2023 South Dakota Codified Laws
Title 50 - Aviation
Chapter 01 - Definitions And General Provisions
Section 50-1-1 - Definitions.

50-1-1. Definitions.

Terms as used in this title mean:

(1)"Air traffic control," a service operated by an authority under Federal Aviation Administration oversight to promote the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the United States;

(2)"Aircraft," a device that is used, intended to be used, or designed for flight in the air. The term includes any airplane, balloon, drone, glider, and helicopter;

(3)"Aircraft dealer," any person, manufacturer, or distributor engaged in the business of buying, selling, exchanging, or acting as a broker for three or more aircraft in any twelve consecutive months, other than a business liquidation of used aircraft;

(4)"Airport," any area of land or water used, or intended to be used, for landing and take-off of aircraft, and any appurtenant area, structure, facility, or right of way to facilitate that use;

(5)"Airport authority," a government entity created under this chapter for the purpose of acquiring, establishing, contracting, maintaining, improving and operating airports and other navigation facilities;

(6)"Airport facility," any property, structure, mechanism, machinery, light, beacon, communicating system, or other equipment or device used as an aid to the safe taking off and landing of aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an airport;

(7)"Airport hazard," any existing or potential condition that can endanger the life or property of a user of an airport, any airport facility, or any occupant of land in the vicinity of an airport;

(8)"Airport sponsor," a public agency, private owner, state entity, or other political subdivision that is associated with a public use airport facility and is a recipient of any federal airport improvement grant;

(9)"Anemometer tower," a structure, including any guy wire or accessory facility, on which an anemometer is mounted;

(10)"Aviation facility," any facility that supports aviation activities, including any airport, heliport, and navigational aid;

(11)"Balloon," an aircraft that is not engine-driven, is lighter than air, and sustains flight through the use of gas buoyancy or an airborne heater;

(12)"Commercial purpose," an aviation activity for profit that includes flight instruction, charter, air taxi, or rental, but does not include the substitution of a commercial use stamp for regular aircraft registration for the promotion of a business or other purpose that does not involve aviation;

(13)"Commission," the South Dakota Aeronautics Commission;

(14)"Controlled airspace," any airspace of specific and defined classifications and dimensions inside of which air traffic control services are provided;

(15)"Department," the Department of Transportation;

(16)"Drone," an unmanned aircraft (UA);

(17)"Heliport," an area of land, water, or a structural surface, used or intended for use as a landing and take-off area for helicopters;

(18)"Military airport," any military air base, air station, airfield, or other area, publicly or privately owned, that is designed, set aside, and operated by the state, a political subdivision of the state, or the United States, for civil or national defense, or for any federal program relating to flight, or for the operation of military aircraft, and used in the interest of the public for those purposes;

(19)"Navigational aid," an aviation facility which is external to an aircraft specifically intended to assist a pilot in determining the aircraft's position and safe course;

(20)"Obstruction," any structure or obstacle, or use of land, that obstructs an aerial approach of an airport or is otherwise hazardous to the use of an airport by aircraft for landing or taking off;

(21)"Place of business," a permanent enclosed structure at which a permanent business of bartering, trading, or selling aircraft is carried out in good faith. The term does not include any residence, tent, stand, or any other temporary structure;

(22)"Prescribed adjusted height," a height adjusted upward seventeen feet for an interstate highway, fifteen feet for any other public road, ten feet or the height of the highest mobile object that would normally traverse the road, whichever is greater, for a private road, and twenty-three feet for a railroad;

(23)"Private airport," any privately-owned airport that is available for use only by the owner and the owner's invitees;

(24)"Public airport," any airport, whether publicly or privately owned, that is available for use by the public;

(25)"Small unmanned aircraft," a UA that weighs not more than fifty-five pounds, (twenty-five kilograms) including everything that is onboard or otherwise attached to the aircraft;

(26)"Small unmanned aircraft system" or "sUAS," any small unmanned aircraft and its associated elements including communication links and the components that control the UA that are required for the safe and efficient operation of the UA;

(27)"Temporary airport," any airport established and set aside for the operation of aircraft for transitory or impermanent purposes;

(28)"Unmanned aircraft" or "UA," an aircraft operated without the possibility of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft.

Source: SDC 1939, §2.0101; SL 1947, ch 1, §1; SL 1949, ch 2, §§1, 2; SL 1997, ch 16, §3; SL 2004, ch 287, §3; SL 2010, ch 227, §1; SL 2014, ch 222, §1; SL 2018, ch 269, §1; SL 2019, ch 203, §1; SL 2020, ch 203, § 2.