ON NEW YORK FROM THE AIR

AERIAL PLEASURES

Pardon this detour into an area of interest primarily to flying geeks, but this article on pilots using Shea Stadium as a guidepost to La Guardia airport brought back a lot of flying memories around New York City.  Here's the gist of the piece:

"For 44 years, the procession of planes from nearby La Guardia Airport has contributed to an unusual ballpark soundtrack at Shea Stadium, the roar of jet engines a thousand feet above blending with the cracks of bats and the cries from hot dog vendors..."
La Guardia is one of the few airports in the country where pilots use land markers instead of instruments to guide their landings, along with Seattle (a shopping mall) and Washington (a river). Shea Stadium, which from the sky looks like a blue circle with a green center, is a primary runway guidepost.

For one of the more common landing routes, pilots are instructed to follow the Long Island Expressway until they arrive at the eastern side of the stadium, at which point they bank the plane left around the outfield wall and head straight for Runway 31.

Among pilots and air-traffic controllers, it is known as the “expressway visual approach.”

As a weekend pilot around New York many years ago, I can relate to flying around New York's airports, including La Guardia, JFK and Newark, with Teterboro airport as my primary General Aviation airport (image source). 

There's nothing like seeing New York's iconic landmarks from all those vantage points, a few thousand feet up in the air.

Not the least of these icons of course were the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which for general aviation pilots flying under VFR (visual flying rules), was not only a guidepost on the ground, but an altitude marker for the 1100 feet limit in that area.

New York City is so amazing to see in all it's glory from the air.  This piece brought back some great memories.