I was at my lease this weekend and twice a helicopter flew very low and hovered over my lease. I heard from several locals a company was contracted by land owners in the area to shoot hogs. Is it an acceptable for these helicopter hunt/aerial survey guys to fly low and hover over property they don't have permission to hunt or haven't been contracted by the LO?

Let me be clear about one thing, I never saw or heard anyone shooting over my lease. With that said, the thought did cross mind they could be pushing pigs or coyotes from our lease to property where they've been contracted or have permission. The incident also maybe me think about what precautions these companies take to insure they're not shooting over or across property they don't have permission to hunt. I'm not going to lie, it was a little creepy thinking these guys were possibly shooting from the copter knowing they were flying low and hovering in close proximity to my wife and I.

Hmm interesting. That would probably bother me too.

On a side note, I saw 7 AH-64's fly over my lease on Sunday morning.

Here are the Federal Aviation Regulations's on that subject.
·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 that case, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
• (d) ·Helicopters. ·Helicopters may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed In paragraph (b) or (c) of this section if the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface. In addition, each person operating a helicopter shall comply with routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the Administrator.
·Helicopter operations may be conducted below the minimum altitudes set for fixed-wing aircraft. The reason? The helicopter's unique operating characteristics, the most important of which is its ability to execute pinpoint emergency landings during power failure. Further, the helicopter's increased use by law enforcement and emergency medical service agencies requires added flexibility in the application of many FAA provisions.

If they are operating unsafe or firing a weapon then it becomes a state issue TPWL and DPS

Had Blackhawks and Apache's from Hood flying just east of my lease the last weekend of duck season........ very, very low, enouh they would go beind the next hill. Must admit, it was cool watching them hoover in one spot for a couple minutes. While this was going on, one Blackhawk circled about 8000 or so. All in all, it was worth the trip to the lease that weekend

I've seen a certain Texas billionaire do that on property along the Brazos he's interested in buying.

I don't understand the problem.

Jerry

Bob.

If you were hunting anything at the time, I'd call them in to TPWD. They can't obstruct your hunt.

I can't speak for everyone but the guy I fly with treats property boundaries from the air as though we are on the ground. We do not fly over neighboring properties nor engage animals that are on neighboring ranches. If we are pursuing animals and they make it across a property boundary we do not chase/engage. This goes a long ways towards keeping the peace between the contracting rancher and his neighbors.

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Good luck enforcing this, but from some recent reading a property owner not only owns the subsurface rights to their property, unless of course their mineral rights have been sold or leased, but the property owner also owns all of the air space above their property. The exception is areas near airports in landing and takeoff paths.

this is typically how it's supposed to work, ESPECIALLY if they are hunting. They should not be buzzing you or your place and should not be trying to work critters from your place onto the places that they do have permission to hunt.

Do you have any pipelines running across your lease. Some companies run pipelines in a chopper with an infrared camera checking for leaks. I know enbridge does

Check to see if there was a LOA filed for that date and ranches involved.

We do have pipelines on the property. The pipeline runs north to south, but the copter crossed the property going west to seat and east to west.

The whole incident could have been nothing, but I just thought it was odd the pilot flew low, slow and hovered over our lease. I'm going to ask the landowner if he contracted for an aerial survey or has noticed the copter flying over his property recently.

What did it look like?

My friends have some property and what some helo hunters do is move them to a property they can hunt on.

So you are saying they herd the hogs and chase them onto their hunting property away from property they can't hunt on?
I had better not see this happen on my leased property or there will be heads rolling.

We've had problems with a couple of helos running scenic tours over the hill country, flying out of Frederiksburg. We're close to Enchanted Rock and have some interesting topography that I guess these guys thought it would be a good idea to buzz for the enjoyment of their passengers. They were flying very low over parts of the ranch, down the creek, and right over the LO's house. The LO's wife got ahold of them and made it very clear that they were disrupting the hunting activities and spooking the livestock, and they would have big problems if they didn't find somewhere else to fly. She's not a person you want to mess with, so I'm sure that was a fun conversation. Ever since then I've seen them fly right up to our southern property line and turn around.

To what altitude?

i dont think they consider tree's and earth property damage?

Ranger Bob
or XTO Bob. Either one huh?

T. Boone

Nope. Bob Simpson