1993-06 · NASA ASRS report 243083
SMA FLIES LOW OVER FRIEND'S HOUSE. COMPLAINT FROM GND OBSERVER.
I HAD JUST DEPARTED RWY 36 AT FREEWAY ARPT (W00) IN MITCHELVILLE; MD. I WAS FLYING AT A SAFE ALT; OVER A FRIEND'S HOUSE NEAR THE ARPT; AND WITHIN APPLICABLE REGS. AFTER THAT I FLEW EWARD FOR PRACTICING SOME MANEUVERS. WHEN I RETURNED TO FREEWAY I WAS TOLD THAT SOMEONE HAD TELEPHONED THE ARPT WITH A COMPLAINT; GIVING THE ACFT'S TAIL NUMBER AND RPTING THAT THE PLANE WAS OPERATING AT AN UNSAFE ALT -- 100 FT AGL. THIS PERSON SAID HE WOULD CALL THE FAA. FIRST OF ALL; I WAS NEVER LOWER THAN 500 FT AGL. I COMPLIED WITH FAR 91.119(A) AND 91.119(C). I CALLED A FLT INSTRUCTOR WHO STATED THAT I SHOULD HAVE COMPLIED WITH FAR 91.119(B). IN RETROSPECT; I AGREE WITH THAT. I HAD MISJUDGED THE DENSITY OF POPULATION IN THE AREA. THERE WAS NO OTHER TFC IN THE TFC PATTERN OR IN THE VICINITY. I WAS JUST OUTSIDE THE TFC PATTERN FOR FREEWAY ARPT; OPERATING AT THE PATTERN ALT OF 1000 FT MSL (APPROX 830 FT AGL -- THE FIELD ELEVATION AT FREEWAY IS 168 FT). THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS LESS THAN 3 MI SE OF THE ARPT; AND IS DIRECTLY UNDER THE APCH FOR A 45 DEG ENTRY TO THE DOWNWIND LEG OF THE L HAND PATTERN FOR RWY 18. IN FACT THE PERSON COMPLAINING SHOULD HAVE BEEN VERY ACCUSTOMED TO SEEING ACFT AT THAT ALT. I FLEW OVER MY FRIEND'S HOUSE 3 TIMES; TWICE AT 1000 FT MSL (ABOUT 830 FT AGL); AND ONCE AT 700-750 FT MSL (530-580 FT AGL). THEN I LEFT THE AREA. I WAS NEVER AT AN UNSAFE ALT. THERE WAS A FIELD JUST ABOUT DIRECTLY BELOW ME; WHICH I WOULD HAVE USED FOR A FORCED LNDG SITE. I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT MY ALTIMETER SETTING WAS CORRECT. SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTING THE AREA I LISTENED TO THE ANDREWS AFB (ADW) ATIS BROADCAST; AND FOUND THAT MY ALTIMETER SETTING WAS THE SAME AS WAS BEING RPTED FOR ADW.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.