The Hudson River runs through the heart of New York City and between four large commercial airports. The river carves out a VFR corridor from the highly regulated airspace otherwise encompassing the city, allowing sightseeing flights by any prepared pilot.
I’ve been meaning to take this flight for a while, and Lisa and I got the chance on Sunday evening. We flew north from Baltimore, over Philadelphia’s airspace, and descended to 1,300 feet by the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We called the approach controllers and were cleared through the controlled airspace to fly along the lights of the Manhattan skyline. Upon reaching the George Washington Bridge, we turned around, descended into the VFR corridor (below 1,300 feet) and flew southbound along the New Jersey side of the river. We circled the Statue of Liberty at 800 feet before exiting the corridor to the south. From there, we turned back toward Philadelphia to land and enjoy a restaurant week dinner at Garces Trading Company.
Seeing the NYC skyline from just a few hundred feet was breathtaking. Though it was a bit bumpy, Lisa managed to get a few great pictures. And the flight planning and flying itself, while it took a bit of attention, wasn’t too daunting. Altogether, a fantastic night!
Click for a couple more pictures…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63lF4gGVRoc?rel=0&w=320&h=270
View during a night ILS approach. The pilot may descend to 200 ft above the ground without visual reference. With approach lights in view, the pilot can proceed to 100 ft, whereupon the runway threshold must be visible to continue.
Most non-commercial flying is carried out under visual flight rules (VFR). VFR flight is similar to driving a car or operating a boat: regulations and conventions provide recognized “rules of the road” to guide the pilot’s decisions, but safety is ultimately achieved by looking out the window. When flying under VFR, pilots must “see and avoid” obstacles, whether airborne (other aircraft, skydivers, balloons) or on the ground (towers, mountains).
The alternative to VFR is instrument flight rules, a set of regulations and procedures facilitating flight when the pilot doesn’t have visibility to maintain obstacle clearance, commonly due to weather. The departure and en route phases of IFR flight are governed by air traffic control clearances — route and altitude assignments based on navigation radios or GPS. By coordinating these assignments, air traffic controllers ensure no two airplanes are in the same space. The approach to landing is guided by published “approach plates” unique to each airport. These charts guide the pilot along specific, descending paths which, with any luck, culminate in exiting the clouds just in front of the runway.
As you might imagine based on the complexity of some of these procedures, flying under IFR requires an additional pilot rating and its own written, oral, and in-flight examinations. During the first two years of medical school at Duke, I had started working towards the instrument rating with instructors at Empire Aviation. After a flying hiatus while I was in Oxford, I’ve spent most of this year completing the required instruction with Brett Aviation in Baltimore. I completed the required hours just before departing to Florida for the holidays, and was lucky enough to find FlightGest, a Raleigh-Durham flight school that went above and beyond to schedule an instrument check ride in coordination with the drive back from Key West. The tests went well, and I’m now certificated to fly into the clouds!
After living across the Atlantic for a couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed being a bit closer to home in 2013. And at no time of year is this more special than during the holidays, when my brother and sister came home from Durham. It was fantastic to have the family together sharing stories about our respective years’ adventures.
After Christmas, I set out to the Florida Keys on a New Year’s trip with some scuba divers from Penn State and the University of Maryland. I had attended this annual trip regularly before moving overseas, and after a few years absent, it was great to be back. We had a chance to dive The Eagle wreck off Key Largo, enjoyed New Years festivities on Duval Street in Key West, and generally enjoyed a bit of the break from the mid-Atlantic winter. On the way back north, Lisa and I visited Robert is Here, a combination fruit stand and petting farm, and then stopped in North Carolina where she interviewed at UNC and I finished my instrument flight rating.
Click for a few more pictures.
One of the many joys of the holiday season can be found in the crisp air and sparkling lights in the long nights. Here are pictures from two examples.
First, Lisa and I went to Baltimore’s 34th Street, where for the past 66 years, (most of the) residents take it upon themselves to put together a pretty impressive holiday light show. The block really stands out against most of downtown Baltimore’s rowhouses, where a few lights in the window are the norm.
Next, Grace, a friend from DukeMed who originally hails from Baltimore, took a flight with me to see her hometown from the air. The air traffic controllers let us fly around the downtown area, and Grace was able to get a couple of great pictures of the Inner Harbor and Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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Saturday afternoon, I visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore with Lisa. It’s been at least seven years since I’d visited this renowned aquarium on the Inner Harbor, but its collection of over 17,000 fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and marine mammals is as breathtaking as ever. Although we couldn’t cover the whole site, we did see plenty of fish, a Giant Pacific Octopus, seahorses, jellyfish aplenty, coral, urchins, rays, dolphins, turtles, and more.
