A citizen reported seeing a navy helicopter circling below 1;000 ft over a residential area on three...

Narrative:

A navy helicopter has been flying over a residential area. This is the third time in the last ten days that the helicopter has made a very slow circle over the houses at about 250 ft which is much lower than the 1;000 ft minimum stated in far 91.119. The slowness and low altitude would not allow the helicopter to recover if he stalled out. I do not fly helicopters but I do hold a commercial instrument; fixed wing pilot license and therefore I know what 250 ft looks like. What he is doing is dangerous.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A citizen reported seeing a Navy helicopter circling below 1;000 FT over a residential area on three occasions within a ten day period.

Narrative: A Navy helicopter has been flying over a residential area. This is the third time in the last ten days that the helicopter has made a very slow circle over the houses at about 250 FT which is much lower than the 1;000 FT minimum stated in FAR 91.119. The slowness and low altitude would not allow the helicopter to recover if he stalled out. I do not fly helicopters but I do hold a commercial instrument; fixed wing pilot license and therefore I know what 250 FT looks like. What he is doing is dangerous.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	982496
Time
Date	201112
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Sikorsky Helicopter Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Person 1
Function	Observer
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Events
Anomaly	No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types

A citizen reported seeing a navy helicopter circling below 1;000 ft over a residential area on three occasions within a ten day period.