NY traffic

I have never flown down to the NY area and I’m thinking about making a trip down…can anyone give me a tip or information on the best airport to go to?

Depends on where you are going; the NY area is quite large. And even then, there is still controversy about which is better, for example, it is now very easy to get to Manhattan from EWR, while LGA and JFK are also close

“Best airport” will also be different depending upon if you are flying yourself or taking an airline.

Well, if you are a GA pilot, I would fly to one of the many GA airports that are east, north, and west of the city, and stay as far away as you can from the “big three” (JFK/EWR/LGA).

What’s the concern with JFK, EWR, and LGA?

Thanks for the replies. I plan on flying myself. Im taking off from KBED and heading to some airport other rhan the “big 3”. Im only flying a 172 and Im afraid Ill be 747 food if i went into the bigger airports. haha. “The big three” are very congested with airline travel and wouldnt be a fun flight. Thanks again!

HPN is a good choice if you dont want to get too close to JFK, LGA EWR or TEB. It is an easy commute to mid-town as well. MMU is also excellent but requires a 40 minute drive to the city or 30 minutes on the train.

As TopGun0607, they are usually always congested with heavy traffic, just something you don’t want to have to deal with if you’re flying a small private plane. People do fly in there, but it is more stressful than smaller airports. And as for MMU, the train ride to Penn Station from the Morristown airport is more like an hour, and it is very easy to bring bags and luggage on board the NJTransit trains. Same goes for the Metro North trains from HPN, but I’m not sure how long that trip would be.

I frequently take a car and driver to Midtown from HPN and it normally takes 30 minutes. 45 from MMU.

Another good reason to avoid EWR, JFK, LGA and TEB is that typical piston singles do not mix well with the steady flow of jet traffic. I am sure NY TRACON would appreciate you not mixing it up with them during peak periods if other choices work for you.

As with any flight, planning makes all the difference and you will feel a certain degree of acomplishment having uneventfully negotiated your way through some of the busiest corridors in the world.

Have fun!

I used to regularly fly into DFW (about 2x as busy as any of the NY area airports) and also have flown light aircraft into LAX, IAH, TPA, etc – never had even a hint of a problem or delay.

The difference being, the surrounding 4 airports in the NY area are equally busy. There was no problem for you but how about them?

I too have flown extensively in the DFW area and was once based there. Outside of DFW, DAL is the only airport of significant traffic.

GA has its place and that place is not at JFK, LGA or EWR.

Sounds similar to the small area that is BUR/VNY/SMO/LAX/ONT/SNA/LGB.

Exactly, but evryone is so much more laid back in SoCal! :slight_smile:

It’s people like us that keep “them” their jobs. ATC really doesn’t have any problems working pistons in jet / turbine traffic.

Yes, things get busy in Bravo airspace, but if you work with ATC, they will work you in with NO problems. After all, they are air traffic CONTROLLERS. They control where, when and how we go, and we oblige accordingly in Bravo airpsace. No biggie.

I have had no problems in any bravo airspace I have been in (Cleveland, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Memphis and soon to be Baltimore Washington in a couple of months).

Us GA pilots just need to be on top of our radio and navigation game when dealing with Bravo airspace. Flying the plane is the same no matter what airpspace we are in.

I wouldn’t hesitate to fly into any of the three mentioned NYC airports if given the opportunity in my Beech “Slowdowner” I just wouldn’t want to pay the landing fees.

Allen

It is “people like us” that keep the job interesting. The airlines pay the salaries… Don’t get me wrong, If everyone in GA took the responsibilities as seriously and professionally as the rest of your post suggests, I wouldn’t have to deal with 3 RA’s in one sector on a single flight!

I’d have to respectfully disagree with this statement. You and I as tax payers pay the ATC saleries not the airlines.

Since we deal with the human side of flying, airlines are just as able to make an error as a Cub driver.

You would be surprised at how many mistakes were reported to the ASRS system by airlines.

asrs.arc.nasa.gov (for some reason the link is down).

Allen

No www – just http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/

Well, not exactly. Not sure what your background is, so you may already know this, but: Only a fairly small part of the cost of ATC is funded by general taxpayers. A really big portion of it is funded by excise tax on fuel and passenger ticket fees. So it really is fair to say that the airlines pay most of it, but that’s because they use most of it. Fortunately, the general taxpayer still has control, not the airlines.

The cost of the FAA which includes ATC is getting to be a sore subject with GA. The airlines are starting to whine and cry really loudly that THEY are paying for the system the GA benefits from for free, and they want GA to start paying user fees. The whole ATC system is designed for airlines, and while general aviation gets to benefit from that, it pays their part in the form of the excise tax on fuel. If GA stopped flying tomorrow, the ATC system would remain unchanged, but it the airlines stopped flying then there would be no need for ATC. I (and other GA aircraft owners and pilots) maintain that the excise tax we pay IS our fair share.

Hmm, strange, I get timed out when I try to connect.

I noticed when I directly clicked on your link, it added an extra http in the addy (You can see it when you hover the mouse over the link in the status line at the bottom of the browser) which came up with a search result rather then going to the website.

So, I manually typed the URL in and get timed out.

Allen

Only a fairly small part of the cost of ATC is funded by general taxpayers. A really big portion of it is funded by excise tax on fuel and passenger ticket fees. So it really is fair to say that the airlines pay most of it, but that’s because they use most of it. Fortunately, the general taxpayer still has control, not the airlines.

Airlines and other business do not pay taxes. It is their customers that pay the tax. So, yes, taxpayers pay for the ATC, not the airlines.