Birds don't like towers either
Here is a link showing a plot of antennas by state.
http://www.towerkill.com/issues/consum.html
Although the site is more towards the hazard towers pose towards birds, it is useful to pilots. At the bottom of the page are state ID's. Click on them to see where the high towers are. Some of these are 2000 feet above AGL!
Your prime protection against hitting hard stuff is the sectional MSA. For those (like me) who forgot, the sectional, MSA: Minimum Safe Altitude, minimum altitude that meets obstacle clearance. The MSA is the two-digit number found in each "quadrangle" in light blue print.
I wonder if the new Garmin GPS, Anywhere Map and other GPS have all the tower hazards? I know they are always putting up new towers, and they are getting taller. Charts and electronic databases are not 100% accurate.
2000 feet AGL is apparently the self-imposed limit and the status quo for tall towers. According to the above site just one radio tower can kill thousands of birds each year! If a tall tower is smack in the middle of a migratory route, it can be bad news for our feathered friends. Apparently some birds migrate at night or in IFR conditions,
so they prone to hitting these hazards and obstructions, just like we are. We are just like birds, except they "don't need no stinking badges (license) to fly", and were given their wings by God not the FAA.
Just last year a young pilot flying freight hit a radio tower near my house (snippet below):
"Airplane was on a Part 135 non scheduled cargo flight, when it collided with a 1749 ft AGL (2149 ft MSL) communications tower. The airplane was flying "westward or into the sun." At the time of the accident, the sky was clear, and the tower was visible. Airplane impacted the tower at the 1425-foot level. At the time of the accident the sun was at an altitude of 22 degrees on a bearing of 250 degrees from the accident site. The accident airplane was being flown on a magnetic heading of about 265 degrees."
So you don?t have to fly real low to hit things. The MSA in the accident area above was 2,500 feet, which would clear the tower that was hit by only 350 feet. However another set of 2349? MSL antennas, plotted in the same quad, giving only 150 foot of obstacle clearance flying at MSA.
In Washington State:
"One of the world's most powerful VLF (very low freq) transmitters, this million watt Navy radio facility communicates with submarines at sea using very low frequency radio waves. Built in 1953 in the foothills of the northern Cascades,
ten massive antenna cables, all more than a mile long, span the Jim Creek valley (East of Arlington, Wa), suspended by twenty 200 foot tall towers."
I have seen these cables. They are 3000 feet MSL, well above the valley floor and stretch horz across and extend vertical to the valley floor. They are marked with special note on the sectional. Wires across deep canyon rivers are simular and common, which has brought a few pilots to grief. I have read several pilot stories about flying down low over a river and notice wires flash past them, above their aircraft's altitude! They never saw them until under them!
Flying low, like we all like to do sometimes can be risky, unless you know exactly what is in front of you. Also talking of birds, I think you are more likely to hit a bird at low altitudes, which can hurt you. Of course many combine low flying with fast flying, increasing the danger.
Cheers George