200 AGL.

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jun 7, 2008
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Light and Sporty Guy
In an airplane, feels like you are purd near down in the treetops
In a car (Mackinac Bridge) feels like you are way, way, way up there.

Weird.
 
Yeah... even worse on a chair lift! There are a few harrowing chairlifts out here

**** hits the fan around 1:50
 
tawood said:
You sure that's the video you wanted to post? As a frequent skier, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, at 1:50 or otherwise.
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Yeah, that doesn't seem too bad. There was one at the top of Aspen Highlands that always got my attention. I haven't been to Highlands in a very long time, I think that chair has since been replaced.
 
tawood said:
You sure that's the video you wanted to post? As a frequent skier, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, at 1:50 or otherwise.
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FormerHangie said:
Yeah, that doesn't seem too bad.
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haha, it is always hard to capture these things on video. I grew up skiing and still love skiing today.. actually hard to say what I enjoy more, that or flying. But for some reason I hate the whole chairlift part of the experience. I mean, you look up and it's one little pin swiveling holding you on to the cable.. we obsess over the maintenance of our airplanes, but chances are that pin has been sitting there since 1972.. but I guess at some point, whether you were 30 feet or 300 feet in the air, falling would suck
 
Tantalum said:
haha, it is always hard to capture these things on video. I grew up skiing and still love skiing today.. actually hard to say what I enjoy more, that or flying. But for some reason I hate the whole chairlift part of the experience. I mean, you look up and it's one little pin swiveling holding you on to the cable.. we obsess over the maintenance of our airplanes, but chances are that pin has been sitting there since 1972.. but I guess at some point, whether you were 30 feet or 300 feet in the air, falling would suck
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I've sat on some icy or snow covered chairlifts, that seem to tilt or slant downward towards the front of the seat...I swear I'm holding on with my butt cheeks!
 
tawood said:
I've sat on some icy or snow covered chairlifts, that seem to tilt or slant downward towards the front of the seat
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Yep. and it's on a very slow three person chair and you are in the middle with two strangers and they didn't put the bar down!
 
Tantalum said:
Yep. and it's on a very slow three person chair and you are in the middle with two strangers and they didn't put the bar down!
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BTDT many times...and inevitably, the darn chair suddenly stops half way up, yet your momentum makes you want to keep going out into space...time for strong butt cheeks! LOL
 
500AGL won't seem very high until you ride Acrophobia at Six Flags!
 
Driving over high bridges terrify me. One in particular was the Houston ship channel bridge back when the guard rails were shorter than the wheel of the truck I was driving. And hazardous materials trucks were supposed to use the far right lane. Forget that, I hugged the far left lane every time.

ship-channel-bridge-2-1200x800.jpg


Only 175 feet up.
 
Zeldman said:
Driving over high bridges terrify me. One in particular was the Houston ship channel bridge back when the guard rails were shorter than the wheel of the truck I was driving. And hazardous materials trucks were supposed to use the far right lane. Forget that, I hugged the far left lane every time.

ship-channel-bridge-2-1200x800.jpg


Only 175 feet up.
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Yikes. I wouldn't like that either.
 
Low elevation bridges that are long -- I never got used to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I don't like being over water that close for that long.

aerial.jpg
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
In an airplane, feels like you are purd near down in the treetops
In a car (Mackinac Bridge) feels like you are way, way, way up there.

Weird.
Click to expand...
Could this be a case of absolute altitude (bridge height above water) versus height above obstacle (flying over trees).

Driving over a bridge, you’re roughly 200 feet over the water. Flying over tall trees at 200 AGL, you could be only 100 feet above the trees.

Airport I fly at often has a large quarry under the downwind pattern leg. I get a little queasy over it every time.
 
Matthew said:
Low elevation bridges that are long -- I never got used to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I don't like being over water that close for that long.
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Only been on/under it once. I didn't like being under the water level for that long....:hairraise:
 
Spent a long weekend on Coronado Island. That bridge is a mind-twister.

