500' from people or structures if you are over water or "sparsely
populated" areas. I would think most places we fly would qualify as
sparsely populated.

Of course, and enterprising FAR nazi could go to Google Earth and find
coordinates of structures along high traffic ridge soaring areas...


Greg Arnold wrote:
hans wrote:
Mike the Strike schrieb:

I wonder how long it will be before ridge fliers' igc files are
scrutinized for their proximity to terrain and they are asked for an
explanation?

You can see from the barograms displayed for every flight, that the
software for this is already implemented.

But aren't you allowed to fly closer to the ground than 500 ft if it is
required for operational reasons.

I thought you could fly closer than 500' as long as you aren't within
500 feet of people or structures.