#14 Operation without HAZARD to PERSONS or PROPERTY on the surface

Hey, it's Kenny with helicopter Highland Ground School. Another weekend drinking coffee video. This started two weeks ago and I've been doing them every day since because it's been, it's been pretty cool. So this one is for a member and the last two weeks I've done a couple of videos about taking off and landing and off airports and FAA complaints. So I want to give you his exact question because if he took the time to email me, sure that many of you have the same question. And this is something that you got to know whether you're just getting into this or you're, you know, commercially rated pilot doing a 135 check ride. Every examiner asked this question and I'm just going to tell you what his question is here and then we're going to hit the far aim real quick and tell you exactly what it says so you understand it better. He said, kenny, this kind of goes hand in hand with where can we land question that you made a video about. Thank you, but it didn't address many of my questions. If we're expected to maintain a 500 foot Ag altitude, where can this be broken for takeoff and landing without evoking the wrath of local Federal municipalities, governments, FAA, etc. For a good example, you mentioned wanting to land on your property, but you still have to fly over many other properties at less than 500ft, which would seem to have issues problems that add that us add on to fixed wing pilots and or helis at airports don't need to think about. Okay, so great, great question. So since I didn't hit it and make people completely understand first, it's not about the big bad faa, right. I'm telling you, if you're doing things by the book and you're being as safe as you can, it's almost always going to go okay with the faa, right? If somebody complains. So here's the deal. This is 91, 119. Luckily I had good instructors when I started out many years ago because they made me tab this in the far aim and said hey, you gotta tab this one because the examiner's gonna ask, you know. So I've done the same with my students over the years. A student has never went to a checkride that I've sent that didn't have this tabbed in his far aim. Okay, so this is 91, 119 minimum safe altitudes, general except when necessary for takeoff and landing. So there's the first part, right? There's an exception for takeoff and landing. This is general for everyone. No person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes so they have anywhere. So this is for everybody. An altitude allowing if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazards to persons or property on the surface. So for anyone, anywhere, you have to be looking at the performance of your aircraft. Glide distance, you know, what's below you. You're always taking in consideration of if the engine quits, can I get to the ground safely? Okay, so airplane, helicopter, doesn't matter. This is for everybody. Then there's two more parts and then a third part for helicopters that's really important. So you have in the next is over congested areas. That's B. And then other than congested areas or over other than congested areas. Okay, I'm not going to read those to you. Those are B and C. But these are talking about a thousand feet above 500ft. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, let's go to the next one. This is what's important. Helicopters, okay? There's always, almost always an exception in the helicopters or exceptions for helicopters in the regs, okay? Anytime you're looking something up, you got to look at the far. Does it say aircraft? Does it say airplane? Does it say helicopter? So in this, this is helicopter. A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in bnc, okay? So you can go lower than what they're listing on what's there for a lot of fixed wing stuff. A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed BNC of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitude specifically prescribed. Can't talk for helicopters by the faa. And then there's something added there for powered parachutes. So bottom line, you can operate the helicopter anywhere as long as you're being safe. Okay? You're checking the area, whether it's an airport. You know, as pilot in command, you have to know everything about that airport. If you're gonna go land somewhere off airport, same deal, you gotta research it, make sure you understand everything going on. You've checked on local ordinances, so on, so forth. Other than that, you know, can you go fly over an open field where there's nothing, not even any crops, and fly 50ft above the ground? Sure, you could. If you're not in a restricted or prohibited area, if you're over an open area, there's no danger to anything below you. I'm going to give you an example. One place I worked, we got to fly boat races. The coolest thing I've ever done on a helicopter. So we're out over boats or over the great big lake, right? And we're chasing boats all over the place, flying fast. Now, we're being careful of not to fly over fly persons or property, but we're over the. Over the water. We did this all the time. And companies do it all over the world, right? So we're doing this. The company sells, that I was working for, sells to a. A guy, a new owner, takes over. He's a. He was a cool guy, but he'd been working on his private airplane for like 30 years, still wasn't rated. Didn't know the helicopter regs. And shortly after he takes over the company one day he comes out to me on the ramp. He's like, hey, there's this guy calling down here, you know, and you guys fly up and down the lakeshore and he's really mad. And he's a commercial airline pilot and he's really mad. He called the faa and I'm like, calm down. You know, this guy calls the FAA all the time. And I said, we all, all of us, everybody operating helicopters in this area where we all travel along the lakeshore through there. We're not overflying people