Departure at the Break of Dawn . . .

Steve, Brian and I met at the Niagara Falls, NY Airport at 0900Z (5am local).  Steve had already filed our IFR flight plan direct to the Delancy VOR, NOBBI THREE Arrival into the Westchester/White Plains Airport located about 15 miles northeast of Manhattan.   Steve agreed to take the first leg of this 250 mile long flight. 

"Flying was the easy part," said Steve. "It's the GPS/MX20 button pushing that is the challenge.  When added to keeping up with the machine-gun speed of the NY controllers, you can find yourself behind the airplane in a NY minute!"

First Stop . . . Whiteplains/Westchester, NY Airport:

Our arrival into KHPN, along with the steady flow of early morning arrivals of corporate jets, went smoothly.  We felt charged as we strolled into the FBO.  Round One of our five round training bout was over.  After downing a quick cup of coffee, we filed for our next leg of the trip to New York's LaGuardia Airport.  This time it was Brian's turn as PIC.

Our flight plan took us back out to the Carmel VOR, then radar vectors to join the LaGuardia ILS Runway 22 final approach course.  The lady NY Approach controller was very business-like as she issued rapid fire vectors to insert us into a conga line of airliner arrivals into LaGuardia.   The morning haze enveloped the airport and obscured our vision of the nearby Manhattan Island.  Brian acknowledged our clearance for LaGuardia's ILS Runway 22 approach and immediately locked on to the localizer.

"Give me you best forward speed!"

"Give me you best forward speed," said the approach controller just before turning us over to the tower.  Brian had us racing down the approach course at 150 knots indicated airspeed in a noteworthy effort to fulfill the controller's plan of inserting us between a simultaneous string of departures on LaGuardia's intersecting runway 13.  The plan worked beautifully as we rolled off the active runway and contacted ground control for progressive taxi instructions to general aviation parking.

Enroute to parking, I put to use a little trick I learned a while back.  Rather than guessing what our IFR routing over to JFK would be, I called Clearance Delivery and advised them of our plan to fly over to JFK 30 minutes later.  The specialist gave us the standard routing as requested.  Inside the FBO, Brian called and filed that very same routing, which was later issued to us when we departed.  Remember . . . this is not the kind of stuff you learn in the practice area!

Our hour or so on the ground at LaGuardia proved to be a special treat.  The FBO is housed in the original Marine Air Terminal, which served the grand floating Clipper's of the 1940s.   This facility has been meticulously preserved and maintained in its original style and condition.  Adjacent to the Marine Air Terminal is LaGuardia's original passenger terminal that served as a major hub for domestic and international commercial airline travel in the 1940s.

It's on to John F. Kennedy International . . .

Brian advanced the throttle just as the LaGuardia tower controller cleared us for departure immediately behind a departing MD80 and between a string of inbound airliners on the intersecting runway.  Any delay on our part could send the inbound airliner around for another re-sequencing and approach.   So much for wake turbulence planning.  Brian solved the problem by lifting us off well before the MD80's rotation point.

Our IFR routing took us on a southeast course, over the Mets Stadium and the site of the 1964 World's Fair to the Deer Park VOR, then inbound direct to JFK. 

By this time, the NY TRACON was abuzz with morning arrivals and departures into and out of all five airports.  Thick haze obscured nearly all but straight-down visibility.  ATC began issuing us vectors toward the airport and asked if we had the traffic immediately ahead of us.  We strained for contact, then replied affirmatively.  "Okay, follow that traffic to Runway 22R," came the controller's reply.

The remainder of our approach went flawlessly as Brian raced down the glideslope to the runway threshold.  Then the tricky part began.  Even though I had been into JFK numerous times before, I found myself somewhat lost midst the myriad of taxiway construction underway.  Much of our taxi route to the GA terminal was out of the view of the ground controller so we had to maneuver solely by reference to the printed map of the airport.  Seeing our somewhat confused state, we were quickly met by a NY Port Authority van who kindly guided us to GA parking.  Oh well, all in a day's work, I thought!

Next Stop . . . Newark

It was Steve's turn to fly us from JFK to Newark.  This involved a very long taxi from GA parking on the southwest side of the airport to the departure end of Runway 22R.  Enroute, the ground controller asked if we could accept an intersection departure, noting that 9,000 feet of runway remained!  "Yeah, 9,000 feet should work," replied Steve!

"Okay, I'm going to push you out ahead of a United heavy if you can get in position on the runway and be ready to go," came the controllers next instruction.  He then switched us to tower, who issued our take off (without delay) clearance.  As we lifted off, I pictured the United B-777 breathing up our tailpipe as we slowly climbed up through the thick haze over Jamaica Bay.  "It doesn't get any better than this," I said to Steve!  He quickly agreed having successfully completed the third round of our five round heavy weight bout.

Our routing to Newark, obtained the same way we did at LaGuardia, took us out over the Atlantic, well beyond the mouth of the New York harbor.  I asked Steve if he could swim, but I didn't receive a reply as he successfully kept pace with the rapid-fire vectors being issued by the controller.  My humor apparently escaped him during this very busy time.

The NY approach controller vectored us to the west, then north, then east towards the Newark Airport long before reaching the Solberg VOR.  Several more vectors placed us on the ILS 11 final approach course.  Again, we found ourselves being slotted in between airliner arrivals and departures in an intersecting runway.

We exited the runway and following a short taxi, we maneuvered into Signature Aviation's large ramp and parked.  We were admittedly tired following a couple of hours of intense flying in the world's busiest airspace.   After an hour or so of rest and lunch, Steve filed our IFR plan for the quick trip over to Teterboro Airport.

Final Stop . . . Teterboro

We departed Newark enroute to Teterboro on a flight plan that read, "Radar vectors, direct."  The approach controller advised us to expect the VOR A approach with a circle to land Runway 24.  Just as Brian completed entering that approach into the Garmin 480, approach control advised us to expect the ILS Runway 19, circle Runway 24.  More button pushing followed.

As with each airport before, we practiced good citizenship and maintained our best forward airspeed all the way down the final approach course.  We landed, taxied to one of the five FBOs that serve Teterboro (specifically avoiding Atlantic Aviation because of its oppressive $5.10/gal 100LL fuel prices!)

And Back to Buffalo . . .

Our day consumed 7.9 tach hours.  The only routine part of this day were the 3.5 hours enroute to and from the NYTRACON.  The remaining 4.4 hours was intense flying in high density, low visibility airspace and ground operations midst a confusing array of busy taxiways.  Both Steve and Brian performed admirably!  It was a day that they will never forget, however!