(Cut from weblogs)
What's the #1 thing scared people might not do on Sept. 11th?, and the city people wouldn't go to? (from fear of
terrorism?) Sol and I flew to NYC today, I like to think of it as a symbolic flight saying FU to terrorists.
Our original intention was to fly all the way up the Hudson river, then to West Chester Co. Airport (HPN) near Greenwich, CT.
About near Times Square New York Approach had us come strait across central park and direct to La Guardia airport because
there was a game at Yankee Stadium. This was the coolest thing we could have asked for, coming over the buildings
between Central Park and the Empire State Building (see video). After passing La Guardia we flew north west to set ourselves
up for landing at HPN by getting back to the Hudson River/Tappan Zee Bridge. After West Chester tower was nice enough to give
us 2 go arounds (calibrate your sarcasm detectors now) we finally landed and parked. The FBO (Westair) had some great tasting
sugar cookies, and gave us a ride to the passenger terminal where we ate. After departure we pretty much went back the way
we came in, via La Guardia, over Manhattan at 1500ft :) In memorial of the events of Sept. 11th 2001 NYC shined the towers of
light near ground zero which we had a great view of. I must thank Sony for building a digital camera with night vision!
On the way out of New York City, the controller at Newark/Liberty International wasn't too busy so we just overflew the field at
some low altitude.. I don't remember. It's funny to think that almost 2 months ago I thought the boat tour of lower Manhattan was
awesome.
Not from weblogs... pilot related stuff
For all the pilots out there who would like to do this tour I would highly recommend establishing flight following
before reaching the city. During this flight, New York Approach informed us that we could not go directly up the
Hudson river to West Chester Co. Airport because an event at Yankee stadium imposed a TFR. Had I not been in
flight following I would not have known this since it was not on the FAA's website, and the preflight briefer I called
before the flight did not mention anything about that TFR. The FAA wouldn't take too kindly to a TFR violation.
We left Wings field near Philadelphia, requested transition through Northeast Philadelphia's class D airspace.
To save time, and trying to get airtime with New York approach, we requested flight following with Philadelphia approach
that way we would just get handed off to New York. I'm not 100% sure, but to my best guess this is who we talked
to during the approach to NYC, Hudson river tour, then to West Chester Co.: NY Approach (about 3 handoffs) ->
Newark Liberty Tower -> NY Approach -> La Guardia Tower -> New York Approach (2-3 times?) -> West Chester Tower.
It was about the same thing on the way back. With the exception of the 3000-7000ft class B shelf, the whole flight was
in the NYC/NJ class B airspace. If you want to drop into the VFR corridor along the hudson river, it would be best
to maintain flight following until the point you want to drop below class B airspace... and be sure to ask about
TFRs along the way.
Movie over Manhattan:
This is a movie shot after New York Approach told us to turn east direct to La Guardia airport.
Some browsers will launch a movie player automatically, if this does not work just right click on the
movie link and go to "Save Target As...". Make sure you remember where you save it to.
MOV01127.MPG [11MB/32sec/mpg]
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