Airplanes hitting bridges.

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iflyforpie
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by iflyforpie »

No, this was a guy I worked for, who was a CF-18 pilot, who said he was authorized to fly under the bridge.

I'm pretty sure I didn't misunderstand what he said... ....but I'm pretty sure there was a lot of drinking involved that night so I never took it at face value. That 'claimed' was in there deliberately.
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by LousyFisherman »

Driving Rain wrote:Those are interesting stats Rookie. Thanks :)
Yes, very interesting paper thanks for the link

LF
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by Tramp »

co-joe wrote:
Old fella wrote:
pdw wrote:Flight 90 hit the bridge over the Potomac before going into the river ... Jan 13 1982.

Yup, remember that one for sure. If memory serves me correctly an American Investigative show called NOVA(I think it was) did a episode on this very crash with the actual CVR voice recordings from taxi, dep to time of impact.........

Was that the "ma I love ya" one?
That was PSA 182 - collided with a 172 on approach to Lindbergh Field in San Diego.
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by karmutzen »

Flown under a few: Lion's Gate on a crappy day (called the tower for Special VFR and they said they couldn't see the bridge, good). Flying log buyers around up and down the Fraser there just didn't seem to be any point climbing up to skim over the bridge scaring everyone. The ones with lots of room like the Alex Fraser and Port Mann seemed ok. On tighter ones like the Deas Slough hwy99 causeway I've only water-taxied under.

Why all the hype? No law against it.
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pdw
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by pdw »

karmutzen wrote:... there just didn't seem to be any point climbing up to skim over the bridge scaring everyone.
No minimum height above ? Was pretty sure there was a "law" (minimum height) for going over. Scaring cars (distracting drivers to cause an accident) with a low pass on top ... have heard of this before.
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iflyforpie
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by iflyforpie »

Flying under the bridge (any bridge in Canada) doesn't satisfy the 500ft distance requirement from any structure. It's only on takeoff or landing that this debate is about... because that rule is specifically excluded by it.

And no... you can't have an arbitrarily long departure path or landing approach... I remember reading about some enforcement action against a helicopter pilot who tried to use that defence.
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pdw
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by pdw »

iflyforpie wrote:... I remember reading about some enforcement action against a helicopter pilot who tried to use that defence.
I see the shallow climbouts here for the tours around/over the Falls, with a rapid forward speed as the helicopters climb way for each 20 minute roundtrip ($1000 per hour ?).

The judge in that case likely imagines a helicopter can easily climb out straight up no problem (any direction etc), and wouldn't likely care about wasting airtime at $50 per minute.
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Rockie
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by Rockie »

pdw wrote:I see the shallow climbouts here for the tours around/over the Falls, with a rapid forward speed as the helicopters climb way for each 20 minute roundtrip ($1000 per hour ?).
I watched the goings on with that outfit north of town for about an hour once. At one point a pilot just about took the ground handler's head off with the skid because he was in such a hurry.
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pdw
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by pdw »

There at the edge of the City they have heli-pads. Maybe not the intention to "hurry", except the routine likely gets so well oiled on busy days; it's real important that each departure procedure ensures satisfactory height straight up before tilting to accelerate for the climb-away. Just down the hill here at CYSN the chopper departure path is parallel to 24/06 so they can tilt-for-speed right away on lift-off, ... although still five minutes longer to reach the brink than the competition. Here the YSN Skyway Bridge over the nearby Welland Canal is a potential obstruction, yet for this tourist circuit is just enough out of the way (the entire span is fortunately well to the right of their outbound track) to be an issue of efficiency.
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by Driving Rain »

I knew if I looked long enough I'd find a skimmer flying under a bridge. At the 1:27 mark.
https://vimeo.com/108985362
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by Liquid Charlie »

It might not qualify as a bridge but it is specific to float planes - we took off under wires in Red Lake all the time -- planned to be airborne under the wires but on many occasions would be flying -- simply hug the shoreline for reference and stay away from the sag in the middle -- I think they have since been removed but for many years this was the norm -- the wires at Cochener were regarded much in the same way -- always better to fly under than try and "struggle"over them :smt040

Now if you were in a WIG would you counted as a boat or an airplane :lol:
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AirFrame
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by AirFrame »

Driving Rain wrote:I knew if I looked long enough I'd find a skimmer flying under a bridge. At the 1:27 mark.
https://vimeo.com/108985362
Doesn't look like it's in Canada, though... Or am I hearing the song and reading the flight guide the FO holds up wrong?
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Cat Driver
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by Cat Driver »

Doesn't look like it's in Canada, though...
Is there something unique about Canada that makes a difference flying under bridges?
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by 7ECA »

Cat Driver wrote:
Doesn't look like it's in Canada, though...
Is there something unique about Canada that makes a difference flying under bridges?
According to Rockie, there is. Even worse though, is that that video shows Spanish Air Force pilots flying in such a reckless manner. :roll:

Wasn't it Rockie who said that military pilots knew better than doing stupid things like this? :lol:
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by Rockie »

7ECA wrote:
Cat Driver wrote:
Doesn't look like it's in Canada, though...
Is there something unique about Canada that makes a difference flying under bridges?
According to Rockie, there is. Even worse though, is that that video shows Spanish Air Force pilots flying in such a reckless manner. :roll:

Wasn't it Rockie who said that military pilots knew better than doing stupid things like this? :lol:
No, I've never said that. In fact if you search for 5 seconds on youtube you will see lots of video of French Air Force fighter pilots doing very stupid things. Stupid is stupid no matter who is doing it.

BTW, did your eagle eye happen to notice any difference between the bridge in Ottawa and the one the Spanish Air Force flew under?
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by AirFrame »

Cat Driver wrote:
Doesn't look like it's in Canada, though...
Is there something unique about Canada that makes a difference flying under bridges?
No, there was debate about whether or not the Canadian Regulations prohibit it... It may be perfectly legal wherever that flight happened.
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pdw
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Re: Airplanes hitting bridges.

Post by pdw »

This thread ... about "hitting bridges":

In Canada new laws are brought in when needed, except in this case perhaps just not yet ... it seems there really aren't any incidents or accidents to go by.
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