Minimum flight altitude over a built-up area
Over a built-up area or an open-air assembly of persons, an aeroplane must be high enough to land clear in an emergency and, in any case, at least 1,000 ft above the highest obstacle within a horizontal distance of 2,000 ft (CAR 602.14(2)(a)(i)).
- Built-up / assembly (aeroplane): highest obstacle within 2,000 ft, plus 1,000 ft.
- Anywhere else (open country): no closer than 500 ft to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure (CAR 602.14(2)(b)).
- The built-up rule is a height above obstacles; the open-country rule is a distance from things.
- CAR 602.15 lets you go lower only as much as the task needs (police, saving life, firefighting or air ambulance, aerial application or inspection) and without hazard. Take-off, approach, and landing are already excepted by 602.14(2) itself, not by 602.15.
Trap: using 500 ft as the built-up minimum (that is the open-country distance, and the balloon margin), or reading the 2,000 ft horizontal radius as the vertical margin.
References
- CARs 602.14