Middleton, WI Drone Rules: Recreational Drones (2026)

05(19) defines "drone" by cross-reference to Wis. 292(1) and then adopts four specific state prohibitions as City ordinances, so a violation can be charged as a municipal citation rather than only a state offense. The adopted provisions are: interference with hunting, fishing or trapping under Wis. 083(2)(a)8; the flying-and-landing limitations of Wis. 04; the intoxicated-and-reckless-flying prohibitions of Wis. 09(1)(b)1, 1m, 2, (2)(a)1 and (c); and the possession-of-a-weaponized-drone offense in Wis. 292, along with the use-of-a-drone offense in Wis. 10. The ordinance is careful to limit its own reach: to the extent any of these adopted statutes would otherwise apply to aircraft other than drones, the City ordinance does not extend to those other aircraft unless expressly adopted elsewhere in the Code.

In practice this means Middleton has not written a comprehensive local drone code covering takeoff and landing zones, altitude, or privacy; it has picked out the misuse scenarios the Common Council considered worth local enforcement, principally weaponization, reckless or intoxicated flying, and interference with legal hunting and fishing. Ordinary recreational or hobbyist flying that does not touch any of those four adopted provisions is governed only by the underlying FAA framework and general state law, not by a separate Middleton drone ordinance.