a single sentence in the state code that makes Maryland one of the most cleanly preempted drone states in the country.

Maryland's Economic Development Article § 14-301 says that only the State may prohibit, restrict, or regulate the testing or operation of unmanned aircraft systems. Not the county. Not the city. The same statute goes a step further than most state preemption laws: it expressly supersedes any existing county or municipal ordinance that tries to regulate drones. That clears away a lot of the local patchwork pilots fight in other states. What it does not clear away is the federal layer stacked on top of Maryland — and over the inner-Beltway counties, that federal layer is the heaviest in the nation outside of the District itself.

The rules that apply to a flight in Maryland sit in three layers: federal, where the FAA and the Washington, DC Special Flight Rules Area reach across the whole suburban-DC region; state, where Maryland leans on a strong preemption statute plus a short list of criminal laws rather than a sprawling drone code; and local, where § 14-301 leaves cities very little room to act. This guide walks all three with primary-source citations, so a flight from Baltimore's waterfront to a real estate shoot on the Eastern Shore stays legal start to finish.

What governs drone flight in Maryland?

Three layers, in this order:

The rest of this article works through each layer in that order.

Federal baseline: what applies everywhere

The FAA's basics are the same in Maryland as in every other state.

• Part 107Covers commercial operation. Anything that benefits a business — real-estate listings, roof inspections, wedding videography, farm imagery, paid social content — requires the FAA Remote Pilot Certificate.
• TRUSTCovers recreational flight. Free. Online. Carry the completion certificate. No license, but yes, still required.
• FAA registration$5, every drone over 0.55 lb (250 g). Number visible on the aircraft.
• Remote IDMandatory since March 16, 2024 — Standard Remote ID, a broadcast module, or operation inside a FRIA.
• Altitude cap400 ft AGL.
• Visual Line of SightDaylight or civil twilight unless waivered.
• Controlled airspaceClass B, C, D, surface E requires LAANC authorization before launch.

Then there's the Washington, DC airspace layer — the layer that makes the suburban-DC half of Maryland different from anywhere else in the state — and it deserves its own section.

The DC Special Flight Rules Area and the DC Flight Restricted Zone

The DC SFRA is the post-9/11 national-security airspace built around Reagan National Airport. It is codified at 14 CFR Part 93, Subpart V, and the operational rules for UAS sit at 14 CFR § 93.339. Two concentric rings reach into Maryland:

• The DC Flight Restricted Zone is the inner 15-nautical-mile ring centered on Reagan National. UAS operations are prohibited. No recreational flying, no Part 107 flying, no model aircraft, absent a rare FAA airspace waiver. The ring clips the inner Maryland suburbs — National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Hyattsville, College Park, Bladensburg, and the inner edges of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and Silver Spring all sit in or against the FRZ. If you are inside the Beltway on the Maryland side, assume you are in the no-fly zone until B4UFLY tells you otherwise.
• The DC Special Flight Rules Area is the outer ring out to 30 nautical miles. Recreational flight is permitted between the 15-nm FRZ boundary and the 30-nm SFRA boundary under the limited-recreational exception at 49 U.S.C. § 44809, provided the pilot follows FAA rules and obtains LAANC for any controlled airspace. Part 107 flight in the SFRA requires SFRA-specific authorization on top of standard LAANC. Most of Montgomery County, nearly all of Prince George's County, northern Charles County, and western Anne Arundel County fall inside the SFRA.

The SFRA UAS restrictions ride on an FDC security NOTAM that the FAA reissues periodically. The NOTAM number changes from time to time, so rather than memorizing a number, pilots inside the 30-nm ring should pull the current DC SFRA NOTAM from FAA NOTAM Search and check B4UFLY before every flight.

The practical guidance is plain: if you live or work inside the Beltway, plan to fly somewhere else. Clearing the SFRA means getting outside the 30-nm ring — northern and western Montgomery County, Frederick County, and the upper reaches of the state.

Maryland state-level drone laws

Maryland's approach is the opposite of Virginia's. Where Virginia built a dense cluster of drone-named statutes, Maryland claimed the regulatory field for the State and otherwise leans on a handful of general criminal laws plus one drone-specific crime. The result is fewer drone-named statutes than its neighbors, and a heavier reliance on the preemption posture itself.

