Hi Andy

I can't believe I missed that thread. Anyway My FSDO will disagree with
your (or the threads) conclusion that a Low pass is Legal. They believe
it can be legal but you must approach in a manner from which a landing
may be possible.

A couple years ago they started letting all the instructors in the area
know that they were very likely to cite pilots for violation of the
FARs when doing low passes over the airport.

Primarily they were targeting many of the High performance homebuilts
we have in the area. Their aurgument was that previous cases had
determined that a fence post would constitute a Man Made
structure(Sorry they didn't tell us the specific case that determined
this) and thus operation with 500 feet of it would be a violation.
Notice that there is an exception for Take off and Landing. Basically
they wanted instructors to start warning these pilots that crossing the
Threshold at 249kts at 20 feet with the gear up was obviously not for
the purpose of Landing and the exception of this rule would not apply
and pilots could be cited for violation of FAR 91.119c

I don't know that they have actually enforced this, they may have just
been trying to reduce the number of Low passes occuring. Since they
were getting fairly regular complaints about the low passes.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL.



Here is FAR.

=A7 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.
top
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.