NYC in September

Hi,

Two of us will be in NY for a couple of days at the start of September (in between the airshows at Pax River and Niagara) and we have a few(!) questions we hope someone on the group can answer...

1. Which runways are likely to be in use at both JFK and LGA (is one runway direction favoured)?

2. Do the runways swap (such as LHR going from left to right each day on 27 approaches)?

3. We won't be in a car, so should we just head for one spot (Planeview Park and the Wildlife Refuge) and stick it out for the day?

Thanks for your time,

Lee

With JFK it will all depend on the weather/winds that particular day and (sometimes it seems) what mood the Controllers woke up in that morning :tongue:. I myself have experienced days where they should have been on the 31s but stayed on the 4s all day. Other days have been split between 13L and 22L approaches.

I have not been spotting at LGA yet to offer up any info on that.

Generally at JFK at the shorter runways are for landing and the longer runways are for takeoff.

I.E. 22L Landing, 22R T.O., 13L Landing, 13R T.O.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ruislip Rustler

1. Which runways are likely to be in use at both JFK and LGA (is one runway direction favoured)?

2. Do the runways swap (such as LHR going from left to right each day on 27 approaches)?

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To give you an idea, when I made a trip down to JFK this past Sunday, whoever was in charge of assigning runways must have woke up in a sh***y mood. Upon arriving at JFK at sunrise they were landing the 31s which lasted until roughly 7:30 and then they switched to the 22s with optional KK departures. That lasted only until about 9:30 and then they switched to the 13s until 11:45 when they made the switch to 22L/13L split for arrivals and 22R/13R departures. This caused us to miss quite a few good arrivals that went to 13L instead of 22L. Then finally at 5:05p they went all arrivals on 22L.

Its not always that chaotic, but it does happen.

Steve,

Thanks for that - might have to be on our toes then next month!

On a slightly different line, we'll be arriving passing through Boston and Detroit - is it possible to spot from the terminals at these airports. We'll be flying Delta from both.

No problem - Yes it is possible to snap some shots from inside the terminals at BOS and DTW. If you look at a few of the threads, you will get an idea of the shots that can be taken from those locations. What days are you planning on being at JFK?

Steve,

We'll be in town Weds and Thur 7/8 Sep.

If I've read the other threads properly then Thursday has an AF A380 arrival in addition to the others so that will be the day.

The other day will be split between a rapid whizz round the Intrepid and LGA.

You shoudl see a daily set of Emirates, Lufthansa, Air France and now Korean Air A380s... sometimes AF and LH give us two on the ground at once LOL.

Assuming you're going through the main terminal in DTW, everything is readable, and if you're a quick enough writer, you can knock off an entire face of the terminal from the train thing in 5 minutes. If your goal is photos, there are little dots on the window to cut down on insolation, and they'll ruin almost any photo you try for.