Economic Development § 14-301 — the preemption statute

This is the statute that defines Maryland. Section 14-301 provides that only the State may enact a law or take any other action to prohibit, restrict, or regulate the testing or operation of unmanned aircraft systems in the State. It then preempts the authority of any county or municipality to do the same, and supersedes any existing county or municipal ordinance that prohibits, restricts, or regulates drone testing or operation. A final subsection preserves federal preemption of state law.

The statute came in through SB 370 in 2015 — the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research, Development, Regulation, and Privacy Act — effective July 1, 2015. The drafting choice that matters is the word "supersedes." Many state preemption laws only block new local rules. Maryland's reaches backward and wipes out conflicting local rules already on the books. That is why the Carroll County standoff matters: the county kept parks drone rules that conflict with the statute, the Baltimore Sun covered the conflict, and the Maryland Aviation Administration eventually issued guidance reminding local governments that they generally cannot write their own drone rules. On the law, the county rule loses. In practice, stale local rules linger and confuse pilots — which is exactly why reading the statute beats reading a county web page.

What cities can still do

Preemption reaches the operation of the aircraft, not the management of land a government owns. So local governments in Maryland keep a thin slice of authority: they can regulate take-off and landing from property they own — parks, beaches, municipal buildings — as a land-management matter, and they can enforce generally applicable safety, privacy, trespass, and nuisance laws that are not drone-specific. What they cannot do is write a rule that tells you where in the airspace you may or may not fly. Ocean City's seasonal beach rule, covered below, is the clearest live example of a town leaning on that residual safety-and-privacy authority.

Criminal Law § 9-417.1 — drones over correctional facilities

Maryland's one drone-specific crime came in through SB 273 in 2024 (Chapter 101), codified at Criminal Law § 9-417.1 and effective October 1, 2024. It makes it a misdemeanor to use a drone to deliver contraband to a person detained or confined in a place of confinement; the same Act also bars intentionally operating a drone over a correctional facility to record images of it without authorization from the managing official or the Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services, and requires facilities to post warning signage. The penalty under § 9-417.1 is imprisonment up to three years or a fine up to $1,000, or both, and it builds on Maryland's existing contraband-delivery statutes.

The law has a concrete backstory. The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services logged 35 confirmed drone sightings near state correctional facilities in 2023, concentrated at the Western Correctional Institution and North Branch Correctional Institution near Cumberland, with contraband ranging from cell phones to drugs to weapons. If you fly anywhere near a Maryland prison or jail, this is the statute to know.

Criminal Law §§ 3-902 and 3-903 — visual surveillance and privacy

Maryland does not have a drone-named privacy statute, but its general surveillance laws reach a drone-mounted camera directly. Section 3-902 makes it a misdemeanor to conduct visual surveillance of an individual in a private place, with prurient intent and without consent — and the statute defines "camera" to include any electronic device used surreptitiously to observe someone, which captures a drone. A "private place" includes any location where a person can reasonably expect to disrobe with an expectation of privacy. The penalty is up to one year and a $2,500 fine, and the victim also gets a civil cause of action. Section 3-903 reaches surreptitious recording of the private area of an individual. Practical effect: a drone operator who films into a bedroom window, a fenced backyard, or a hotel balcony faces the same exposure as someone on foot with a long lens.

Maryland is also a two-party-consent state for audio recording under the Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act (Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 10-402). A drone microphone that captures a private conversation without everyone's consent can violate that law. The simplest fix is to turn audio off unless you are filming a public event or have consent.

Critical infrastructure — what Maryland does not yet have

This is the area pilots most often get wrong, because several drone-law summaries claim Maryland prohibits flying over critical facilities like power plants and refineries. As of this review, that is not a Maryland statute. The only drone-specific facility crime on the books is § 9-417.1 for correctional facilities. Maryland has not enacted a general critical-infrastructure drone law of the kind some other states have. For now, Maryland regulates critical-infrastructure overflight through federal tools — FAA temporary flight restrictions, security NOTAMs under 14 CFR § 99.7, and the restricted airspace around federal sites — rather than a state statute. Bills touching drone use surface most sessions, so it is worth watching the General Assembly, but do not assume a state critical-infrastructure ban exists today.

Law enforcement use

Maryland has no enacted statute requiring police to obtain a warrant before using a drone. HB 471, which would impose a warrant requirement and exclude improperly gathered drone evidence, has been introduced across the 2025 and 2026 sessions but remains in committee. Until it passes, police drone use in Maryland is governed by general Fourth Amendment principles and agency policy rather than a drone-specific rule.

