Light aircraft, minimum height?
Discussion
Daft question maybe, but thought i'd ask.
Is there a minimum height that these should fly at?
About 15 minutes ago it sounded like a small Cesna type plane was landing in my garden :0
The nearest airport is Southend, (10 miles away) and we're used to planes flying overhead here all the time as we are in Basildon so under a fair few routes. It was def a plane as we get helicopters land at the rear of our house all the time for Basildon hospital so i think i can clearly tell the difference between a helicopter and a smallish plane.
I can't believe how loud it was as it went over, and 5 minutes later a helicopter has turned up and been hovering since, followed by a fair few sirens.
Is there a minimum height that these should fly at?
About 15 minutes ago it sounded like a small Cesna type plane was landing in my garden :0
The nearest airport is Southend, (10 miles away) and we're used to planes flying overhead here all the time as we are in Basildon so under a fair few routes. It was def a plane as we get helicopters land at the rear of our house all the time for Basildon hospital so i think i can clearly tell the difference between a helicopter and a smallish plane.
I can't believe how loud it was as it went over, and 5 minutes later a helicopter has turned up and been hovering since, followed by a fair few sirens.
The low flying prohibitions
(a) Failure of power unit
An aircraft shall not be flown below such height as would enable it, in the event of a power unit failure, to make an emergency landing without causing danger to persons or property on the surface.
(b) The 500 feet rule
Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft shall not be flown closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure.
(c) The 1000 feet rule
Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft flying over a congested area of a city town or settlement shall not fly below a height of 1,000 feet above the highest fixed obstacle within a horizontal radius of 600 metres of the aircraft.
(d) The land clear rule
An aircraft flying over a congested area of a city town or settlement shall not fly below such height as will permit, in the event of a power unit failure, the aircraft to land clear of the congested area
Of course, practice forced landings are part of every light aircraft pilot's training, but you don't tend to hear those until they give it the gas to get moving again
(a) Failure of power unit
An aircraft shall not be flown below such height as would enable it, in the event of a power unit failure, to make an emergency landing without causing danger to persons or property on the surface.
(b) The 500 feet rule
Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft shall not be flown closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure.
(c) The 1000 feet rule
Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft flying over a congested area of a city town or settlement shall not fly below a height of 1,000 feet above the highest fixed obstacle within a horizontal radius of 600 metres of the aircraft.
(d) The land clear rule
An aircraft flying over a congested area of a city town or settlement shall not fly below such height as will permit, in the event of a power unit failure, the aircraft to land clear of the congested area
Of course, practice forced landings are part of every light aircraft pilot's training, but you don't tend to hear those until they give it the gas to get moving again
Generally during PPL training, you will do one or maybe two PFL's (practice forced landings, down to about 50ft) into a field before going and finding another one elsewhere so not to tick off any of the locals.
OP - if you have a particularly large bit of land out the back of your gaff, I'd suspect that's exactly what was going on.
If you don't have a particularly large bit of land out the back, then maybe the student made a bad selection of suitable landing area and was told to look elsewhere for their next one by their instructor, hence why you only heard it once
OP - if you have a particularly large bit of land out the back of your gaff, I'd suspect that's exactly what was going on.
If you don't have a particularly large bit of land out the back, then maybe the student made a bad selection of suitable landing area and was told to look elsewhere for their next one by their instructor, hence why you only heard it once
Mr Taxpayer said:
500' Minimum separation distance, that's vertical and lateral. It did allow me to fly a Gazelle helicopter along the line of the M6 through the Shap/Tabay pass.
I bet that was fun. Drove that route many a time in the wagon and really like it, i'm sure its much more fun in a Gazelle in fact from there all the way upto Glasgow you can often see some interesting low flying aircraft.Thanks again all for the info, always like learning new things. It must have just been the helicopter and i heard it wrong, (could have sworn it was a plane though.)
mrloudly said:
HOGEPH said:
RWD cossie wil said:
Or a Baro altimeter?
That won't tell you how high above the ground you are. You need a radalt for that.give you this info, Barometric or Radar ;-)
Chucklehead said:
the pilot could, in theory, be 100 feet off the ground and 500 from your house.
No he couldn't - if he did that he'd be in breach of a different section of the Air Law rule 5 (the low flying rules)[quote]Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft flying over a
congested area of a city town or settlement shall not fly below a height of 1,000
feet above the highest fixed obstacle within a horizontal radius of 600 metres of
the aircraft.
mattdaniels said:
Chucklehead said:
the pilot could, in theory, be 100 feet off the ground and 500 from your house.
No he couldn't - if he did that he'd be in breach of a different section of the Air Law rule 5 (the low flying rules)[quote]Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft flying over a
congested area of a city town or settlement shall not fly below a height of 1,000
feet above the highest fixed obstacle within a horizontal radius of 600 metres of
the aircraft.
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