Originally Posted by
whoknows idont
Fortunately flying from A to B at 40kn is highly uneconomic and in many situations not reasonably justifiable anyways. Especially when you factor in a fair chance of turning around or precautionary landing in the middle of nowhere.
Yeah, but see, there are a gazillion different scenarios and circumstances to make any hard-and-fast "rules." Every flight department is different. Every boss is different. Every mission is different.
I used to fly for a rich guy (FAR Part 91) whose home base was down here along the U.S. gulf coast. He had a hunting camp about 65 miles north - about 35-40 minutes on a good day. Easy-peasy. This part of the state is mostly flat, open farmland, and we could easily and safely do the flight at 400' agl if we had to. Except... Except there was one area...not really a "ridge"...just some higher ground that ran perpendicular to our flight path between here and there. We knew the terrain - knew the roads and knew there were no antennas or powerlines along the way. We'd done the route dozens of times over the years.
Sure enough, one day we launched under a low ceiling and were plugging along at 300-400 feet. All was good until we got to that high point, where the clouds were down in the trees. I slowed down and got down over a lightly traveled country road. I won't lie, it was tense, and I'm sure that the few car drivers we encountered thought we were crazy. After what seemed like an eternity, the ground fell away and gave us some clearance between it and the clouds. We continued on to the hunting camp. Was it horribly unsafe? I didn't think so. However, I don't think the FAA would've been too impressed. But this was before the rule changed to the "1/2-mile minimum viz" requirement.
Helicopters fly low - it's what we do: off-airport to off-airport. Sometimes, the only reason we go to an actual airport is to get fuel. And a lot of times, we fly in weather conditions that keep our fixed-wing brethren cowering like scared little girls in pilot lounges all across the nation, gazing out the window and going, "It's 900 and 2.5 out there. Look at that crazy helicopter pilot - he's gonna get himself killed! Let's get another cup of this 'free' coffee and if it hasn't improved in fifteen minutes, let's...and by "let's" I mean "you" call the boss and tell him that we're cancelled for the day."