Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Helicopters court danger under Coronado bridge
Tuna pilots are worst offenders
It’s not illegal to fly a helicopter under the Coronado Bay Bridge, but the people at Caltrans, the state transportation department, may make it so. Bob Petree and JoeReynolds fly news helicopters for channel 39 and channel 10 respectively, and both have had occasion to fly and hover under the 200-foot-tall span. Petree recalls only two instances when he’s done it; the more recent was last year when a car plunged off the bridge and Petree maneuvered his copter in below the span to train his station’s camera on the rescue effort, “It’s not that it’s unsafe,” says Petree. “It’s that I don’t want to get the reputation of being a cowboy, so I try not to do it,” Channel 10’s Reynolds says he’ll go under the span sometimes if he can get a better shot of an incoming navy ship, and he says it’s sometimes safer to fly below the span than to tax the copter by climbing over the bridge while carrying a full crew and gear.
Both pilots says the underspan maneuver isn’t dangerous, though Petree thinks the jockeying of the tuna boat helicopter pilots, who more frequently fly below the span, sometimes borders on the acrobatic. Caltrans, which oversees bridge safety and administration, says there is no law prohibiting helicopters from flying under the bridge (planes must clear the span by 2000 feet above or 1000 feet to the side), but agency spokesman, Jim Larson, says his boss may try to have the practice banned. ‘The F.A.A. [Federal Aviation Administration] has told us they’re not worried…that the pilots are all skilled,” says Larson. “I say, well the drivers at the Indy 500 are safe, too, and look what happens.” But at least Larson doesn’t have to worry about Helicopters pilots flying underneath freeway overpasses — one Los Angeles news copter pilot did that recently and was hired.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Helicopters court danger under Coronado bridge
Tuna pilots are worst offenders
Helicopters court danger under Coronado bridge
Tuna pilots are worst offenders
It’s not illegal to fly a helicopter under the Coronado Bay Bridge, but the people at Caltrans, the state transportation department, may make it so. Bob Petree and JoeReynolds fly news helicopters for channel 39 and channel 10 respectively, and both have had occasion to fly and hover under the 200-foot-tall span. Petree recalls only two instances when he’s done it; the more recent was last year when a car plunged off the bridge and Petree maneuvered his copter in below the span to train his station’s camera on the rescue effort, “It’s not that it’s unsafe,” says Petree. “It’s that I don’t want to get the reputation of being a cowboy, so I try not to do it,” Channel 10’s Reynolds says he’ll go under the span sometimes if he can get a better shot of an incoming navy ship, and he says it’s sometimes safer to fly below the span than to tax the copter by climbing over the bridge while carrying a full crew and gear.
Both pilots says the underspan maneuver isn’t dangerous, though Petree thinks the jockeying of the tuna boat helicopter pilots, who more frequently fly below the span, sometimes borders on the acrobatic. Caltrans, which oversees bridge safety and administration, says there is no law prohibiting helicopters from flying under the bridge (planes must clear the span by 2000 feet above or 1000 feet to the side), but agency spokesman, Jim Larson, says his boss may try to have the practice banned. ‘The F.A.A. [Federal Aviation Administration] has told us they’re not worried…that the pilots are all skilled,” says Larson. “I say, well the drivers at the Indy 500 are safe, too, and look what happens.” But at least Larson doesn’t have to worry about Helicopters pilots flying underneath freeway overpasses — one Los Angeles news copter pilot did that recently and was hired.
Comments