What the FAA actually allows over your roof, town by town
“Can you fly a drone here?” has a different answer in every Chicagoland suburb, and most of the answers are not obvious. Evanston needs no permission at all. Nearly a quarter of Des Plaines is closed to drone flight outright. Here is the real picture for all 20 towns we cover, straight from the FAA's own altitude grid.
towns need no FAA authorization at all
are controlled but cleared to the full 400 ft
have altitude limits that change block to block
contain squares where no drone may fly
Every town, ranked by how hard it is to fly
Altitudes are feet above ground level. Percentages are the share of each city's FAA grid squares at that ceiling.
| Town | Airspace | Controlling airport | Ceiling range | No-fly area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bolingbrook | Class D | LOT | 0-400 ft | 7% of town |
| Chicago | Class C | MDW, ORD | 0-400 ft | 15% of town |
| Des Plaines | Class B | ORD, PWK | 0-400 ft | 23% of town |
| Joliet | Class D | LOT | 0-400 ft | 10% of town |
| Arlington Heights | Class D | ORD, PWK | 100-400 ft | None |
| Aurora | Class D | ARR | 300-400 ft | None |
| Berwyn | Class C | MDW | 250-400 ft | None |
| Elmhurst | Class B | ORD | 100-400 ft | None |
| Oak Lawn | Class C | MDW | 250-400 ft | None |
| Lombard | Class B | ORD | 400 ft | None |
| Naperville | Class D | LOT | 400 ft | None |
| Oak Park | Class C | MDW | 400 ft | None |
| Palatine | Class D | PWK | 400 ft | None |
| Schaumburg | Class B | ORD | 400 ft | None |
| Wheaton | Class D | DPA | 400 ft | None |
| Downers Grove | Class G (uncontrolled) | None | 400 ft | None |
| Evanston | Class G (uncontrolled) | None | 400 ft | None |
| Orland Park | Class G (uncontrolled) | None | 400 ft | None |
| Skokie | Class G (uncontrolled) | None | 400 ft | None |
| Tinley Park | Class G (uncontrolled) | None | 400 ft | None |
Source: FAA UAS Facility Map, the dataset LAANC providers query before approving a flight. Grid effective 1/26/2023. Airport codes: ORD Chicago O'Hare, MDW Chicago Midway, PWK Chicago Executive, DPA DuPage, ARR Aurora Municipal, LOT Lewis University.
We handle the paperwork, whichever town you are in
Send us your address and we will tell you exactly what your block allows.
How to read the grid
The FAA divides the country into roughly one-square-mile blocks and gives each one a maximum drone altitude near airports. That grid is what LAANC, the automated authorization system, checks the instant a Part 107 pilot requests a flight. A 400 ft square is a yes in seconds. A 100 ft square is still a yes, just a lower one. A 0 ft square is a no, and no amount of asking nicely changes it without a separate FAA authorization that takes weeks.
Uncontrolled towns are the easy case
5 of the towns we serve sit outside every airport shelf. There is no grid, no request and no waiting. We can fly the day you book.
A lower ceiling is not a worse inspection
People assume a 100 ft cap means we cannot do the job. It does not. Roof photography happens well under 150 ft anyway. A lower ceiling means more passes and a longer flight, not a thinner report.
Zero-foot squares are real and worth checking first
Chicago, Joliet, Bolingbrook and Des Plaines all contain them, clustered on the approach paths. If your address falls in one, any operator promising to fly it tomorrow is either mistaken or flying illegally.
What you have to do about any of this
Nothing. We hold the Part 107 certificate, we pull your address against the grid, and we file the LAANC request under our own operator credentials before we arrive. The only time it touches you is when an address lands in a zero-foot square, and then we tell you up front rather than after taking your money.
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