on the beach, you know, we're not overflying air, you know, boats or. We're not doing anything dangerous. We're doing this safely. And he's like, you know, he didn't. And once I kind of schooled him on, he's like, okay. And I go, this guy calls all the time. You understand? So once we kind of explained to him how it works after that was no problem, right? I mean, everybody did it. None of us was breaking any rags. We knew what we could do. So it always boils back to understanding where you're going, checking on, you know, ordinances and things like that. But as far as taking off and landing, sure. On a helicopter sometimes, like in his question, what about flying over people's homes? Well, you know, I'm going to do a video here soon. I'm going to come in and actually use my backyard and we'll do some filming, put some cameras up inside and outside. But okay, when I come in, I'm going to come over a channel. I'm not going to overfly somebody's house when I take off, you know, if that's. If the winds out of the. Normally where it is, out of the southwest, then when I take off, I'm going to go that way. I might overfly a few houses, but I'm not going to fly 10ft over their House, you know, I'm still going to use my best course when I'm leaving. To where? What street could I go to, what open field could I go to? So, you know, I've always kind of told students, in a way, the reg almost, you could look at it kind of like the FAA gives you a lot of leeway to hang yourself because they're allowing you to operate the helicopter fair pretty low. If you have an engine failure, something happens and you hit a wire, you hit a pole, you hit somebody's house, they're going to say you were too low. So they give an exception for helicopters and they allow us to fly pretty low. It's still your duty to understand what the regulation says and to do everything the best, you know, safest possible way. So I hope that clears up a question. And that was from Mark. So thank you, Mark, for, for asking that, because again, in the last two weeks we've done two. I've done two short videos on off airport landings and people complaining to the faa. And I want to say one more time, the FAA is always going to be reasonable. If you're doing everything by the book and you're checking your performance for the day and you've checked the area where you're going to be landing and you're using the best possible scenario to get in and out, then if you think something is a little hinky, don't do it. You know, even in one, like flying helicopter, ems, many, many times you would fly to a scene. Firemen on the ground or law enforcement have set up a landing area. A lot of times they set up what they think is a really good landing site. As pilot in command, you show up and you circle two or three times and you're looking at the area. It was very common that we would say, you know, because you're always communication with the people on the ground, or else you couldn't land. That was a 135 reg. So you check it out. It was common that we would say, you know, communicate with the people on the ground, say, hey, we see your spot, but we see a problem with a tower or we see a problem with a wire. There's a parking lot just about a quarter mile down the road. We'd love to, we want to meet you down there. Can you just, you know, move the AMOs down there, we'll land and meet you there. So it always boils back to you as pilot in command, doing what's safe, the 500ft thing. That is a general rule. We say for a Helicopter. During the day, a general Safe rule is 500ft for a helicopter. At night, a general safe rule is a thousand feet. Okay? That's general safe rule. There isn't a rule that says a helicopter has to stay 500ft above the ground. And again, there's an exception for takeoff and landing in there too. So mark, I hope that answers the question a little bit better. Subscribe to the channel, click the little bell and you do subscribe so you can get notifications. We're doing these daily videos people are emailing every day. They're enjoying it. We do them quick hit a lot of things people want to know about. Clarify, clarify things like this. So like this one, I guarantee you're going to get asked on any checkride and you need to know it to be a safe and prudent pilot. So mark it in your FAR AIM manual. No. 91.19 on your if you're using an iPad or you're using your smartphone, understand this rig. Because every single checkride you ever take in your life, the examiner is going to ask. So, hey, private pilot membership. It's only $49 a month. We want to add helicopter, land, ground school. We've had amazing success in seven years. It's crazy. And our private pilot's only $49 a month. You can keep it as long as you like. You can cancel anytime. We have a video out there that explains exactly how you unsubscribe. We can do it for you. You can do it yourself. So we encourage you, if you're interested in the private pilot, you should jump in there. And we also have commercial certified flight instructor instrument rating. 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You welcome back anytime. So hope this answered some questions for some people under asking about the taking off and landing and what can I do and you know is the FAA going to come after me. Always do what the regulations say always do. Do as much research as possible. Always use the best course of action in and out when you're landing somewhere. Fly neighborly. You know, just use common sense. A lot of being a helicopter pilot or an air fixed wing pilot, whatever. A lot of the things really is common sense. Of course we have to know the regs, but don't forget the common sense part of it. So give us a like and a share. Put your comments down below. I want to hear your takeoff and landing stories. Good and bad things you've experienced, things you've seen. Make sure you put those comments below. So thanks for tuning in and we shall see you in the next video.