Watching fireworks in the air

[slbird]

I'm going to Niagara Falls Monday night and there will be a firework show. Anyone tried watching fireworks while flying before? I checked the circuit procedures on CFS but just wandering what a safe distance should be.

Thanks.

[7ECA]

Check for associated NOTAMS. It will be like the fireworks out in Vancouver these past few times, there are plenty of airspace restrictions, and yet there always seem to be plenty of pilots who decide to try and skirt around them.

[KnownIce]

Never purpose-flown over a huge event to say for sure, but from being in the air a few times coincidentally in general it's not worth it. Didn't seem like they burst much more than a few hundred feet above the ground.

[North Shore]

Unless you need the night pic, it's a total waste of time and money. The fireworks that seem so high from the ground actually burst about 2 or 300 feet in the air. You'll be circling at minimum 1000 agl, and more likely 2 to 2500. They look like little daisies from up there. Plus, you'll miss the crowd reactions, the sound, and, if the wind is in the right direction, the smell of the fireworks. Unless you really need to, save your money.

[North Shore]

PS. (From personal experience) She'll sleep with you, or not, regardless of whether you fly to the fireworks. I'd rate your chances higher on foot, with a blanket and a bottle of plonk!

[slbird]

Unless you need the night pic, it's a total waste of time and money.

Yes, I do need the night pic. Just deciding whether to watching it in the air or on the ground.

PS. (From personal experience) She'll sleep with you, or not, regardless of whether you fly to the fireworks. I'd rate your chances higher on foot, with a blanket and a bottle of plonk!

Thanks for the advice ns

Just out of curiosity, can ashes from the firework go up higher and damage the engine?

[lownslow]

I think watching fireworks is worth doing once. They seem more three dimensional from above, but as others have said much smaller and lower than you would expect.

As for ash, I assure you it must all travel down. Around this time last year I scored a spectacular parking spot at a fireworks display, it was right up by the action and I couldn't believe my luck. Long story short, when the show was over my car looked like something they had excavated from Pompeii. There could not possibly have been any ash hanging in the sky, or anywhere else for that matter.

[No Quarter]

I've done it and would never recommend it to anyone. Much much better from the ground. Don't think for a second you'll get a chance to watch either, you're just too busy.