Caught by surprise

[onwards]

I was flying back from KHAF today and was on following, there were a lot of targets. Anyway, I was listening closely to make sure I was fully aware, when my passenger pointed out a very low flying high wing, maneuvring maybe 100ft above the surface, flying ahead of us towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

In a few seconds it became apparent that he was going under it.

Since I had not heard about that plane on the advisories and had no idea what he was going to do but he was straight ahead and could easily nick us from below if he decided to pull a steep climb, I got on the radio and asked NorCal if they had the guy on radar.

They confirmed and then seemed to get on the radio with him to ask if he intended to turn north after going under.

So is it legal to do this? I wanna fly under the bridge too.

 

[Jim Logajan]

If it was a helicopter, powered parachute, or weight-shift-control aircraft then it may have been legal per 91.119(d).

In no case is flying under the bridge encompassed by 91.119(b). This paragraph explicitly uses the word "over," so even if the bridge were considered a congested area the paragraph could not apply using any known meaning of the word "over".

The bridge is too low (only about 220 ft above the water) to allow an airplane to fly under and still be legal with respect to 91.119(c).