Title: How Low Can You Go? Your Guide To Minimum VFR Altitudes | Boldmethod
Headings: How Low Can You Go? Your Guide To Minimum VFR Altitudes
How Low Can You Go? Your Guide To Minimum VFR Altitudes
Finding The Highest Obstacle Or Terrain In Your Area
FAR 91.119 Covers Minimum Safe Altitudes
You're Flying Over A Congested Area (91.119-b)
Flying Low Passes
You're Flying Over "Other Than A Congested Area" (91.119-c)
Catch-All #1: Engine Failures (91.119-a)
Catch-All #2: "Careless Or Reckless" (91.13)
"Safety" Is Subjective
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Content: That's one reason why you can fly so low over highways, roads, and houses during takeoff and landing. You're Flying Over A Congested Area (91.119-b)
If you're flying over a congested, populated area, the FAA has a relatively strict minimum safe altitude published. Here's the verbatim language of 91.119 (b): "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. " But what exactly is a "congested area?" Unfortunately, the FAA doesn't define this. Rather, it's determined on a case-by-case basis. According to AOPA, in some pilot enforcement cases, "the FAA has successfully declared that a congested area includes a group of people on an airport ramp, sunbathers on a beach, a small subdivision covering less than a quarter-mile, and traffic on an Interstate highway." As the pilot, you have to remember the FAA will almost always take the most conservative viewpoint on what a "congested area" means. Flying Low Passes
For decades, the FAA has maintained the viewpoint that low passes aren't necessary for takeoff or landing.