Flying under Bridges
 

On another thread (how high do you fly?) this topic was raised (or lowered!)

Can't help thinking it needs its own thread. Most who mention flying under bridges have done so in a simulator.

I can think of three occasions when an aircraft was REALLY flown under a bridge. I shall mention only one. And that appeared in the 2012 Olympics, when H.M. the Queen herself, and her corgis, greeted "James Bond" and presumably accompanied him to the helicopter, which with Royal impunity actually flew UNDER TOWER BRIDGE. Delightful. Wonder how they managed to arrange that scene? it had to be real.

Ray Hanna flying under Winston Bridge near Darlington in County Durham as seen in 'A Piece Of Cake' ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf3UtmHLKUU

Flying under bridges.
 

Major Chris Draper (Auster 1953) and Flt.Lt.Al Pollock.RAF. (Hunter 1968?) through Tower Bridge come to mind. Try Googling the names.

While Sydney's Harbour Bridge is, admittedly, a bit bigger than the Tower Bridge, how about...
A Lancaster
A Sunderland
A flight of 24 Wirraways
A Mustang actually looping it :eek:
and so the list goes on.

I'm not going to mention rotary wings, 'cos they don't count - even if they do it in formations of a dozen or so.

Does flying under wires count? 'Done it twice!

http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps3af962f5.jpg

In British Columbia, and also a Norwegian fjord.

Since you say "aircraft"... I've done it myself, quite legally, in an R44 under the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not really difficult since the deck is 200 feet above the water.

Wikipedia reckons the Humber bridge is 155 metres high (508 feet) and has 1400 feet span. Does that mean that at low tide you could fly under it legally?

There are a few other bridges (e.g. the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark) which would give you 500 feet of clearance all round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaPrTmwGSg

This one looks totally illegal ;))) wonder who the chase plane was ?:ugh:as the chase plane hit the road sign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfiCBIv4AVk

Pace

Some have (allegedly) flown under the M6 bridge at Thelwall. I once looped a 737 around Runcorn bridge and landed at Liverpool off the loop - doesn't say much for the realism of FS2000!

I believe that the late Eric Winkle Brown looped a Spitfire under the Forth railway bridge. When the police came looking for the pilot they never thought of calling on the FAA because they didn't know that they flew Spitfires at that time.

Winkle looped around each span of that bridge! He was returning from (successful) landing-on trials with the aeroplane and felt like letting off steam!

What I found surprising about that tale is that even in wartime there were plenty of jobsworths around to shop him!

Look at this colourful Guy Chris Draper who was going to fly under 7 London Bridges but only made 2 because of the weather. it was to raise his profile

If no one has done it should be quite a challenge and you would go down in History. I would recommend a few days before the EU vote to encourage an Out vote and preferably go at daylight before the City wakes :ok: Any volunteers

Can anyone lend me a Red bull racer :E Mary you and the Piper Cub would work a treat ;) Fit a Go Pro film it, sell the film for a fortune, write a book have a film made. You would be Rich and an overnight celebrity invited to media chat shows, breakfast TV etc etc etc and all for an hours work :ok:( of course before the trial afterwards ???) I wonder what the courts would do with you ?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Draper

Some years ago three Spanish pilots flew their aircraft, one after the other, under the Ballachulish bridge. At least one person has flown under the Skye bridge and just last year there were reports of two light aircraft having flown under the Kessock bridge.

IMO none of these things would have been particularly hazardous, though illegal, and in the case of the Kessock bridge you could probably get a 737 through there had you a mind to.

I've been tempted but cameras are too ubiquitous these days so that the chances of getting away with it are probably quite minimal.

Of course there is this one:-
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_cw5OWK1Oxc

More than one bridge being flown under!

Didn't an RAF pilot try to fly an early jet (Meteor?) under the Bristol suspension bridge over the Avon? He flew under OK but went into the side of the gorge further up from the bridge.

There's lots of things we used to do with aeroplanes (:E) that you would be daft to do now, with everyone having a video camera facility on their phone.

Shaggy Sheep Driver

Ok I am persuaded I will do all the London
Bridges as long as you promise to bake the cake with a concealed file in it
And of course deliver it

But yes up for it :ok:

Pace

Thelwall has indeed been done. Allegedly.
A mate of mine who was working on the Thelwall refurb in the late 90,s told me he had seen a light aircraft fly under the bridge one morning whilst on his way to work at around 06.30. I questioned his previous evenings alcohol intake until the pilot fessed up one day.

SSD,

I think that the Avon Gorge accident you are referring to was a Vampire from the local RAFAux squadron at Filton. It was the last day of operations by the Auxiliaries before they were scrapped. A sad day in more than one way.

ASN Aircraft accident 03-FEB-1957 de Havilland Vampire FB.Mk 9 WR260

That's the one!

I've also heard that Barton motorway bridge has been flown under. It's right by the airfield so it's difficult to see how you'd get away with that without being spotted. But not impossible by any means!

That Corinth Canal one... Engine failure? :eek:

It was obviosly a planned stunt and I suspect RB had boats in the canal as backup - though the speed he was going he probably had the energy to pull up and dump it on the top!:D

TBH almost any bridge underfly has the (very low these days) chance of engine failure and if it happened you would be in the water!

The late John Jordan allegedly once flew his Stearman under the A14 Orwell Bridge at Ipswich.

