As soon as I heard East Side, Cirrus, building strike - I thought low
time pilot, hot aircraft, many distractions, wrong side of the VFR
corridor having do the U-turn.

I've lived on Roosevelt Island (middle of the East River just south of
the turn) and flown the corridor in a 172. I early on decided never to
fly the East River just because it's too tight and too filled with
traffic. It's not unsafe, it's just unnecessarily challenging when the
Hudson provides an equivalent experience.

I don't know how you properly train for that flight.... Few of us spend
much time flying within 1/4 mile of buildings and below their tops. All
of us can make the necessary turn at 1,000 feet in Iowa. Most of us
will find it catches your breath the first time you do it at 800 feet in
a concrete canyon near so many millions of people. Low ceilings, some
wind, some rapid fire Laguardia radio work in the background. It's
pretty high excitement.

I had flown many hours ridge soaring the Appalachins - 500 feet above
valley floor, 2 wingspans from the trees, redlining at 155mph, 200 miles
from homebase. Then I went out west. It took me 3 days of flying
before I could get within a 1/4 mile of a Sierra peak, 5,000 feet above
the valley floor, at 60 mph, 2 miles from takeoff. Vice-a-versa for
western pilots flying the eastern hills. It's all in you head but it's
all quite real. We already have the knowledge and skills to do it. We
just have to get the quivering mass of grey matter to settle down enough
to let the training take over.

Gary Drescher wrote:
Using the East River VFR corridor requires planning the turn
carefully--especially since you need to leave an extra margin in case you
have to dodge high-density traffic there.

Yep. And not doing so can end up just like a guy in a used Porsche on a
rain slicked road - they just don't scramble jets on the west coast
while pulling the lifeless remains out of a Meadowlands swamp.

No point here... just rambling.