Private planes and Med. flights under 400ft.

[VaGlock]

I live in a rural area and fly over a private farm across from my home (with permission) and have had some small planes and A Med. helicopter pass over the property clearly under 400ft. I always bring the drone as low as possible asap when I here aircraft approaching.
I try to fly responsibly and follow the FAA rules and regs. I wish the licensed pilots would adhere to their's. I wonder if others have experienced this also?
I am in an unrestricted area, 5 miles from any heliport, the helicopter is not landing or taking off just passing over.

 

[With The Birds]

You need to look at the regulations or wait for one of our real aircraft pilots or someone with specific knowledge to chime in however my understanding is manned AC may fly below 500ft in sparsely populated area providing the maintain 500ft lateral separation from people and structures. Given choppers can perform an autorotation with power loss they will often fly lower as they don’t need as large a clear area to perform an emergency landing.

You will probably find the subject AC are flying legally, you need to give way to them, no exceptions. If traffic is frequent at low altitudes in that area find somewhere else to fly.

 

[BigAl07]

I try to fly responsibly and follow the FAA rules and regs. I wish the licensed pilots would adhere to their's. I wonder if others have experienced this also?

You might want to check out:
91.119 Minimum safe altitudes; general
Here's a key point to remember:
An altitude of 500 feet above the surface except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In
that case, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or
structure.

Also remember that just like sUAS operators Manned Aviators can and do get WAIVERS from the FARs in certain instances (crop dusting, utility inspection. . . . ) so they could all be very well legal and we don't know it. While it may not be a "Good Idea" for the plane/heli to be below 500' AGL there are instances where it's perfectly LEGAL to do so.

Also keep in mind that it's VERY difficult to discern an accurate altitude of an aircraft without lots of experience/training and even more so with nothing in the sky to reference the aircraft to.

If you genuinely think that aircraft is violating FARs and flying in a manner that is reckless then you have the option of reporting the offender to the FAA.

 

[VaGlock]

I agree with all that was stated, was just curious if others have experienced this. I find this statement interesting though.

"An altitude of 500 feet above the surface except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In
that case, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or
structure."

It really would be hard for a pilot to notice "any person" in a "sparsely populated area" Not to be an argument just an observation.

 

[With The Birds]

I constantky experience this issue. I live on the edge of the coastline where private and sightseeing flights come through every day within 200 ft if the water and not far from land. I was initially surprised they could legally fly that low. Didn’t take long before I realised I need someone with me so we have two pairs of eyes keeping watch for any manned AC comming into the area when I fly (I have binoculars for my spotter). This gives me around 2mins or longer to make sure I am well clear. I have spoken to many of the regular operators to learn their usual flight pattern, that is an interesting conversation as they have told me which landmark they fly towards from which point, helpful to know how close in that puts them to land. I also use Flightradar24 app however less than half of these small AC seem to carry active transponders. Everything helps.