Beach city manned aircraft flying below 500ft over beach. Do I have any recourse?

Brojon · Jan 21, 2023

Vic Moss said:
The answer you're looking for is found 14 CFR 91.119.

"§ 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface -

(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA; and
(2) A powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section."

You can find that here: Federal Register :: Request Access

Sure sounds like those airplanes are out of line to me.
Beaches are crowded and I've seen them much closer than 500 ft - even off shore.

Cymruflyer · Jan 21, 2023

Brojon said:
Sure sounds like those airplanes are out of line to me.
Beaches are crowded and I've seen them much closer than 500 ft - even off shore.

Offshore means over open water and as long as they maintain separation from people and structures as per the law governing such flight, they can be right down on the deck, if they chose to. However, flying so low over water is a rather stupid thing for a pilot to do, because any power loss encountered, you'd better have jam in your pockets, because you are going to be toast! There is safety in altitude.

RangerEd · Jan 22, 2023

Vic Moss said:
The answer you're looking for is found 14 CFR 91.119.

"§ 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface -

(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA; and
(2) A powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section."

You can find that here: Federal Register :: Request Access

Paragraph (c) is quite interesting. So they can fly as low as they want as long as there's no people, vessels, vehicles (? really are they serious), or structure. As one who flies at the beach most of the time, I'm constantly getting "interrupted" by low flying helicopters and I have yet to see any "aircraft" warning when they're around.

Aerophile · Jan 22, 2023

RangerEd said:
So they can fly as low as they want as long as there's no people, vessels, vehicles, or structure.

Yep.

In an area that's other-than-congested (that is, free of people and all those other things). Stay 500 feet away from anything, and aircraft can legally fly as low as they want. It's not particularly smart, but it's legal.