Timeline for Why are planes flying in a zigzag path over Long Island when approaching JFK?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 5, 2019 at 21:27 | vote | accept | Matt Samuel | ||
| Dec 5, 2019 at 0:07 | comment | added | Matt Samuel | When I'm flying into JFK, it's from Guyana, which is in South America, and they still fly over Long Island. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 23:05 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | It's worth pointing out that the entire New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia airspace design is a giant puzzle that has to fit together between the region's airports, accommodating flights to/from various directions under different weather configurations. Flights use certain bits of airspace because other flights are somewhere else. Looking at FlightRadar24 right now, I see flights over Long Island Sound for White Planes and New Haven. This allows flights into those airports to fly over the JFK arrival stream and then descend over the sound. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:41 | comment | added | user14897 | @Sean: I think this is relevant: What is the history and process of designing new waypoints and airways? I also mention a program for the NJ/NY/Philly area. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:29 | comment | added | user14897 | @Sean: Without RNAV, which they have to serve, you can't do fix to fix with a simple CDI setup. See the route, and consider what I said about making big changes to the route. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:27 | comment | added | Vikki | @ymb1: Except that you don't have to overfly a VOR (or any other type of navaid) in order to use it; waypoints can be defined just as easily by intersections of radials, or by DME distances along a radial, as they can by the locations of the navaids themselves. Just because a VOR is on land doesn't mean that it can't serve overwater flights. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:23 | comment | added | user14897 | @Sean: While seaborne navaids are a thing, having one there permanently for JFK doesn't make sense :) It seems you're asking why the STARs were designed that way, which is a different question, and it has to do with where the VORs were built, even in the RNAV case. Redesigning the whole thing because a plane can do without a VOR station is not ideal; minimal gradual changes are better than making the lives of ATC/pilots harder. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:21 | comment | added | Bianfable | @Sean I don't know. I can tell you by looking at the high enroute airways in the area that there are no airways from anywhere South of Boston leading into the Long Island Sound. They all end up at the South East corner of Long Island, but I'm not sure why... | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:13 | comment | added | Vikki | @Bianfable: ...yes, so why are they arriving over eastern/central Long Island rather than over Long Island Sound? | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:11 | comment | added | Bianfable | @Sean The North Atlantic Tracks are mostly coming from the North East, so it is simply the shortest route for a majority of the arrivals. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 22:09 | comment | added | Vikki | Why do all of these arrivals fly over Long Island at all prior to final approach, rather than coming in over Long Island Sound or the Atlantic? | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 21:18 | history | edited | Bianfable | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
improve explanation, remove incorrect statement about noise
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| Dec 4, 2019 at 20:49 | comment | added | Matt Samuel | The time might have been 11pm-12am. I just remember that it was a god awful hour with two very young children who usually go to sleep at 7 pm. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 20:45 | comment | added | Bianfable | @MattSamuel That makes sense. You can see that all arrivals from the East fly over Calverton (North side) and then ROBER (South side). If runways 22L/R are in use, they have to fly back to the North side afterwards to join the final approach. I found a nice example of this from yesterday evening (I think around 11 PM, but looks exactly like what you describe). | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 20:40 | history | edited | Bianfable | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
add flightradar multi-select view and add ILS 22 L approach chart
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| Dec 4, 2019 at 20:18 | comment | added | Matt Samuel | If I'm flying into JFK it's usually around 10 pm, if that matters. The entire approach is over land and it goes from top to bottom to top etc. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 19:51 | history | answered | Bianfable | CC BY-SA 4.0 |