Timbeck2 said:
7 mile bridge on the way to key West isn't fun. ANY bridge with those see-through steel grates gives me the heebie jeebies.
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Ever do a steel grated bridge on a motorcycle. Need to change my shorts just thinking about it. Not sure I could hack the Mac on two wheels.
 
Oblivion said:
Ever do a steel grated bridge on a motorcycle. Need to change my shorts just thinking about it. Not sure I could hack the Mac on two wheels.
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Once on the Mac. Not a pleasant ride.
Inner lane the bike was doing the weeble wobble on the grate. Outer lane, that guard rail was about knee high...

The bridge to Grosse Ile, I got used to...
 
Zeldman said:
Driving over high bridges terrify me. One in particular was the Houston ship channel bridge back when the guard rails were shorter than the wheel of the truck I was driving. And hazardous materials trucks were supposed to use the far right lane. Forget that, I hugged the far left lane every time.

ship-channel-bridge-2-1200x800.jpg


Only 175 feet up.
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BrianNC said:
Yikes. I wouldn't like that either.
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Matthew said:
Low elevation bridges that are long -- I never got used to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I don't like being over water that close for that long.

aerial.jpg
Click to expand...

Timbeck2 said:
7 mile bridge on the way to key West isn't fun. ANY bridge with those see-through steel grates gives me the heebie jeebies.
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You guys slay me. You're just fine flying in a light GA aircraft, but driving across bridges scare you. We were in the Keys a couple of years ago, we kept trying to get our daughters to look outside and not at their phones, we wanted them to see what was there and not what was on their phones. It's not all that often you get to drive across the ocean, and they were so unimpressed they were staring at their phones

Oblivion said:
Spent a long weekend on Coronado Island. That bridge is a mind-twister.
Ever do a steel grated bridge on a motorcycle. Need to change my shorts just thinking about it. Not sure I could hack the Mac on two wheels.
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We had a number of steel grate drawbridges when I lived in St. Pete, plus the Skyway. I rode across the drawbridges pretty frequently on a Honda CL175, plus I rode across the Skyway for lulz. The steel grate sections don't line up with each other perfectly, and the bike kind of wobbles a bit. The trick is not to micromanage the process, just keep a light grip on the bars and keep it pointed in the general direction you want to go, which of course is straight ahead. The bike will take care of the rest.
 
Yeah, it definitely takes getting used to, and it's counterintuitive, but you've got to just let the bike do its thing. When I first started riding and heading into Chicago, the bridge grates on 290 were a clencher.
 
PaulMKE said:
Could this be a case of absolute altitude (bridge height above water) versus height above obstacle (flying over trees).

Driving over a bridge, you’re roughly 200 feet over the water. Flying over tall trees at 200 AGL, you could be only 100 feet above the trees.

Airport I fly at often has a large quarry under the downwind pattern leg. I get a little queasy over it every time.
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I don’t know for others but that’s not an issue for me. Flying ag everything is an obstacle. Normal height through the field put me eye level with 18 wheelers. Never bothered me. Bridges or just about anything high enough that I can’t step off of give me the creeps. I can’t do ocean piers at all. That **** is crazy. People are suicidal to walk out on those things.
 
It's amazing how hard it is to "walk the plank" in VR even though you are only 1.5" above the ground...
 
Zeldman said:
Driving over high bridges terrify me. One in particular was the Houston ship channel bridge back when the guard rails were shorter than the wheel of the truck I was driving. And hazardous materials trucks were supposed to use the far right lane. Forget that, I hugged the far left lane every time.

ship-channel-bridge-2-1200x800.jpg


Only 175 feet up.
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Ha, same here! I avoid them if possible. I have, however, flown in a doorless Bell 47-G; no problems with that!
 
Matthew said:
Low elevation bridges that are long -- I never got used to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I don't like being over water that close for that long.

aerial.jpg
Click to expand...

Been on it a couple times. Pretty cool, but those tunnels make ya wonder, especially as old as they are now.
 
