Pilot Quiz: Minimum altitude to overfly the Golden Gate Bridge

[coudano]

i saw a few f18s do it in "the rock"
:lol:

[CadetProgramGuy]

i saw a few f18s do it in "the rock"
:lol:

[hijack]
Yeah, well under National Command Authority, they were supposed to fly under radar to Alcatraz Island....This was their safest approach.
[\hijack]

[PHall]

A part of me says that I wouldn't have minded flying in the 50's where aviation was all fun and games, there was less regulation, less monitoring, a few winks of the eye and a lot more forgiveness (Read 'turning a blind eye').

Yet another part of me says the accident rate back then was also considerably higher...

You used to be able to do a lot of things in the past, that you can't do now.
Like fly below the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Do it now and you're an ex-pilot.

[NIN]

[hijack]
Yeah, well under National Command Authority, they were supposed to fly under radar to Alcatraz Island....This was their safest approach.
[\hijack]

No hijack.. it involves the Golden Gate Bridge.

And launching green flares.

Everybody likes green flares.

[Mustang]

Oh, and in a discussion with the Oakland FSDO, he does consider the bridge a 'congested area' as per FAR 91.119(b).

Found this online:  "Thinking about buzzing the freeway?  The FAA has held that moderate traffic constitutes a congested area – even if it is far from any house or structure!" (Source)

This would seem to support a minimum altitude of 1240 over the length of the span, with the 500 foot rule applying to other parts of the structure itself.

[simon]

Mustang, it's actually going to have to be 1000' above the top of the towers, so roughly 1750' MSL, because you need to remain 1000' above any structure 2000' laterally.

I'm not going to get picky on +/- 100 feet, but a rep. from the Oakland FSDO went through it with me and his view was 1000' above the top of the towers. The deck height of 250' doesn't really come into it because even though the towers are more than 2000' away from the center point between the towers, the cables running up to the tops of the towers are part of the structure.

The whole point of me calling the FSDO in the first place was to get their interpretation of the rules, which, when you think about it, was probably the gist of what the lawmakers intended. If you stay 1000' above the highest point, you're safe. Anything else...well, history tells me the FAA usually wins.

[JeffDG]

Mustang, it's actually going to have to be 1000' above the top of the towers, so roughly 1750' MSL, because you need to remain 1000' above any structure 2000' laterally.

I'm not going to get picky on +/- 100 feet, but a rep. from the Oakland FSDO went through it with me and his view was 1000' above the top of the towers. The deck height of 250' doesn't really come into it because even though the towers are more than 2000' away from the center point between the towers, the cables running up to the tops of the towers are part of the structure.

The whole point of me calling the FSDO in the first place was to get their interpretation of the rules, which, when you think about it, was probably the gist of what the lawmakers intended. If you stay 1000' above the highest point, you're safe. Anything else...well, history tells me the FAA usually wins.

Like I said earlier, you have about 47' of play room in terms of the height of the cables (about what they drop in the 100' of horizontal you have >2,000), but pretty close to towers+1,000...