Rules For Cameramen

[Dana]

§ 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(c) Over other than congested areas. 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.

So under the rules, if you actually take off or land with somebody standing next to the runway, that's legal. If you make a low pass but don't land, you're technically in violation. I have heard of pilots getting violated for making low passes (even though everybody does it).

[Frank Giger]

The thing is that the cameraman need not be right next to the runway.

For stills he can offset from the taxiway (assuming a conventional County type airport layout) away from the runway, or even from the ramp. I've got some great shots of me in the Champ looking like a...well, you know...taken from a guy on the ramp while I landed on that end of the runway.

Or he can set up a high def video camera on a tripod and let its do its thing from turning base through landing (or taxiway to takeoff) and then grab stills from it. Today's video is just insane with resolution. Get fancy and set up a couple of them at different angles and edit to suit.

A professional quality photographer can do loads with a long lens - heck, most airshow pics look like they're in a chase plane!