Since bridges and tunnels came up...

never liked being under bridges in boats, especially small boats. There is a bridge on the Annisquam river in MASS (Cape Ann) that our boat used to just clear when going under it... definitely something eerie about being under that big thing, seeing the mast clear by just 2-3 feet (at high tide) and seeing all that structure and machinery around you

the steel grate bridges never really bothered me.. outside of a few failures most bridges seem remarkably overbuilt so don't really give me any "fear" factor. Same thing with steel roller coasters.. those steel rails are crazy thick and each car has several attachment points and you're bolted in. Sure, you get the occasional accident, but those engineers at Intamin, for the most part, know what they're doing

I go back to the chairlift thing.. a dinky metal chair rusting to shreds that's been repainted 2 dozen times and a quarter inch steel pin that sits in the water for decades do not confidence inspire. Still the single scariest thing I do as an adult!!

upload_2018-9-5_10-52-0.png
 
We were driving through the mountains in pretty heavy fog. As we went up in elevation it was still foggy but brighter. I told my wife if she manages to get up another 500' we'd be on top.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I don’t know for others but that’s not an issue for me. Flying ag everything is an obstacle. Normal height through the field put me eye level with 18 wheelers. Never bothered me. Bridges or just about anything high enough that I can’t step off of give me the creeps. I can’t do ocean piers at all. That **** is crazy. People are suicidal to walk out on those things.
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I have ducked under weather in the north slope Alaska that was low enough to make caribou antlers an obstacle, not a problem.

The only time I felt a little apprehension in the air was one night flying over the Grand Canyon at 17,000. Higher overcast covering the stars and moon, and not a single light to be seen on the ground, darker than dark. It was almost like a sense deprivation chamber. I would have felt better in the clouds. Once I had passed over the canyon, I felt better.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
It's amazing how hard it is to "walk the plank" in VR even though you are only 1.5" above the ground...
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No problem. My house is a timberframe/post-and-beam structure. In the great room is a 6" beam across the middle with the top 10' off the floor. I've walked it multiple times. The floor underneath is hardwood.

We were in Seattle last weekend and went to the Space Needle. Leaning into the glass, no problem. Walking on the glass floor and looking below, no problem. Sticking my camera lens between the gaps, no problem. Trying to lean on the outsloping plexiglass on my back to take a picture of the flag on the pole, no freaking way! The rest was easy-peasy, but my lizard brain was having no part of leaning backwards (at angle that put my head further out than my feet) onto the plexiglass. :eek::eek::eek:

I thought it might feel a little weird. My lizard brain thought it was much worse than "a little weird".
 
I know some folks who don't fear the structural integrity of bridges, but more the tiny voice at the back of their head that tells them going over the railing might be fun. Like that magnetic bit of vertigo while riding a bike on a sidewalk with a drop off on the side - it slowly, steadily, just makes you drift ever so slightly until . . .

Not me, but that that's what some family members have told me about bridge freak-outs. Like, they're OK as passenger, but can't stand to drive across 'em. [Edit to add:] Edgar Allen Poe introduced this notion to me as "the imp of the perverse."

In flying, I've only had 2 brief WTF moments. One was flying commercial (pax), very overtired, and possibly imbibing, and had a full out-of-body realization that I was hurtling through the very-high-up air in a metal tube. About 24 seconds of anxiety, and then I was fine. Other was a flight or two into transitioning from Cherokees to Cessnas. After liftoff, turning left to crosswind, I glanced down at the tire and had the full realization of it/us just hanging in the air. My brain/eyes did that receding hallway dollly counter-zoom thing from scary movies with the ground, had a brief sensation of tumbling out of the seat, and then I was fine a second or two later. Allegedly.

Climbing towers, cliffs, roofs, etc., I'm fine if I have a firm footing, hand grab, and/or a safety harness. You wont' ever catch me free-climbing above about 5 feet, though.

Brains are funny, mmmkay?
 
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