WHAT ARE THE CURRENT "RULES" AS PER THE FAA. WE WERE FLYING AT ABOUT 50 FT AND 150 KTS (UNCONGESTED AREA) EXILERATING AND REQUIRES A LOT OF FOCUS (THIS I KNOW) YOUR THOUGHTS.... MY355
From my limited/lacking knowledge you were below the min height. However with that said, until someone is hurt/killed or you are reported, no one is going to care if you do this out in the middle of no where with no one around.
well from how i know it. Its 1000ft from any person or property in an uncongested area, or 1000' from highest building. so technically if you not bye anything you can fly as low as you want to.
Ok the Minimum safe altitudes apply here FAR 91.119 1: Anywhere: If your engine quits you have to be at an altitude that you can safely land. 2: 1000 feet above the highest obstacle within 2000 feet in a congested area City town or whatever. The exception is approach to landing 3: Other than congested area: 500 feet above the surface except over open water or very sparsly populated area. In that case you have to be 500 feet FROM any personal property stucture etc Remember 91.13 can apply here that is careless and reckless opperation. I haven't seen anyone busted for that but they could get you for a bird refuge or something. I have seen that. you are supposed to be 2000 feet above those. Another thing to think about. People can now find N numbers on the Net. you may have a nasty phone message when you get home. or the FBO you are renting from may not be happy by the time you get back. Be safe airfreddy
Freddy, we are a couple miles s/w of memorial in chandler over thew empty fields. Freddy you MUST know this area... How low can you go?? MY355
I can forward some NTSB accident reports to you if interested to prove my point. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Easy in those little planes, how about something bigger? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
hello My 355 There is nothing special down there so the reg states that you have to be able to safely land in the event of an engine failure. So if you can safely land at 2 feet you are within the reg. I wouldn't recommend it but you are pic Remember I am not an attourney Since most of it is indian reservation the indians could pull the private property thing but I doubt it. I would worry more about careless and reckless operation. If you tick someone off and they call your N number into FSDO they could try and nail you for that one. But I have never seen it. I would expect they would find your N number online and call the owner of the aircraft though. I have gotten calls for practicing s turns in the north east practice area and we were a lot more than 500 feet above the ground. There is not much down there besides gila monsters though Airfreddy
By the way guys nice pics. I go up to lake powell every year with a bunch of friends. About 8 years ago a B-1 came down the glen canyon while we were there and YES it was making waves airfreddy
Like this? http://www.orizzle.com/htm/v/171.htm http://www.orizzle.com/htm/v/008.htm http://www.orizzle.com/htm/v/174.htm http://www.orizzle.com/htm/v/014.htm
Better be sure what kind of obstacles are out there...... we fly low level (daylight and on NVGs) out in west TX where there is not a lot around and there are still random towers, terrain bits and crap out there. I fly with a TPC charts that are CHUMed with the latest obstacles to be sure there are no suprises. Birds (or bats at night) are another big problem flying low, be particularly vigilant around any water. You should check and make sure there are no military routes in the area also. I have seen HUD camera footage of a jet that came within a couple hundred feet of a civilian aircraft that was obliviously flying along.... you don't want to see something faster and pointier coming at you at the last second.
While airspace intrusion is the violation of choice by ATC, the most frequent charge against general aviation is low flying. FAR 91.119 gives altitude minimums. The universal minimum says that a pilot must be able to make a landing without hazard to anybody or anything. Congested areas are cities or towns with multiple houses or crowded sports arenas. 1000' above the highest obstacle is the require minimum with a 2000' lateral separation. The exact definition of congested is not given. If a chart has a yellow area, consider it congested. There is an exception to this where the congested area intrudes on a landing or takeoff area. A populated area has fewer people than a congested area but more than a sparse area. In a populated area a plane must remain above 500'. This is a vertical minimum. Airplanes may descend as low as they choose in sparsely populated areas with the requirement that they remain 500' clear of people or things likely to contain people. This minimum applies laterally as well as vertically above a person. The universal minimum about being able to make a safe landing still applies. There are rules at all government levels that may or may not be depicted on charts. Most of these rules are related to noise abatement related to people or wild creatures. Pattern altitudes are set by local authorities and may appear on signs near the airport taxiways. Federal and state wildlife minimums are usually 2000' above. Courtesy of Whitt's Flying
I saw a video of a Falcon (or Hawker) private jet in Nevada flying low next to the highway. It was during filming of the Bull Run I think (3000 mile thing like the Gumball). It was probably 100-150 feet above the ground if I recall correctly. Looked pretty cool. But then there's that video of an Airbus doing a low fly by. It crashed into the woods during an airshow.
Bringing up that video reminds me of a joke an old A-320 pilot I know told me What is the difference between a chainsaw and an airbus???? ........................................ 500 trees per minute airfreddy
If it's the same one I saw, it's a Challenger with a friend of mine flying. He was considerably more than 100-150 feet-- more like 1500 feet. Looks can be very, very deceiving.
Hello all, I signed up to show you this video. Tell me thats not less than 150ft from the ground. Maybe just for a few seconds, but it was. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtF3h1RqFw
150 feet is LOW. The one you posted, with the L-39, is probably a little less than 500 feet. The wingspan of an L-39 is 31 feet. I'd say he was at least 10, probably 20 wingspans high, or about 600 feet. The Challenger in the other video (search YouTube for "Bullrun jet" and you'll get the L39 video and the Challenger video) is more like 1500 feet, at least.
150 feet is low, and the L-39 is very near to that altitude. More important than the wingspan is the length, which is fairly clear to reference against. An L-39 is about 40' long and in this video you can even track it's shadow. The plane is no where near 600' AGL. It is less than 200'. In the Challenger video it is harder to gauge altitude. Looks like over a 1,000 feet for sure. Anyway, the guys in the video all look like idiots if you ask me, and that announcer.......jeez.
Yea, really. I was watching that, thinking, "Uh, why?" Then, when the announcer so conclusively states that, yes, a jet is faster than a Lamborghini, I had to say, "Well, no $&*t"
