Nothing beats local knowledge. Being a high time instructor
from Florida does not qualify that instructor to teach
glacier flying. Likewise, a CFI from Atlanta does not have
experience with NYC.

ATC is not uniform in all regions. The air may be the same
everywhere, but it behaves differently. Here in Kansas and
Oklahoma, student pilots are regularly soloed with winds as
high as 25 knots. But in many places, 15 knot winds cause
panic with the CFIs.

Every tower publishes local procedures and is very happy to
speak with any pilot at any time. I have not flown VFR in
the NYC area, all my trips have been in a King Air or
Beechjet. But if I was VFR, I'd have the terminal chart, I
would call the local tower and I'd seek a local instructor.

If I was flying a seaplane up the East River, I might land
and turn on the water. I certainly don't consider myself
qualified to fly into every airport without "study" of local
procedures. I have flown singles and light twins, as well
as the King Air into STL, ATL, ORD and several other busy
airports single-pilot. IFR is a piece of cake until you
land, even from the higher cockpit of a King Air, taxiing at
ATL or ORD is the difficult procedure. But landing or
taking off from many airports is just difficult to do.
Leadville is obvious, but Tahoe, Aspen, AngelFire don't
look hard.

Just heard a radio news report, the feds (NTSB?) are citing
stiff wind and pilot error.




"Robert Chambers" wrote in
message . ..
| Local pilots that do that trip know not to go up the East
river unless
| they've already talked to LGA tower and know they are
cleared through at
| the other end. The river isn't that wide and turning a
180 is a
| challenge for most pilots in todays GA planes.
|
| If you find yourself in that situation it would make more
sense to head
| over to the Manhattan side and turn towards Long Island
City. There are
| a lot fewer high buildings over there. Worst case you
bust LGA's
| airspace on the East side, it beats being dead.
|
| Robert
|
| Jim Macklin wrote:
| I was just talking to Rudy and the accident as it might
| relate to glass cockpit came up. Rudy said that he had
just
| talked with the Cirrus President and that besides the
| tailwind and bank angle issues, they were not making use
of
| the full width of the river. How the Cirrus President
knew
| this was not a question during the conversation.
|
| I'm assuming that there may be witnesses or even video
| surveillance records. I will certainly read the NTSB
final
| report, but educated guesses can help pilots plan for a
| safer flight before the final report is issued.
|
|
| "Gary Drescher" wrote in
message
| . ..
| | "Jim Macklin"
wrote
| in message
| | ...
| | "Gary Drescher" wrote in
| message
| | . ..
| | | "Jim Macklin"

| wrote
| | in message
| | | ...
| | | Yes, also, reported that they were in the middle
of
| the
| | | river, not near the upwind shore.
| | |
| | | Was their path recorded with enough precision to
make
| that
| | | determination?
| |
| | I got the information second-hand from the President
of
| | Cirrus Design via a conversation with Rudy Frasca.
| |
| | Did he mention where the information came from?
| |
| | --Gary
| |
| |
|
|