State parks — DNR policy

Maryland's state-park rule is softer than the flat bans some states use. The Department of Natural Resources requires, as a matter of park policy, that any drone operated on DNR-managed land comply with all FAA rules and the Use of State Parks regulations (COMAR 08.07.06), and — the operative part — that every drone operator contact the Park Manager before flying in a state park. Maryland does not categorically ban drones in every state park; it conditions flight on advance contact with, and effective permission from, the park's manager. Commercial film and photography that is high-impact needs a Park Service permit or use agreement, while private non-commercial filming and low-impact commercial work (public areas, five people or fewer, minimal carried gear) does not.

If you plan a state-park flight in Maryland, call the specific park office first. The answer varies park to park, and showing up unannounced is how a flight ends early.

Wildlife and hunting

Maryland's wildlife law prohibits hunting or attempting to hunt wild birds or mammals from an aircraft within the State — a prohibition that reaches drones used to hunt or to assist a hunt. It sits in the Natural Resources Article at § 10-410(j), and a violation is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $1,000 or up to six months in jail, or both. The DNR Wildlife and Heritage Service enforces the hunting laws, and the federal Airborne Hunting Act backstops the prohibition. Maryland has not adopted a separate drone-specific deer-recovery rule, so a hunter who wants to use a drone to locate downed game should confirm current DNR policy before flying.

NPS units — Assateague, Antietam, the C&O Canal, and the rest

The National Park Service has prohibited drone launch, landing, and operation in every NPS unit nationwide since 2014, under Policy Memorandum 14-05. Maryland's list is long: Assateague Island National Seashore, Antietam National Battlefield, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park running from DC to Cumberland, Catoctin Mountain Park, Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Greenbelt Park, Monocacy National Battlefield, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad park on the Eastern Shore, and several historic sites. Violations are federal Class B misdemeanors — up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine, plus drone seizure. Catoctin also sits under the federal restricted airspace protecting Camp David, one of the most tightly held no-fly areas in the country.

Penalties at a glance

Local ordinances to watch in Maryland

The short version is that there is very little to watch, because § 14-301 took the field. What remains is a thin band of property-management and safety authority, and one well-known seasonal rule.

Where to fly legally in Maryland

The honest version: in Maryland, the question is where you can actually launch, not where the airspace looks blue on a map.

• The Eastern Shore away from the towns — wide Class G, the most permissive airspace in the state, subject to the Ocean City seasonal rule near the resort.
• Northern and western Montgomery County and Frederick County, outside the 30-nm SFRA edge — open Class G with no SFRA layer.
• DNR state parks, after calling the Park Manager and getting the go-ahead.
• AMA-recognized club fields listed at modelaircraft.org. Membership comes with insurance and a published Maryland site list.
• Private property with the owner's permission — outside the FRZ, outside controlled airspace unless LAANC-approved, and clear of the surveillance concerns in §§ 3-902 and 3-903.
• The B4UFLY app before every flight, which is the only reliable way to see where the DC FRZ and SFRA boundaries actually fall over your launch point.

What to avoid: the inner-Beltway Maryland suburbs (DC FRZ), the airspace over any Maryland correctional facility (§ 9-417.1), every NPS unit, Camp David and the restricted airspace around it, and the controlled-airspace cores around BWI, Martin State, Andrews, Patuxent River, and the Naval Academy.

Who enforces drone laws in Maryland?

Federal violations — FRZ and SFRA incursions, Part 107, Remote ID, stadium TFRs — are handled by the FAA, with criminal referrals going to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. State criminal charges under §§ 9-417.1, 3-902, and 3-903 are brought by State's Attorneys, usually after investigation by the Maryland State Police or a local department; the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services drives the correctional-facility cases. DNR park rangers handle state-park and wildlife rules, and the National Park Service has its own commissioned rangers for the NPS units. Because § 14-301 preempts local drone ordinances, a city or county officer generally cannot cite you under a local drone rule — though they can enforce trespass, privacy, and safety laws that apply to everyone.

How to fly legally in Maryland — quick checklist

Commercial drone work in Maryland

The industries that most often hire Part 107 pilots in Maryland include Port of Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay maritime survey, utility transmission and pipeline inspection, defense and federal-contractor operations across the DC–Baltimore corridor, public-safety and emergency-management programs, and AEC and infrastructure inspection.

How USI helps you fly legally

Maryland drone law FAQ