Assuming that there is not a TFR over my local city I may try to view the fireworks presentation from the air in a small Cessna. What is the altitude generally that one should remain at while providing an excellent vista of the fireworks exploding while remaining safely out of reach of the rockets red glare?
I may be misremembering, but isn’t 1500’ AGL pretty standard?
A flying buddy of mine did that 40+ years ago. He said that looking down at fireworks against a backdrop of ground lights was not as impressive as looking up against a black background.
Amateur fireworks aren’t going to get much above 200 feet. Professional displays are more like burst at 500’, top out at 1000’. I agree 1,500 to 2,000 is a good safe place to cruise. Unless you’re talking about something like New York City or Washington DC - then you’d need to be higher and to expect TFRs.
Over a big city it can be real pretty even at 5,000-10,000 AGL, but mostly just from the spectacle of so much going off spread out across so large a space; from that height each individual burst is pretty small.
I recall going into Toronto one summer evening which happened to be Canada Day or some other holiday. In any event we clueless 'Merkins weren’t expecting fireworks. One thing’s for sure: the Canadians in their backyards and schoolyards outdid anything I’ve seen on any 4th of July. And I’ve worked a lot of them. Everybody had skyrockets & flash-bangs going.
Having flown in a news chopper covering fireworks in Baltimore years ago the best angle was about the same height but perhaps 3 miles away - it gave the show a beautiful dark background with the ground rising up behind the display.
1500 feet is the right altitude and looking down at 30 different communities setting off fireworks is worth the effort.