According to NORAD’s “Santa Cam” , the Jolly Old Fella and 9 of his little buddies flew underneath the Arch last night!
From 1967 thru 1969 I was attending college at ISU in Terre Haute Indiana. While I was attending school I was working at the airport refueling airplanes, cleaning and waxing them during the overnight shift. My roommate was a pilot at that airport. Also during the 1960’s Coors beer was not aval on this side of the Mississippi and those friends of mine at ISU were willing to pay top dollar for Coors beer. Anyhow we made many trips west to load up some beer and bootleg it back at school in Terre Haute. Then one fatefull night my roommate was getting tired and asked me to fly the plane. I told him I have never flown before. He said don’t worry it’s a piece of cake once you are off the ground. So I did just that; i took over the controls while my roommate slept. As we were approaching St Louis I was flying at a very low altiitude and just in front of me appeared the Arch. I was not sure if I should try to fly over it or around it in just the blink of an eye. I just closed my eyes and flew through it and hoped I would not crash the plane. Luckily I made it through and landed in Terre Haute shortly there after and swiftly unloaded thirty cases of coors beer. Ther are many more details i have left out such as names and addresses. But I will save that for another day.
MrFubar
Well, sure, if you’ve got the brains to do it, it’s easy.
Seems legit.
I love love love stories that make my butt hurt. Again, this time at Arches N.P.
I disagree. I do MS Flight Simulator X plus I take real flying as hobby. I have a full simulator setup at my house. Once you have a nice computer, big screen, and a decent cockpit setup, it is about is real as it gets. If anything, it is much more difficult to do well on MS FSX than in a real plane just because of the lack of easy side visibility and situational cues.
The first thing that strikes me whenever I practice on the simulator and then take the same lesson in real life is how much easier the real one is. Of course, you have to have discipline to make do both flights the exact same way including radio calls, taxiing instruction, clearances, and weather but MS FSX is an incredible tool especially for IFR flying but it is really good for VFR as well.
I could easily fly over under the arch tonight if I had my own plane. It wouldn’t be difficult at all.
That said, I will take the three-way any day over those options.
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.
The Arch doesn’t span the river, both legs are on the same bank. Common (but hilarious) misconception.
The Golden Gate bridge is an absolute magnet for pilots - you weren’t a REAL Bay Area pilot until you shot through it.
These are the kind of things that made the FAA frown on 3-in N numbers - it used to be you could paint your numbers on in either 1’ or 3" lettering. You don’t get that option much any more.
It’s been 94 years, and thisstill hasn’t been beat.
Prior to 9/11 I was a paying passenger on a helicopter sightseeing flight in San Francisco. Without announcing it the pilot flew under the GGB. The thing is, at the time I held a (fixed wing) pilot’s license in Australia and knew what a no-no it was to fly under bridges here. Don’t even think of flying under the Sydney Harbour Bridge!
As the pilot got closer to the bridge I though, “well, she’ll pull up soon.” Then it became, “it’s OK, she’ll pull up real soon.” Then it was, “there’s no time to pull up, she’s going under - quick, grab the camera.” I managed exactly one photo. It was a fantastic experience.
Flying under the arch would be a piece of cake compared to something like this: Spitfire under bridge - YouTube
I think it is a scene from “Piece of Cake”. Spitfire flown by the late Ray Hanna.
He came so close to stuffing that up entirely. He is way over to one side. I reckon he misses by what, 3 feet?
Hey, it was 1919. Planes were hardly precision instruments.
What amazes me is that there are still cars, buses etc driving under the arch as he goes through. If it was a planned stunt they were taking a big risk of bystanders being killed.
Life used to absolutely full of risks. Really! And people thought it was normal!
and airplanes flew at 40-50 mph - precision was not all that required
I have met a person who got fined for flying under this bridge with a jet fighter.
Ain’t that the truth. Sadly, that reminds me of a past gondola in Italy.
Never been to Paris, have you?
My flight instructor in the 1970’s says he learned flying from a guy who flew a jet fighter under a bridge in Denmark.
And then became a flight instructor in Canada teaching in small Cessnas. That pretty much sums up the consequences.