Can helicopters fly below 500 feet?

Normally, aircraft do not fly at high speed below 500 feet and when helicopters descend below 500 feet they normally do so cautiously and in an area they know to be safe. Having a large helicopter flying at high speed over a dense city at 100 feet AGL is very dangerous and against FAA regulations.



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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.

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The flight crew must use supplemental oxygen for the entire duration of flight operations above a cabin pressure altitude of 14,000 feet MSL (14 CFR § 91.211).

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Unlike an airplane, a helicopter does not have to move quickly through the air to have lift. That fact means it can move straight up or down. Most airplanes cannot do this. A helicopter can take off or land without a runway.

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But landing a helicopter in a confined area is actually very difficult. It requires precise use of the controls, and the ability to hover the helicopter without moving it at all in the horizontal plane. For this reason it is something which is not learned until quite late on in the Private Pilots' course.

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It's probably embarrassing to admit it, but if you're like most other pilots, the answer is “Yes.” According to Chaytor Mason, a retired professor of aviation psychology at the University of Southern California, the rate of acrophobia is upwards of 90% in some of the pilot groups he's encountered.

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Thus when flight or vision conditions are not optimal, such as a night time, Civilian Helicopters don't fly due to the risk of hitting something which always ends badly for the Helicopter and usually also to its crew and passengers or cargo.

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