PLT OF A SMA SEL FLEW LOW OVER A RESIDENTIAL AREA WHEN RETURNING FROM A LOW FLT IN SEARCH FOR A MODEL AIRPLANE.

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ON JUN/XX/94 I RECEIVED A CALL FROM ANOTHER MEMBER OF A LCL RADIO CTLED FLYING CLUB IN LINCOLN. HE INFORMED ME THAT ONE OF HIS MODELS CRASHED EARLIER THAT DAY AT THE CLUB'S FLYING SITE; ABOUT 7 MI E OF THE LINCOLN ARPT: AND HE COULDN'T FIND IT. HE ASKED ME IF I WOULD FLY HIM AROUND OVER THE FLYING SITE IN ATTEMPT TO LOCATE THE MODEL. I TOOK OFF FROM LINCOLN ARPT AND FLEW TO THE SITE UNDER RADAR CONTACT. MY VFR CLRNC WAS TO MAINTAIN VFR AT OR BELOW 4000 FT. UPON REACHING THE SITE THE MODEL AIRPLANE WAS LAST SEEN (STILL UNDER RADAR CONTACT). I MANEUVERED THE AIRPLANE ABOUT 900 FT AGL TO FIND THE MODEL. I SAW WHAT I THOUGHT WAS IT AND WENT IN CLOSER TO SEE ABOUT 500 FT AGL. IT WAS THE MODEL THAT I SAW. THE INCIDENT OCCURS WHEN RETURNING FROM THE SITE; TO THE ARPT. I ACCIDENTLY FLEW OVER A SEMI-POPULATED AREA; (THOUGH STILL BARELY OUT OF THE CITY LIMITS) AT ABOUT 500 FT AND CLBING. WAS THIS AN INFRACTION OF ALT RESTRS SET FORTH BY THE FARS? IF IT WAS WOULD THE TWR SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT BEING ON RADAR CONTACT WITH ALT ENCODING? CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: RPTR STATED THAT THE AREA OF LOW FLT WHEN RETURNING FROM HIS MODEL AIRPLANE SEARCH WAS SPARSELY POPULATED AND THERE WERE NO KNOWN COMPLAINTS. THEREFORE; HE WAS ADVISED THAT THERE DID NOT APPEAR TO BE OPS CONTRARY TO THE FARS BASED ON THE INFO HE RPTED.