Methodology
Defer to the authority, always
Every regulatory statement in this record is attributed and linked to the authority's own published material — a fire code section, an AHJ guidance document, a venue-authority requirement. Nothing is stated in Sitara's own voice, and nothing is summarized in a way that could be mistaken for the authority's own words without the citation attached.
Explicit vs. analogous, always labeled
Only one entry in this record — the Los Angeles Fire Department Film Unit's Drone (Unmanned Aerial Systems) Permit — explicitly names drones/UAS as its own permit category. Every other entry (Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, Clark County Fire Department, LA County Fire) is a pyrotechnics or special-effects permit category that would likely be the authority's functional entry point for indoor aerial FX, but none of those documents mention drones or UAS anywhere. The record labels each entry "explicit" or "analogous" and never blurs the two.
No jurisdiction without a real source
If a jurisdiction's picture can't be sourced from a published authority document, it doesn't get an entry — no "typically" rows. This is why the record currently covers only the FAA's universal layer plus three jurisdictions: Clark County/Las Vegas and Los Angeles city and county. Additional jurisdictions are added only once properly sourced.
Known sourcing caveats
- The FAA's indoor-operations FAQ was corroborated via three independent search-index passes returning identical quoted text, but a direct page fetch returned an HTTP 403 (bot-blocked) rather than rendering the live page. Confirm this link yourself before relying on it for a specific engagement.
- The Las Vegas Fire & Rescue flame-effects information sheet is dated 2014; the fire code section it cites may have shifted in later code cycles. The Clark County Fire Department documents used here are the current (2024 IFC cycle, effective January 2026) versions.
- An older, watermarked-DRAFT version of the Clark County indoor- pyrotechnics guideline was found citing a different section number and a lower insurance floor than the current version — only the current, non-draft version is used in this record.
- The LA County Fire Special Effects Permit form (396A) still cites the 2011 LA County Fire Code edition on its face, even though later code cycles have since been adopted — the form's continued currency was confirmed via LA County Fire's own "Public Safety and Film Unit" page, which lists it as one of four active permit categories today.
Refresh
Reviewed quarterly: links re-verified, new jurisdictions added only once properly sourced, the last-updated stamp bumped.