Something New – The Big Apple.

Having been flying for 45 years, it is always interesting to fly a different sector. The opportunity doesn’t present itself that often as networks for each aircraft type are fairly set; however, there was one port that had escaped me in recent times. John F. Kennedy Airport – New York.

As a passenger, I had travelled to New York a few months ago to play tourist and importantly, to see Billy Joel in concert. By contrast, I had never physically flown an aircraft into the busy airspace that is JFK. As a result, the preceding weeks had been spent trying to glean an insight from friends who had operated into the “Big Apple”, although the one consistent element was that there was very little consistency. Creative vectoring, speed control, assigned runways, and “standard” arrivals were all subject to change.

When Air Traffic Control assigned you a lower level on descent, they wanted you there now! It was not the place for a gentle, finessed descent. When adverse weather dealt its hand, things became even less predictable to the extent that one of my colleagues had to divert to Detroit. All of this could take place at the end of a 15-hour sector and that flight time was with the wind at your back.

Fortunately, our arrival was not met by storms or wicked winds, allowing me to fly a relatively predictable descent and arrival by doing exactly as I was told by ATC, although, I was so focussed on the task that I didn’t have the time to look around and take in the Manhattan skyline, or Long Island as it swept beneath me.

Landing on runway 22L was not the end of the journey. With the phenomenal amount of air traffic, those aircraft have to wend their way around a maze of taxiways. Patience is key and so is, once again, doing what you’re told. At times, understanding the rapid-fire air traffic controllers can be a challenge but considering what they are managing, one can’t help but be impressed.

When it came to depart, I read my notes well in advance of the planned 16:15 flight time and evening departure. Unlike our arrival, storms threatened and just as we were to depart, they arrived. We pushed back from the terminal but were soon joining a queue of aircraft to depart. On the flight deck we monitored the environmental conditions as our take-off was at a limiting weight. Fortunately, the temperature went down and the wind swung more into a headwind, which was beneficial for our take-off calculations. Unfortunately, the flashes of lightning to the south were not.

As we sat waiting our turn, ATC advised that we would have to be given a new route to avoid the storms and that it would entail and extra 200 miles onto our already significant flight across North America and the South Pacific. We had the fuel on board to safely accept this new route and reprogrammed the flight management computer (FMC), re-assessed all of our calculations and ran the necessary checklists. Then, after nearly an hour of taxiing, we took to the skies.

Initially flying north towards Lake Erie, we finally turned south towards our destination, rejoining our planned route about two hours after departure. It was the long way around but looking at the towering storms in the distance, it was definitely the safest plan. Nashville and Houston passed beneath us before we clipped the corner of Mexico and headed out over the Pacific, where we gave another series of storms a wide berth.

For me, the journey from coast to coast in the United States and the entry and exit strategies into JFK were an interesting exercise in aviating. These variables and new experiences are part of what keeps me motivated after so many years on the flight deck. Rather than being daunting, they are an interesting challenge after so many decades. It was something new. It was the Big Apple.