Tim, You're absolutely right. You can go fly your gyro and take some pictures of some pretty cool people, places and or things... from 500ft. You can go lower in unpopulated areas if you want to take pictures of corn fields, trees, or your shadow, but unless you want to start breaking regs, you'd better invest in a nice telephoto lens. As for myself, I'll just bring a friend along and let him worry about the photo's while I worry about the helicopter. Besides, it's much easier to explain to the feds after you've done an emergency landing in a high-school football field what went wrong and what you did when you don't have to start your sentence with, "So first I put down my camera..."
If you need to get closer than 500ft to people at an event I don't know if a gyro or heli is the best bet.
A heli that close is pretty annoying and one of the reason I get requests over helis.
I don't know why you would waste time with a dime store camera.
If you need to get that close, ditch the rotorcraft and get a PPC.
Unless of course your intent is to get photos of trees blowing in the wind, people in shock running for cover and trying to get the sand out of there eyes as you disrupt the event.
PPCs are nice slow platforms that don't shake, pleasing to look and and won't create the disturbance of a heli at a couple of hundred feet.
Now, if you are shooting a production MOVIE of actors that are pretending the heli does not exist that would be another story.
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Sec. 91.119 — Minimum safe altitudes: General.
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(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.
(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface—
(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA; and
(2) A powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section.
[Docket No. 18334, 54 FR 34294, Aug. 18, 1989, as amended by Amdt. 91–311, 75 FR 5223, Feb. 1, 2010]
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Memorial Day Parade Goes Awry in Jersey
http://www.totalinjury.com/memorial-day-parade-goes-awry.aspx
A falling branch struck a five-year-old girl and cut open her head at the 23rd annual Memorial Day parade in Morris Plains, N.J., according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
The little girl was hospitalized because of the branch injury, which occurred because of a low-flying Coast Guard helicopter that was part of the parade. It hit part of a tree and caused two eight-foot branches to break and fall – one striking the girl.
Another branch hit a 38-year-old woman who was protecting her son from the branch, giving her scratches and a gash on her face, though she was not sent to the hospital for her injuries. Her eight-year-old son also sustained scratches on his face. Paramedics at the scene were able to handle the situation.