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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 1, 2016 22:07:27 GMT 12
Flying under bridges in NZ goes way back of course. Barnstormer S/Ldr Malcolm "Mad Mac" McGregor flew under the bridge on the Waikato River in Hamilton. Someone told me once they watched it,and he went under, pulled into a loop over the bridge and went under again.
My late mate Trevor Pearce also flew under a bridge in a Tiger Moth during his WWII RNZAF training,and never got caught. He later flew under a bridge over one of Canada's great lake canals, and again never got caught.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 2, 2016 11:18:23 GMT 12
I should point out that the report of McGregor flying underneath the Hamilton bridge is still an unresoved issue.
In a later interview, he said that he had never flown underneath that bridge, simply because it had never occurred to him to do so.
There are reports of people who say they saw him do it, but then there are also reports of people seeing UFOs.
Proof either way is still lacking.
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Post by nuuumannn on Apr 2, 2016 11:23:15 GMT 12
My deceased uncle once flew an Auster under the Auckland harbour bridge; got his licence revoked. Not sure if it was permanent, but I never saw him go near an aeroplane again.
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Post by kiwiduster1 on Apr 2, 2016 12:07:49 GMT 12
MMMMM Don't remember the tall timber in my day Tom. Hehehe !!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 2, 2016 13:32:30 GMT 12
When you're young and a wee bit irresponsible (and feeling bullet-proof), it's a bit of a buzz to fly beneath a bridge in an aeroplane, even when you don't know it is going to happen until it does happen. Then, when the pilot turns around with a smirk on his face and announces “that was the fourth time I've flown beneath that bridge” you have a real good laugh about it.
I don't know if I would be comfortable being in an aeroplane undertaking such antics today (I was in my early-20s back then, and I'm now in my early-60s), but at the time we thought it was hilarious, although everybody onboard kept quiet about it for years afterwards, as the pilot concerned was a well-known commercial pilot and the consequences could have been rather severe for him if the wrong people had heard about it. However, I also heard a few rumours (from several sources) that the late Dick Beattie had also flown beneath that bridge on a few occasions, and that wouldn't surprise me at all if it was true, because Dick was a bit of a character who used to bend lots of rules when it suited him. Such as the number of times ZK-DPH could be seen parked up in the Patangata Pub carpark (way up the Tuki Tuki river valley) until late in the evening (I saw it with my own eyes on several occasions), yet it was always gone by midnight. I presume that River Road was being used as a makeshift runway to access the pub. That was when Dick was the regular pilot flying that aeroplane spraying a seaweed-mix fertiliser around Hawke's Bay and we were using it as a jumpship at Bridge Pa during the weekends.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 2, 2016 13:33:51 GMT 12
There are reports of people who say they saw him do it, but then there are also reports of people seeing UFOs. Proof either way is still lacking. There's plenty of proof of UFO's Peter. Just no proof that they come from outer space and flown by aliens. Hell, I have seen two separate unidentified flying object events with my own eyes, I cannot work out or explain them,and I know neither was an aeroplane nor helicopter. The latter was probably a drone, but I cannot positively identify it as such. As for Mac's later denial it's probably to preserve his licence? Plenty of people reckon they saw it happen. It's all a bit like those who saw Pearse fly on 31 March 1903 though, eh.
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Post by haughtney1 on Apr 3, 2016 21:26:25 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 3, 2016 21:40:01 GMT 12
The Auckland Harbour Bridge, Mohaka bridge and the Eifel Tower all have a shedload of room for anything small to fly under. That bridge Ray Hanna flew the Spitfire under for "Piece of Cake" though was rather tight, so he wins hands down. I doubt they'd even consider it nowadays, that scene would be CGI
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Post by haughtney1 on Apr 3, 2016 22:48:35 GMT 12
And Dave there is absolutely no evidence to confirm or deny that 2 NZ QFIs (working at No 1 FTS Linton-on-Ouse) early one September morning a few years ago....flew 2 Tucanos in formation under the Forth Railway Bridge after a bet was made the previous evening......nor is there any truth to the libellous assertion that the local ATC unit was at the time headed up by a transplanted Kiwi who just happened to have scheduled a period of radar maintenance at the time this alleged incident took place. :-)
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Post by nuuumannn on Apr 4, 2016 0:51:24 GMT 12
You can sail a dreadnought under the Forth Rail Bridge; it's huge. Admittedly, it'd be interesting to watch aircraft fly in formation under it, though, and I suspect it has been done before. No doubt, with the large number of military air bases around the Lothians during WW2, young pilots who were getting a wee bit bored probably made the odd bet or two...
