"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
Well, yeah, sometimes it's obvious. But how about a residential area -
is that "congested?" I thought about that last week when I flew home from
Houston and did a hurricane damage survey of my neighborhood before
landing. I stayed above 1,000' simply because I wasn't sure.

Gary's rule of thumb is fine, IMHO. The one I use is to consider whether I
can remain 2000' laterally from a man-made structure. Any residential
neighborhood would not qualify, and this is probably more conservative than
the FAA would require. That is, a "residential area" where the properties
are on large lots (acreage) may not be considered "congested" by the FAA,
but would be by my rule (unless the acreage was REALLY large, like 30-40
acres per residence).

But since it brings to mind the other minimum altitude rule (about remaining
500' above any structure within 2000'), I find it fits well in the existing
rules, and it also is conservative enough to not require any exceptions
(Gary's rule doesn't work in an urban area in which there are still large
sports fields, golf courses, that sort of thing...you can safely land there
in an emergency, but the area is still congested).

Pete