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How low can a plane fly legally?

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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91.119 Minimum safe altitudes; general (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.

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Do your part, report such flying to the FAA. For more information, you can write to the Federal Aviation Administration, General Aviation and Commercial Division, Operations Branch, AFS-820, 800 Independence Ave., SW, Washington DC 20591. The telephone number is 202-267-8212.

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Complaints may involve FAA employees or organizations, the aviation industry or its oversight and aviation safety. The FHIS allows for the reporting of these incidents anonymously. The FHIS collects personally identifiable information (PII) from individuals named in complaints and reporting parties.

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One reason is to save fuel, as flying at lower altitudes requires less energy than higher ones. Additionally, planes may fly low in order to avoid bad weather or turbulence that can be found at higher altitudes.

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By 2050, pilots around the world can expect to encounter at least twice as much severe clear-air turbulence, Williams found in his research. Clear-air turbulence is what caused a Lufthansa flight traveling from Texas to Germany to unexpectedly drop 1,000 feet this past week.

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Because the Earth is a three-dimensional sphere and not merely a two-dimensional flat, East-West surface. Because of this spherical shape, often times the shortest distance is flying more north and south, up over the Northern latitudes and the North Pole, rather than flying east/west over the Pacific.

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Yes, as long as you have space for a runway in your yard that's exactly what you can do in the US. Lots of farmers and people who live out in the country do this. Usually they even register their airstrips with the FAA.

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The sensation of “dropping” comes from the retraction of the flaps and slats. The rate of climb is reduced, causing it to feel like a descent. Q: Flying and cruising altitude and landing, not a problem. Taking off, I'm not so fond of.

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If the question is regarding surface barometric air pressure, pilots prefer to fly in areas of high surface barometric pressure. This is because low surface barometric pressure is typically indicative of poor or worsening weather as well as airmass temperatures that are higher than the surrounding area.

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The biggest reason for flying at higher altitudes lies in fuel efficiency. The thin air creates less drag on the aircraft, which means the plane can use less fuel in order to maintain speed. Less wind resistance, more power, less effort, so to speak.

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Why do planes fly so low at night? FAA recommends general aviation aircraft to stay below 5,000 ft at night time. I thought the reason is that oxygen usage with our eye's rods since the rods uses much oxygen and rods can get hypoxia which makes tunnel vision and eventually not able to see outside.

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No one goes to jail in a FAA enforcement action. It is simply monetary or I am going to take your pilot's license.

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Incident means an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations. Operator means any person who causes or authorizes the operation of an aircraft, such as the owner, lessee, or bailee of an aircraft.

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