Hey everyone,
after you kindly and very well answered a JFK spotting question of mine last year, I'm back in your lovely city, and once again in need of a little help :-)
I'm basically on a sightseeing visit to the city only, but since my travel partner isn't feeling too well and prefers to stay at the hotel most of the day in this heat, this has opened up some possibilities to go chasing aircraft for me. 31L banking shots at JFK would have been my first choice, but only with clear blue skies. Same for all the other approach spots at JFK and LGA (I'm no big fan of cloudy plane-in-the-sky-shots *gg*).
So, I did some research about the city's Heliports as a quick and easy alternative, since I'm staying right at Times Square. I have found out that there are 3 (wow :-)), and Google also led me to an old posting here about their traffic, dating from 2007 (funnily enough answering the questions of a now good friend of mine!): http://nycaviation.com/forum/threads...l=1#post343315
Taking into account how often things change in aviation (one of the large chopper companies is out of business I see...), I wanted to check back how the situation (as for busyness, variety, accessibility) of the three is today.
I spent an hour at the Downtown/Wall Street Heliport this eve (about the single hour with a decent sun angle there ), and while the Brooklyn backdrop was very nice, it lacked in variety and frequency a bit (just 2-3 airframes doing the tourist runs over and over again).
I still have Sunday (tomorrow) and Monday (until 6PM) left.
My guess would be that the Downtown one which seems to handle most of the tourist flights will be the busiest (or the only to be busy rather) of the three on Sunday. Correct?
I'm actually having higher hopes for Monday, when the business and commuter traffic kicks in again, and was hoping to catch some nice sleek private/company helicopters then. Which would be the best/busiest heliport for this undertaking? Any personal experiences which times are best in the morning and evening?
Canon 7D and 100-400m IS on the equipment side, so I guess I should be covered distance-wise at all three.
I'm sorry for the short notice-posting, but I'm sure someone of you kind guys will take care of my questions. Continuing my tradition started the last time I was here, two shots from my home country as a small 'thank you' gesture :-D
One of many choppers during the World Cup Downhill ski race at Wengen, with Eiger and Mönch mountains in the back.
Our national demonstration squad, the Patrouille Suisse (at the same event)
Oh, and one from the US - guess where (NOT the NY area anyway ;))
Best regards from the heart of NYC (looking down on Times Sq. from the 39th floor as I write - almost as good as flying!!)
Tis
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