# On Flying a Private Plane UNDER the St. Louis Arch **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717 "2002-12-24T14:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/41 "2013-02-05T14:59:22Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Well you could take a sea plane get a zombie as a copilot and start your take off run downriver toward the arch. > If you lifted odd the water just prior to going under the arch it does count as flying under it. WRONG Upriver! Upriver! You’d have to go under a river bridge either way before you could get enough speed. The bridge to the south (Poplar St.) has a 4 ft higher clearance than the bridge to the north (Eads). The tricky part would be to make that [wicked bank to the left](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=st+louis&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&ei=qRsRUcwV0oTZBaucgfAJ&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAA) to square up with the arch. Also the zombie copilot is unnecessary unless you were trying the stunt at night. I hear that they have great night vision. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/42 "2013-02-05T16:40:15Z")
The trick is to not get caught. Hit a wire = Fail Get your picture taken = Fail Take a camera leaving proof in existence = Fail Tell someone else = Fail So few people can really keep a secret. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/43 "2013-02-05T17:22:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Two Members Of The Opposite Sex Who Get It On With Each Other & You got a ride with Bob Hoover in his P-51 Mustang. > > And no, I won’t tell you about my 3way history. 😃 So tell us about her 3way story with you and Bob in a P51. Must have been a tight fit. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/44 "2013-02-05T18:24:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s been 94 years, and [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIZzkq5Y8q0)still hasn’t been beat. Fantastic! ---
**Author:** ![ThisOneGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/45 "2013-02-05T20:30:50Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > I love love love stories that make my butt hurt. Again, this time at Arches N.P. Not quite in the national park, but nearby: > **[The Arch Flying Cowboy of Canyonlands, Utah](http://www.swaviator.com/html/issueSO02/Arch91002.html)** > > Southwest Aviator is a flying magazine for pilots and aviation enthusiasts in the Southwest, including Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/46 "2013-02-05T20:36:56Z")
Somebody [flew under the Eiffel Tower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moriarty) before, and that bottom arch is [a lot lower](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bidstart.com/makethumbdetails.php%3Fpic%3Dhttp://images.stampwants.com/31y1g.img%26w%3D264%26mx%3DY&imgrefurl=http://postcards.bidstart.com/Comparison-Eifel-Tower-Statue-of-Liberty-St-Louis-Arch-and-/10956253/a.html&h=264&w=194&sz=14&tbnid=9-LR_7KamNYNUM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=51&zoom=1&usg=__SiZEUD64KagBlmayQiv46pnaMg8=&docid=T5uOdt3jBUkYRM&sa=X&ei=BG0RUdmTF5CxqQH5j4D4Cw&ved=0CEkQ9QEwBg&dur=815) than the Arch. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/47 "2013-02-05T21:27:28Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Never been to Paris, have you? A few times actually. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/48 "2013-02-05T23:32:01Z")
Then you know that it would take more than a possible plane crash to faze traffic passing through the Place de l’Étoile. Anyone driving there has already given up on life. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/49 "2013-02-06T00:35:49Z")
This [article](http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/stupid-plane-tricks.html) claims the arch has been done 5 times. > [@](#): > > Ever since the Gateway Arch went up in St. Louis in 1965, pilots have eyed it longingly. Balloonist Nikki Caplan’s 1973 flight was the first time an aircraft breached the sanctity of the arch with permission, but in fact five airplanes are known to have flown through it, though none of them was ever identified—or prosecuted by the Federal Aviation Administration, which forbids flying less than 2,000 feet above such a structure, and also forbids flying in a “careless or reckless manner,” lest the offender’s pilot’s license be revoked. “We haven’t had a fixed-wing aircraft do it since the ’70s,” says National Park Service historian Bob Moore. “It’s kind of a sensitive subject—the less we publicize it, the less people will do it.” ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/50 "2013-02-06T06:07:04Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > I love love love stories that make my butt hurt. Again, this time at Arches N.P. So, did you fly through a natural arch? My buddy flew us through Steven’s Arch on the Escalante. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/51 "2013-02-06T14:03:29Z")
Me, no but I’d go with a pilot like this below anytime. I’m a geologist from Grand Junction so I was at Canyonlands and Arches all the time, just no plane. ☹ Off to look up Stevens Arch… > [@ThisOneGuy](#): > > Not quite in the national park, but nearby: > > [The Arch Flying Cowboy of Canyonlands, Utah](http://www.swaviator.com/html/issueSO02/Arch91002.html) I didn’t even see the plane at first, just the shadow. It’s like being the ball on the world’s greatest golf course. ---
**Author:** ![stevenmarcks\_yahoo.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@stevenmarcks\_yahoo.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stevenmarcks_yahoo.com)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/52 "2013-06-01T02:23:40Z")
4 of us flew through the Arch in the Spring in 1981 - We were college students at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois… Back then it was Barn Storming. We flew through during a thick (no wind) snow storm. Took pictures from the inside of the Cessna 172 with a throw away camera and waited until I was in San Diego that Summer to develop them - to be safe. Very easy to do but I wouldn’t do it now out of respect for 911. It was on the radio and newspaper the next day but we never got a call. We rented the palne from Walston Aviation in Alton and landed in St. Charles airport right after the Arch before we returned to Alton. It was a Rush! ---
**Author:** ![stevenmarcks\_yahoo.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@stevenmarcks\_yahoo.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stevenmarcks_yahoo.com)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/53 "2013-06-01T02:26:04Z")
4 of us flew through the Arch in the Spring in 1981 - We were college students at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois… Back then it was Barn Storming. We flew through during a thick (no wind) snow storm. Took pictures from the inside of the Cessna 172 with a throw away camera and waited until I was in San Diego that Summer to develop them - to be safe. Very easy to do but I wouldn’t do it now out of respect for 911. It was on the radio and newspaper the next day but we never got a call. We rented the plane from Walston Aviation in Alton and landed in St. Charles airport right after the Arch before we returned to Alton. It was a Rush! ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717/54 "2013-06-01T02:34:25Z")
A stunt pilot flew under the concrete support arches of Stegman Colliseum on the UGA campus when the building was under construction. As others have pointed out, the Gateway Arch would be a snap. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-flying-a-private-plane-under-the-st-louis-arch/144717.md?page=2)