question about catching a plane at JFK

[Joe]

Hello guys,
Happy New Year! Tomorrow, I want to catch a Jet Blue flight leaving JFK at about 11:30 AM headed to Florida. I don't know what plane it will be or anything else about it other than my Mother is taking that flight back home, which I will be dropping her off and thought that since I am already there, it would be cool to catch her plane in flight with her aboard. Any suggestions as for the best location with hopes of catching this particular flight taking off? I've only spotted a few time from the JFK area, mostly at Bayswater and Firestone. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Joe

[steve1840]

My best suggestion is find out what flight number she is on, and find out what runways they are using. Hopefully at the time they are using only one for departures (11:30 am, most likely). Tune in your scanner to the Tower frequency and wait for them to clear that flight number for take-off.

Check the forecat and winds as well as ATIS to figure out the departing runway.

[megatop412]

That's the damndest thing about JFK, you never know when they'll decide to switch, or if they're using 2 runways which one it'll be

Hope you don't have the same luck I had when I tried to get the first Hawaiian departure last year- ops were departing 4R all damn morning, then 2 planes before it left they switched to 31L takeoffs. I was in position at Kas Karpet on Rockaway Tpke when they switched and as soon as I realized it I screamed out of there like it was the Dukes of Hazzard, even hit 80 on the Belt for the minute I was on it. But, I got about halfway up Cross Bay when I saw Hawaiian sailing away over my head

The only thing I can think of doing(based on the advice I was given here after relating the above story) was to monitor GROUND frequency instead of Tower. It would give you an extra few minutes to get into position. Good luck sir

[Zee71]

Definitely as Steve mentioned get her flight number. If you don't have a scanner you can listen to the JFK Tower via ATC Live website on your smartphone (there is a slight delay versus having a scanner). If they are departing on 31L you can go to HoBe and park by the closed fence to get a shot. Right now the parking lot at Hobe is still closed as I was there today.

[gonzalu]

LiveATC App TIP: If using the iOS app, go to the Home Screen, hit the "i" icon and set the delay / buffering to ZERO. This will give you the least amount of delay, as long as you have a good Internet connection, it works almost as good as a scanner. Typically less than one second delay :-)

[Joe]

Thanks for the tips guys, her flight number is 133. I have a scanner that I will have on me to try and get a few minutes warning. I think that I will try HoBe, although I never have been there before and hope for the best. I will have some time between dropping her off and her flight leaving so I will try to gauge what runway they are using while I'm by the airport and hope that they stick with it for an hour or two. According to Accuweather, they are expecting 10 -15 MPH W winds if that may narrow down runway choice for the more experienced spotters. I'll let you know tomorrow how I made out.
Thanks,
Joe

[Joe]

Also, with regards to frequencies, I show two for the tower, two for departure, two for ground and four for Jet Blue themselves, if I were to plug them all in, would it be too busy that it may be confusing( for lack of a better term)? Sorry, usually when I spot, whatever shows up, shows up, unless it's a special visitor, so this planning for a normal flight is kind of new to me.
Joe

[megatop412]

If they decide to switch runways at the last second, monitoring Ground would be a better bet. By the time they hand the flight off to Tower the plane's usually already near the hammerhead. Only thing that can help you then is if there's a queue waiting for takeoff clearance

[yankees368]

Recently, JFK has been on either runway 4 or 22 in the early morning hours, but typically has been switching to 31 at about 10-10:30. In that case, nearly all departures will be on 31L, meaning you will want to be at HoBe. Be advised, at last check, that location is still closed, however.

[Joe]

Well, I missed my plane! I was by HoBe at 9:20 or so and waited until 11:15 to go by the entrance, which was locked. The flight was scheduled to leave at 11:29. I had two JetBlue flights leave within a minute or two of each other, right around 11:25 or so, so I thought that I was good. To be safe, I hung around until noon and shot many other planes as well, hoping that if for some reason one of the first two weren't her flight, it could have been one of several other that took afterwards. I just tried to go onto Flight aware to see if I could get info on the exact plane so that I knew for sure which one it was. To my disgust, they list the plane as leaving at 12:43, which means that I missed her plane and thus am disappointed! Unfortunately, I do not have a smart phone and I was considering calling someone to confirm that her flight had left, but for some reason I figured that it had to be one of the many planes that took off. The tower wasn't very clear with the numbers so I couldn't be 100% sure that I caught it. I had tried listening to ground control, but the frequency may have incorrect as they were very quiet. So sadly, I missed the flight, I'll try to again another year if it is possible. (She comes back in June, but she will be driving up since they usually stay for the summer) Thanks again for the info.
Joe

[Joe]

I'll post my images in a new thread when I get the chance.

[Zee71]

Sorry to hear that missed catching her flight, but on the other hand I hope you were able to get some other stuff. I know the light wasn't that good for most of the day either. Looking forward to your images.