FAR 91.303 ... For the purposes of this section, aerobatic flight means an intentional maneuver involving an abrupt change in an aircraft's attitude, an abnormal attitude, or abnormal acceleration, not necessary for normal flight.
Pilots have been violated for high speed low passes over a runway if the maneuver was not something that the pilot could have landed out of because it was not necessary for normal flight. It's bovine scat but it happens and you conduct a low pass at risk to your ticket. That's why, if you come to an aerobatic competition with the best hot dog pilots in the region in attendance, you won't see any low passes. We keep our antics to waivered or otherwise legal airspace.
So I searched the NTSB filings to see if I could figure out what the scenarios are where someone would be cited for violation of 91.303 or 91.119. Unfortunately the search only goes through appeals, I'll have tofind out where to get the original citations.
However, my cursory review tends to indicate that most folks who are cited with .303 violations have racked up a bunch of other violations in the process and are not being cited simply for a low-pass.
91.119 on the other hand, has some good pearls:
Order # 4020.
"Respondent . . . operate[d] his aircraft in a highspeed
pass down the entire length of the Cedar Valley
Airport at an altitude of about 50 feet AGL [(above
ground level)], the airspeed being somewhere between
200 and 300 knots, that such was not necessary for
purposes of takeoff or landing or . . . demonstrating
an approach -- missed approach, and the area was,
in fact, not a suitable area for purposes of landing
. . . . [and was] admittedly within less than 500
feet of people, structures, and vehicles on the
surface."
