Flying into JFK Airport (New York City) - Looking for advice

In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

My father will be traveling via JetBlue in a couple of weeks. His
itinerary contains a four hour layover at JFK airport. Rather than let him
sit there for the four hours on a Tuesday evening, I am considering flying
my Bonanza into JFK to pick him up.

Does anyone have any GA advice or experience to share regarding GA flights
into and out of JFK?

A friend flew me into JFK from a regional airport near Boston (can't
remember which one now) in his Comanche about ten years ago. It was a
surprisingly non-big-deal. I would strongly recommend going IFR rather
than just calling up the tower and announcing "inbound with November".
You need a landing reservation, which at the time we were actually
unable to get. My friend filed to Teterborough and then changed
destinations to JFK in the air. We were both surprised when that
actually worked, and my friend said so to the controller, who replied,
"No big deal, we like people coming in to JFK."

I was there to catch a transatlantic commercial flight. Getting from GA
to the commercial terminal was a simple matter of getting a cab.

Getting out of JFK was a much bigger hassle than getting in. My friend
told me afterwards that he was idling on the taxiway for a very long
time before they finally let him go.

All this was ten years ago so YMMV. But from my experience there's no
reason to be intimidated by JFK (except for the steep landing fees).

rg

Ron Garret wrote:

I would strongly recommend going IFR rather
than just calling up the tower and announcing "inbound with November".

Most definitely.

You need a landing reservation, which at the time we were actually
unable to get. My friend filed to Teterborough and then changed
destinations to JFK in the air. We were both surprised when that
actually worked, and my friend said so to the controller, who replied,
"No big deal, we like people coming in to JFK."

No sarcasm in the controller's voice? :-)

snip
Getting out of JFK was a much bigger hassle than getting in. My friend
told me afterwards that he was idling on the taxiway for a very long
time before they finally let him go.

That is a big concern for me. One time I was flying an Angel Flight from
Boston to Philadelphia International. Upon reaching the runway at BOS,
tower notified us of a ground stop for all aircraft going to PHL. He had
us park out of the way. This being my first encounter with a ground stop,
I had no idea of what to expect, so there I sat idling.

About 1/2 hour later, I was getting concerned about the engine so I did a
quick mag check and sure enough, one or more of my plugs had fouled.
After clearing the plugs, I again asked the AF patient if we could change
destinations (the AF patient was an older gentleman who at first told me
that he had to go to PHL, but then later realized he could call his family
to meet him at North Philly). He finally agreed and we were able to
change our destination to nearby North Philly to get out of BOS.

The next day I spoke with a CFI from my home airport, who coincidentally
was also at BOS trying to fly to PHL. I explained my experience of sitting
on the ground for almost an hour. He replied that when they were given the
ground hold, they immediately changed destinations to get out of BOS, then
asked PHL approach to land at PHL instead of their destination upon
checking in. This was approved by ATC.

This was a good example of an inexperienced instrument pilot.

--
Peter
























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In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

You need a landing reservation, which at the time we were actually
unable to get. My friend filed to Teterborough and then changed
destinations to JFK in the air. We were both surprised when that
actually worked, and my friend said so to the controller, who replied,
"No big deal, we like people coming in to JFK."

No sarcasm in the controller's voice? :-)

Not that either one of us noticed.

rg

Ron Garret wrote:
You need a landing reservation, which at the time we were actually
unable to get. My friend filed to Teterborough and then changed
destinations to JFK in the air. We were both surprised when that
actually worked, and my friend said so to the controller, who replied,
"No big deal, we like people coming in to JFK."

No sarcasm in the controller's voice? :-)

Not that either one of us noticed.


My one trip into JFK I brought a C-414 in to drop off some folks. On my way
back out, I was trying to copy my clearance but the guy was going too fast for
me. I told him: "I'm from South Carolina; you can give that to me once slow or
five times fast". He slowed down.

Clearances are a lot easier to copy when you know the area. I didn't / don't.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE