Aerobatic Flyer
19th Aug 2002, 17:50
Instead of contributing to the recent "Why do you fly?" thread, I thought I'd try to explain by describing a flight that stands out from the others. Here's one that took place about 5 years ago. Sadly I'll never be able to repeat it. There are plenty more in the memory where this one came from….. But I'm sure that everyone else has got at least 1 memorable flight story first!
Manhattan
It's a Saturday morning in late June, and I've been working in New York for a few days. At 8 o'clock it's already quite hot and the humidity is high. Not an ideal day for flying, but it's my only chance.
At 9 o'clock, I'm at Farmingdale airport on Long Island sweltering slightly as we taxi the Warrior away from the flying school. My instructor Leroy and I have agreed a division of labour. He'll navigate and talk. I'll fly. A colleague, John, will sit in the back and take pictures!
We take off and climb to 400ft, level out and turn right to follow the coast of Long Island. Leroy chats to JFK approach who ask us to make sure we don't stray above 400ft so that we stay below their inbound Boeings!
Once clear of JFK, we climb to 900ft or so to clear the Verrazano Narrows bridge, then drop down to 400ft again and aim for the Statue of Liberty. Leroy's now talking on the traffic advisory frequency telling everyone what we're doing. We make 2 orbits of the statue while John takes photos. I've missed out a bit on the view, concentrating on holding 400 ft and not hitting America's most famous monument, so Leroy takes control, announces that "Cherokee 101AV is going round the lady just one more time" and I get to take some photos too.
We then aim towards the WTC towers, and resist the temptation to fly between them. My photograph of the towers filling the windshield of our Piper brought tears to my eyes when I came across it again recently. But these are happier times, and we turn away and follow the Eastern bank of the Hudson river past lower Manhattan, then North to the George Washington Bridge. The Americans have thoughtfully provided an emergency landing spot on the river by mooring one of their old aircraft carriers there!
At the George Washington Bridge, we do a 180 and follow the river South while Leroy does some negotiating with La Guardia airport. He was obviously the right choice as RT man, because we are rewarded with clearance to climb "not above 1300ft", to cross Central Park from West to East and to overfly La Guardia on the way home. As we cross Manhattan, we seem to be in amongst the buildings more than above them.
La Guardia airport is just as disconcerting. There are airliners landing and taking off simultaneously, yet the controllers are totally relaxed about letting a little Warrior fly a few hundred feet over them cruising at all of 90kts! It's not about to happen on this side of the Atlantic! (It probably doesn't happen now on the other side either…..)
Soon afterwards we land back at Farmingdale, pay the derisory sum of $120 for an hour and a half's instruction, and revert to be mundane ground-dwellers!
It wasn't the most exciting flight, didn't need any skill on my part, and we ended up back where started. But it's one that I'll never forget. Any time I like I can look out of the office window at my little patch of sky, and remember flying round the Statue of Liberty at 400ft without needing anyone's permission.
That's why I fly.
Manhattan
It's a Saturday morning in late June, and I've been working in New York for a few days. At 8 o'clock it's already quite hot and the humidity is high. Not an ideal day for flying, but it's my only chance.
At 9 o'clock, I'm at Farmingdale airport on Long Island sweltering slightly as we taxi the Warrior away from the flying school. My instructor Leroy and I have agreed a division of labour. He'll navigate and talk. I'll fly. A colleague, John, will sit in the back and take pictures!
We take off and climb to 400ft, level out and turn right to follow the coast of Long Island. Leroy chats to JFK approach who ask us to make sure we don't stray above 400ft so that we stay below their inbound Boeings!
Once clear of JFK, we climb to 900ft or so to clear the Verrazano Narrows bridge, then drop down to 400ft again and aim for the Statue of Liberty. Leroy's now talking on the traffic advisory frequency telling everyone what we're doing. We make 2 orbits of the statue while John takes photos. I've missed out a bit on the view, concentrating on holding 400 ft and not hitting America's most famous monument, so Leroy takes control, announces that "Cherokee 101AV is going round the lady just one more time" and I get to take some photos too.
We then aim towards the WTC towers, and resist the temptation to fly between them. My photograph of the towers filling the windshield of our Piper brought tears to my eyes when I came across it again recently. But these are happier times, and we turn away and follow the Eastern bank of the Hudson river past lower Manhattan, then North to the George Washington Bridge. The Americans have thoughtfully provided an emergency landing spot on the river by mooring one of their old aircraft carriers there!
At the George Washington Bridge, we do a 180 and follow the river South while Leroy does some negotiating with La Guardia airport. He was obviously the right choice as RT man, because we are rewarded with clearance to climb "not above 1300ft", to cross Central Park from West to East and to overfly La Guardia on the way home. As we cross Manhattan, we seem to be in amongst the buildings more than above them.
La Guardia airport is just as disconcerting. There are airliners landing and taking off simultaneously, yet the controllers are totally relaxed about letting a little Warrior fly a few hundred feet over them cruising at all of 90kts! It's not about to happen on this side of the Atlantic! (It probably doesn't happen now on the other side either…..)
Soon afterwards we land back at Farmingdale, pay the derisory sum of $120 for an hour and a half's instruction, and revert to be mundane ground-dwellers!
It wasn't the most exciting flight, didn't need any skill on my part, and we ended up back where started. But it's one that I'll never forget. Any time I like I can look out of the office window at my little patch of sky, and remember flying round the Statue of Liberty at 400ft without needing anyone's permission.
That's why I fly.