Something I think about actually when indulging in some spirited flying (keeping 500' from persons, vessels blahdiblah). My runs down the Howden/Derwent/Ladybower dams aren't as emotionally fulfilling as they used to be due to the ubiquity of the phone cam.

I have flown as passenger under M6 at Thelwall in Bell 47. Definitely happened.

The "Mad Major" flew under all the then-existing London bridges about 1960. I think he was jailed. Ex WW1 Navy pilot, who was a short time in the RFC, hence Major rank.
He later begged to rent a plane for a short local flight, disappeared, and was mourned as lost until he turned up in Belgium.
Providing you are English, (Skye), Spanish, (Balachulish) or French, (Kessock), it appears it's OK to fly under Scottish bridges.
PS you must quote to reply now.

Flown under the Gatwick air bridge in the 737 simulator a few years back... instructor got us to fly "circuits" underneath it before a 45/180 procedure style turn onto short finals for a touch and go & repeat.

Got us to do that 5 or 6 times.

Flying at a radalt of 6-10 feet required some quite precise and delicate control inputs... If you can hold it at that kind of attitude, and are able to adjust your rate of descent by a matter of a few feet per minute, a manual ILS and non-precision approach becomes a lot easier.




In real life, I'm a good boy. The lowest I ever got was probably doing dual PFLs back in my PPL/CPL training. Low enough to see the number sprayed on the side of the sheep as it was running away from us.

.

Thought I had done something wrong in settings somewhere with this quote thing ! What if you don't want to quote or only want to quote with part or the other posters post is pages long. Can you disable that function?

Pace

Are helicopters not bound by the 500ft rule?

On a visit to Linton. I flew the Tucano simulator at full chat under the Humber Bridge. It seemed a lot less than a 500ft gap. I was then asked to bring it round and fly across the bridge just above the traffic. Despite a voice in my headset telling me it wasn't real, I instinctively hauled it away at the last second. It looked too narrow for my wingspan.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

91.119(d)(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimum prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c).

(a) still applies: an altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface. Obviously not a problem flying under a bridge.

There's an official helicopter VFR route to the west of LAX at 100 feet along the beach (never flown it though :-( ).

The Royal Navy Sea Kings would sometimes fly under the Erskine Bridge near Glasgow if the cloud base was too low, on their way up to the Southern General hospital.

I once flew the Concorde simulator under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York. Great fun!

And then there was the microlight flown through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris...never traced, I believe.

And this of course...

I remember reading in a 1980,s edition of Pilot Mag (with pictures) about a French guy who flew a Rallye through the Arc de Triomphe with not much to spare at the wingtips.

Stunt was apparently to highlight some French Govt stance against light aviation.

And how about the American who flew a Bonanza under the Eiffel Tower! About 1980 I think. There is video from the cockpit out there...

Major Christopher Draper

A pilot whom I would have regarded it as an privilege to represent FOC - but I was under two at the time.


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...per/Draper.jpg


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...er_bridges.jpg


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...er_Summons.jpg


Result: Conditional Discharge & 10 guineas costs.

A very sensible decision by the Stipendiary Magistrate Mr Frank Milton who, by the time I appeared before him as a very young barrister about 20 years later, was Sir Frank Milton, Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate. Tough when required and merciful when appropriate; a good combination.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...5Bridges-3.jpg ..........http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...bitury1979.jpg


This small picture is a scan of a postcard showing him flying a Puss Moth under Tower Bridge in September 1931.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...owerBridge.jpg

The writing on the picture says 'C. Draper 30th September 1931'.
Written on the back is 'Given to E. T. Cherry on 17th June 1933 by Major C. Draper (Himself)'.


There doesn't seem to be much room for 'characters' like the Mad Major in our modern, obsessively risk averse, world.

Opinions will no doubt differ about whether that is good or bad.

The FAA regs for helicopters are more sensible than ours.

I have a couple of times, once in an R22 and once in a B206 when flying a news helicopter around LA for a week. Great fun. :)

That was a long time ago. I don't know if it still exists because I think (not checked) the LAX Helipd was closed a few years ago because of construction work and not re-opened.

It used to be on top of a multi-storey car park near the Tower.
Departure was direct from the pad to the ocean not above 100 feet.
The beach/Pacific is at the top left of this photo which was originally posted by VaqueroAero.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...AXHelipads.jpg


The beach departure is shown at the end of this excellent video: https://vimeo.com/69051925

I flew it in a Jet Ranger. We didn't depart LAX, but that route allows one to cross the runway centre line, which we needed to do on route. And as for "not above 100 ft" - we were in what I would like to call 'full and conservative' compliance with our clearance.

During the "Cold War" in W. Germany we (rotary) were cleared to fly at 100 feet agl, or 50 feet agl if in a designated training area or another area that a detachment commander had deemed to be familiar to the crews. During some larger exercises, when fast jets were everywhere, we were cleared not above 150 feet agl.

This involved flying under quite a variety of obstacles, including bridges and HT cables. The SOP was to come to the hover adjacent to a pylon, recce the crossing, then hover taxi underneath. IIRC, the minima for wire crossings, were 6 metres clearance above, 3 metres laterally and 2 metres below the aircraft (to prevent arcing through the aircraft to ground from HT cables).

Not a bridge...but surely some Gazelle pilots must have been tempted the way back to Palace by the two large cranes in Belfast? :E