On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 23:15:47 GMT, ".Blueskies."
wrote in :

400' is a recommendation, not a restriction. The issue is if you (the RC pilot) become a hazard to air navigation then
you are in violation of those FARs, not because you are flying over 400' high. Kite flying off the end of a runway has
the same restrictions...

Makes sense.

Hold the RC plane up and look at it from 400' (the length of a football field even) and you will be surprised at how
small it looks, even the 1/4 scale jobs. Indeed folks do fly higher and further than 400' but it does take some doing...

Our flight line is 800' from the I-190 on the left and about the same distance
to the tree line on the right, so I routinely see my planes at least that far
away as I fly the pattern (such as it is) at our field.

A small version of the field survey is on this page:

http://moleski.net/rc/respark4.htm

For those photos and for the ones on this page, I'm sure I was well above
400':

http://moleski.net/rc/respark3.htm

I've never flown that high before or since. I should rig another camera
one of these days and get some fresh photos of the field. The surveyor
who did the sketch laid out a landing area for us and had us put
fertilizer around it. It worked really well--the greener grass of the
flight line is very visible.

Marty