NYC VFR Corridor

Taking visiting friends and relatives "On the tour" down the Hudson River

One of the more pleasant benefits of being a pilot in the metro NY area is taking out of town visitors on the VFR corridor 'tour' of NY City. I had the opportunity to do this last week when our friends Ed and Stacey from Ottawa came south on a shopping spree at Woodbury Commons. Judy and I have known them for about five years now having met while camping in the north 40 at Oshkosh. They're both in the Military in their day jobs and they pilot a 1965 C Model Mooney in their off time. Seems they drive to the Outlet Mall a couple times a year and realized it's less than an hour away from us. I got an email from Ed saying they had planned to make the trip this past weekend so I suggestedThat we do some flying while they were in town.

I wanted Ed to experience the Redbird simulator as well as take them on the NYC corridor flight so I asked them to meet me in the office where we could decide on whether we'd Sim first then fly

They showed up at Motion Sim at 1pm and we briefed the flight. We'd depart DXR to the west and contact New York Approach when we cleared the Danbury Class Delta. Once in contact with New York we would ask for 'the tour' down the Hudson at 2000. I've been doing the corridor this way since 2005 long before the special procedures took effect. I've always felt it was better to 'enter the bravo' and be in radar contact rather than transmitting my intentions on a common traffic advisory frequency. It's a pretty busy place and if the arrivals into LGA are using the River Visual 13 spotting traffic can be as much fun as looking at the skyline. That approach has traffic opposite direction at 2500 as you transition down the river at 2000.

We took off Runway 8 on the half hour into a phalanx of arriving and departing traffic. As I turned crosswind we observed a previously unannounced v35 Bonanza entering the low downwind so I delayed my turn westbound and kept the climb aggressive to 2500. Ed commented to me how 'back home' Mr. Bonanza would be getting the 'call the tower' radio exchange and I agreed.

We called New York on 120.8 told him our intentions and got a squawk code.

Once in Radar contact we were cleared into the bravo at 2000 and told to fly direct to the western side of the Tappan Z Bridge. Clearing the bridge they stepped us down to 1500 until we hit the GW Bridge where they climbed us back to 2000 and were handed off to LaGuardia tower. LGA tower handed us to Newark Tower who had us descend pilot's discretion to 'circle the lady' at 1500.

Newark asked us our intentions after we were done and I replied  heading back to Danbury. I asked him for " East River,  Roosevelt Island,  Tower Cab,  South Stanchion Throg's Neck,  Direct". This is a cool route and I always ask for it because you get to see the entire island. He told me to make the request with the next controller and handed me back to LGA tower.

I knew we weren't going to get the east river because we were already northbound on the Hudson so I asked for 'Central Park, Tower Cab, South Stanchion Throgs Neck and out'  I don't know whether it was because of the weekend or what but the controller told me that they haven't been routing fixed wings 'over the top' anymore. I said since when he and said a year, Now I know I've done this several times in the past year so I'm figuring that because it was a weekend and a pristine VFR day they likely were telling me that.

Ed and Stacy didn't mind getting half the show so we headed up the Hudson until the Tappan Z and then climbed into the bravo to 3500 and were cleared direct to Danbury. We landed with 1.3 hours total time and our friends got a great circle line tour of New York City. Stacey was the photographer and she emailed me the full size pictures and I've posted them here on my blog.

If you haven't taken the tour in a while I suggest you go out and do it again soon. It is one of the freedom's we take for granted in this country and it isn't that far out of my imagination that we could lose that privilege in a New York minute. I got to land at Meigs field the year before Mayor Daley bulldozed it and I have wonderful pictures and great memories of flying Mooney 58V into Washington National and having lunch on the Mall and Dinner back in Danbury.

If you're uncomfortable flying in busy  airspace give us a call. We'd be happy to take you down there and bring you up to speed.