Tracking Hurricane Irene

[AirtrafficController]

Last departure out of KJFK will be at 1900L. Most of the aircraft are gone at Kennedy, Terminal 8 ramp is empty.

[moose135]

Amazing what a little storm will do..

Langley Temporarily Lifts F-22 Grounding Order to Escape Hurricane

Air Force officials have temporarily lifted the grounding of the F-22 Raptor fleet based at Langley AFB, Va., so the aircraft can avoid Hurricane Irene's wrath. The fighters, which have been grounded since May due to safety concerns over malfunctioning on-board oxygen-generation systems, started flying to Grissom ARB, Ind., around 10 a.m. Friday.

Full story:
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Pages/default.aspx

This is a one-time waiver, which includes the return to Langley after the storm. The grounding order will go back into effect once they are back home.

Back in 1985, when Hurricane Gloria came up the coast, I was flying tankers out of Grissom. We had a gaggle of Langley F-15s spend a few days with us to get away from the storm.

[PhilDernerJr]

I did a lap around JFK and almost every terminal is empty. Though I couldn't see EVERY corner, I could only see one plane at all of T4, a LAN about to pushback. I saw a Cathay taxiing IN, and a BA 747 at T7. I couldn't see anything at all at T1 or 2.

I must say, it is pretty fun dispatching planes around a hurricane. I love the low barometers.

[PhilDernerJr]

LGA is also of course deserted.

[Gerard]

Amazing what a little storm will do..
This is a one-time waiver, which includes the return to Langley after the storm. The grounding order will go back into effect once they are back home.

That would have been cool to see them heading out. And come back in.
BTW as of 4:30 not much here in Eastern Nassau except some light rain. Quite humid though. Just heard someone coming into FRG on ILS 1-4.

[Fighting_falcon_51]

http://www.w2lie.net is now and will be streaming the following frequencies during the storm:

Nasasu County OEM
Suffolk County EOC
New York City OEM
Nassau County ARES
Nassau County RACES
Suffolk County ARES/RACES
Nassau County SKYWARN
Suffolk County SKYWARN
New York City ARES
Long Island Red Cross
New York City Red Cross

[Gerard]

At this point the media here in NYC have gone pretty much overkill in the coverage IMHO. Especially since really nothing is going on yet. I mean every local Channel has been on this all day.
Sorry but Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz here. Thank goodness I have 3000 channels on my iO and shows stored on my DVR. And "E" had a Kardashian mini-Marathon earlier. LMAO!!
Be safe all!!

[Fighting_falcon_51]

Yeah right now it is nothing. Western Suffolk: light ran, 4MPH winds, and 100% humidity.

[eric8669]

A few surfer pics. And one of our favorite weatherman. NOT!

[PhilDernerJr]

Ha, did you flip him off?

[PhilDernerJr]

Here are a couple quick cell phone shots I snapped today...

That LAN Chile departed at 3:17pm.


This Cathay was taxiing to the gate but not sure for what purpose. Its departure, as I understand, was still canceled. I wonder where it may have been parked.

[sammers4247]

Already reported outages in Staten Island, where I am. Realllyyy hoping we hang on to power 'til at least the morning.

[Gerard]

Wind picking up, rain getting heavier and some nice thunder/lightning. Safe to say SHE has arrived!
On a personal note my brother his wife and my two nieces were supposed to fly back from Jamaica tonite and we know that aint happening. Through private FB messages I
found out the soonest they can get a flight out is Wed and that is only to Ft Lauderdale. And they have no hotel accomodations so they and many other people are trolling around
for a place to stay. And parts of Jamaica arent the safest places to be so I'm a little worried about that.
Stay safe all.

[mirrodie]

"I must say, it is pretty fun dispatching planes around a hurricane. I love the low barometers."

Phil, can you explain why? Im not familiar with the effect of low barometers. Please explain.

Surprised the last flight was so late. My partner's JFK-JAX was nixed last night. I asked if he could get to Dallas and then back down to JAX or TPA, but they just weren't pushing out of JFK at all. (on b6 at least)

[PhilDernerJr]

The lowest barometric reading you'll find are during hurricanes. When dispatching, you calculate how the aircraft will perform on a runway based on various conditions and you make corrections and adjustments in accordance. Things like rain, slush and also pressure. It can be measured by inches of mercury, which you may know more when you listen to ATIS and you hear "altimeter two niner niner two," which tells pilots to modify their altimeters to that setting for the local pressure, so that all of the planes' altimeters are calibrated for the same altitudes. 2992 is the standard altimeter setting, meaning 29.92 inches of mercury in a barometer. The lowest barometer reading ever was 25.63" on the tip of a typhoon in 1979.

Seeing the low pressures when planning flights, the low barometric readings mean that I need to make more of a correction to that runway performance. Why is that cool you ask? It's not. I'm just an easily entertained geek.

Also, routing a plane's flight around a hurricane is just fun to me. Making your own forecast to predict where the storm will be when the plane is there, keeping it close enough so that you don't waste gas by going too far out of the way, but also keeping them safe and comfortable...and legal, working with ATC guidelines and reroutes that they put out as such storms develop.

Nerdy stuff, but I'm enjoying it.

I hope you're all being overly safe and taking care of yourselves through this!