Flying Hudson River Route

[Jekyll]

The Hudson trip is a GREAT experience, I try to take all visitors at least once. It is spectacular at night. It was a bit tricky after 9/11 because there was a 1 nm no-fly zone around The Lady. That required you to cross over the middle of Governor's Island going north. The result was that you were heading straight towards the skyscrapers at the tip of Manhattan at less than a mile. I bet that made some people uncomfortable.

I flew the corridor several years ago on the night when NYC and NJ were totally blacked out. Very surreal without the neon and building lights. Very few buildings had generators. As I came abreast of streets, I would glimps headlights and tail lights in the valleys and then nothing, quickly followed by the next valley among the black mountains of concrete, stone and glass. The only other aircraft were several police and Homeland security helicopters. No lights but for the moon reflecting off the bay and the river. It was one of those "once in a life time" moments!

Jekyll

[tomcostanza]

I've flown this route a few times before 9/11. Has the procedure changed? Does ATC want to talk to you when you're in the corridor?

[tc1234c]

I am not sure whether the procedure has changed or not since I have never flown there before. However, you don't have to talk to ATC. There is this 123.05 self announce frequency for Hudson River. Most of the aircraft on the frequency are helicopters. I don't see a 1 mile no fly zone around Statue of Liberty (see the terminal chart posted on the previous page). As a matter of fact, the distance from the Lady to Governor's Island is about 1 mile. The uncontrolled airspace around the Statue of Liberty has a ceiling of 1100': extend to the east to the Governor's Island, and west to the NJ shore (very close). Over the NJ side, the ceiling drops to 500'. They are all under the Newark Intl airspace. The lower part of the Hudson River, Governor's Island, Lower NY Bay and part of Brooklyn has the ceiling of 1500'. From a little north of George Washington Bridge to around Holland Tunnel the uncontrolled airspace under La Guardia airport is 1100'. Being from out of town, personally, I would not fly based solely on chart and landmarks. GPS moving map is great, it depicts exactly where I was (I zoom it to the max). The terminal chart gave me an idea what's ahead. I did cheated a little by turning on my AP to maintain altitude, so I can enjoy the outside view and not to worry about violating the controlled airspace. It was fun!

Ted
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T.C. Chang

http://tc1234c.googlepages.com/
RV-9A, Lycoming (ECI) O320-D2A, 160 hp, Carb, Dual Mag, Sensenich FP
GRT dual DU H1, TT DigiFlight II VSGV, 155 hr Hobbs

[Jekyll]

The Lady's no-fly zone was lifted several years ago. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. And no need to contact ATC for the corridor. I Know some folks that contact approach and go through the Bravo at 1500 feet. It's a busy place and they often get vectored all over and don't get the view they want.

I set up for 900 feet to allow some distance from the 1100 foot base because it's mostly all out of cockpit (no alt hold). I fly at one altitude instead of changing with the base.

Jekyll