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Post by haughtney1 on Apr 4, 2016 1:04:53 GMT 12
Yes nuuuuman, I think you've got it in one, tradition is a powerful motivator....I'm told :-)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 4, 2016 4:04:04 GMT 12
This is what my old mate Trevor Pearce wrote about his first bridge, when he was flying Tiger Moths from Bell Block: "And so the end of December 1941 was fast approaching and we were getting to the end of our EFTS training but wait now is the time for a bit of line shooting. It was usual for someone to return from a flight and say that they had done so and so which could include flying under a bridge. Whether or not you believed him or not is of no consequence suffice to say some of us did do what we claimed to have done but how could one tell that you were not telling a porky. I did fly under a bridge and to this day I do not know how I survived as it was [now] the most stupid thing that I have ever done [flying that is] . The bridge in question is still in Taranaki and yes I do know where it is. The bridge in question was situated in the center of an “S” approach and arrival and departure bends were covered with trees. Now the bridge itself was very low but the width was sufficient for some foolhardy fool [me] to have a go. And of course there being no other fool around I elected myself and yes I got through it, I must have or else who is writing this. Just how I managed it I haven't a clue. Of course I doubt if any of the other boys believed me when I told them but I did and I did it my way." Trevor was not the only one doing silly things, his instructor also risked his life, and got caught it seems. Trevor wrote: "About this time my beloved instructor was required to report down at Wellington headquarters to get, as he put it, his hand smacked for performing an illegal flying manoeuvre. According to the rumours, and there were plenty flying around [after all this was a flying station, no not the station flying but the phrase], he had allegedly put the wheels of his Tiger Moth on top of one of the train carriages just to say farewell to the outgoing class. Someone had taken a dim view [see I'm learning the lingo already] of the situation who had then reported him to the higher ups who did not appreciate his antics and so requested his appearance, nay demanded his appearance, before them so they could smack both his hands as he had put two wheels on the roof. What annoyed him most was the fact that he had to take the train down, a punishment in itself, just to get in his words 'another 6 months knocked off my promotion' This seems to have been a recurring offense for him as his promotion was now so far behind him that he needed to have a pair of binoculars with him to even see if he had made the bottom of the list. But I take my hat off to him [if I was wearing one which I'm not] as he was a brilliant instructor. Well he taught me to fly didn't he!" And lastly here's the story of Trevor's second bridge, at Niagara. "Comes the 7th and I was given an aircraft to do another hour. Well, as I was now feeling more confident flying this aircraft and having seen the country side extensively I decided to do something different. Now down to Niagara Falls, a quick line up then a wing over to port, throttles wide open and down I went underneath the famous bridge and down low down to the whirlpool. And then up and out over the lake to the other side fast, where I made my presence known by flying within the vicinity of Trenton Air Force Station where they would have seen me and most likely made a note in their log book. So I eased the throttles back to a gentle cruise and proceeded past Toronto, then down to Hamilton and so on home. If anyone had reported me, I could claim that I was over on the Western side of the lake so no way could it have been me. But upon landing there was no-one to greet me with bad news and so I had got away with it, again. So I now had two bridges under my belt." Here's his photo of that bridge: You can read more about Trevor's Air Force life on my site here, in his memoirs www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Trevor%20Pearce%20Book.htm
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Post by komata on Apr 4, 2016 6:32:17 GMT 12
In respect of bridges, and FWIW:
There was a bit of excitement in 1968 when a student pilot (no names BTW; there are those who will know), 'borrowed' and then flew a Cessna under the Bridge Street bridge in central Hamilton, in a protest against being rejected for pilot training by the RNZAF, his intention being to show them that he could in fact fly. Suffice to say that he was sufficiently low for staff at the adjacent Police station to be able to look down and record the aircraft registration on the upper wing as it went past.
It was an 'interesting' afternoon....
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 4, 2016 9:23:55 GMT 12
Malcolm Campbell told me all about that guy and that incident.
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Post by komata on Apr 4, 2016 10:39:17 GMT 12
Dave H: Thank you. The pilot made his point, and paid the appropriate penalty. Unfortunately I subsequently lost track of him so don't know if he went into GA or not - he certainly had the ability. It was, of course, all a rather long time ago...
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 4, 2016 11:30:41 GMT 12
I think he went into prison. Not sure what after that.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jan 17, 2018 23:04:49 GMT 12
The Auckland Harbour Bridge, Mohaka bridge and the Eifel Tower all have a shedload of room for anything small to fly under. That bridge Ray Hanna flew the Spitfire under for "Piece of Cake" though was rather tight, so he wins hands down. I doubt they'd even consider it nowadays, that scene would be CGI Jurgis Kairys has flown beneath a bridge while inverted. That would probably beat the lot of them.
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Post by planecrazy on Jan 18, 2018 7:50:05 GMT 12
whoops double post slow internet, sorry.
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