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Billed as “America’s Friendliest Marathon,” the Richmond Marathon was the culmination of my running efforts this year. The event was huge and well-organized; there were over 6,000 marathoners and another 13,500 runners in the half marathon and 8k events. In addition to the standard water and electrolyte drinks along the route, the Richmond team had “party zones” with live music, wet wash cloth stations, and friendly pacing teams.
Though the day started out a bit dreary, and the first several miles were run in light rain (British English: “aggressive mist”), the rain cleared away after about an hour and left a beautiful, cool, overcast running day. I was able to stick with the 3:35 pacing group for the first 20 miles (an 8:11 pace), only dropping off in the last few miles. The final mile of the race was fantastic, with a gentle downhill slope and a mass of cheering spectators giving the runners energy. I managed to finish in 3:37:22, a new personal best and a 10 minute improvement on my Baltimore Marathon time from last month.
The inspired supporters’ signs in Richmond included “Run like someone just called you a jogger“, “Run faster, the half-marathoners are already done”, “Worst parade ever”, and “Go, random stranger, go!”
Click for a couple of pictures and results.
On Friday, I took Step 2 CK, an 8-hour multiple choice exam that is part of the US medical licensing process. Lisa, with whom I had shared many a practice question session, took her test on Wednesday and was interviewing for an internship in Chicago on Friday, so we decided to celebrate by spending the weekend in the Windy City.
We started Saturday by wandering the downtown area. We made it to Millennium Park and saw The Bean, which has been my favorite sculpture since I first encountered it almost ten years ago. After getting our fill of the leguminous wonder, we went for a run along the Lakefront Trail. Saturday night, we had a fantastic dinner at 312 Chicago and then walked over to the Oriental Theatre to see the touring production of Wicked. The show was very impressive; an extremely strong cast really put their hearts into the performance.
On Sunday, we wandered some more, revisited The Bean, and had brunch at Wildberry before Lisa flew off for her next interview in St. Louis. I set out for the Ravenswood neighborhood where I saw Nick, one of my best friends from high school, and met his wife Amanda. We spent the evening playing board games and talking about old and new times over Kyrgyz food.
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The latest of my running escapades was the Baltimore Marathon. Part of the huge Baltimore Running Festival, the race is 26.2 miles through downtown Baltimore, beginning and ending at Camden Yards. The festival draws quite a crowd: about 3,100 finished the marathon, 9,700 finished the half-marathon, 3,400 finished the 5k race, and 1,100 teams finished the marathon relay. The city is supportive as well; several neighborhoods come out in full force to cheer on the runners, and local schools and businesses organize cheering sections and displays.
My goal for the race was to finish in under 4 hours, get comfortable with the distance, and try not to injure myself before the upcoming Richmond Marathon. I’m very happy with the result — I finished in 3:48:56 and was still able to walk the next day. I went out a bit too fast and was slowed after the first third — especially by a bathroom break at 13.5 miles and the long uphill segment from miles 14 to 19. But the sub-4 result gives me confidence that I can do a little better at Richmond, where a flatter course will be on my side.
The spectators were fantastic, with signs that said “Run like you stole something” (appropriate for Baltimore), “Chuck Norris never ran a marathon” (though the Internet disagrees), “Run like a Kenyan, Drink like an Irishman” (there is no political correctness after 16 miles), “Smile if you peed a little” (cruel trick!), and of course “You’re running better than our government.”
Click for a few more pictures and results.
Without Wolfson rowing to keep me going, I’ve taken to a bit of running in the States. My goals this year are to run the Baltimore Marathon on October 12th and the Richmond Marathon on November 16th. As half-way training benchmark, I ran the Parks Half Marathon from Rockville, MD to Bethesda, MD on Sunday.
The weather was perfect for the race, cool and partly cloudy. The start was very well-organized, staggered by pace minutes and with lots of professional pacers available. I attached myself to groups of people who seemed to be going a reasonable pace for most of the race, and then started to speed up a bit towards the end. Water and Gatorade were available every two miles, and a surprising number of people turned out to urge us on. The most memorable supporters were a piano player at a local park, and a guy in a Mr. Incredible outfit playing music. The course wound through Rock Creek Park and then along the Capital Crescent Trail.
I finished the 13.11 miles in 1:46:35 (an 8:08/mile pace), which was just about what I’d planned. Running details are here. (The GPS pace isn’t overly accurate and tends to fluctuate quite a bit. Hopefully a stride sensor will be in the mix soon.)
Click for a few more pictures…
For a long time, I’ve wistfully looked at Ocean City, NJ Airpot on the sectional chart. It’s placed perfectly, just a few blocks from the beach. This Labor Day, I finally got there with a few friends from Philadelphia.
The morning weather in Philly wasn’t cooperative, and delayed our adventure to mid-afternoon. I landed at Philadelphia International and went into town to pick up Lisa, Eva, and Jerome. After Lisa ensured that her parents were thinking up a good eulogy and Jerome picked out his favorite Star Wars quotes for the occasion, we launched into a rapidly clearing sky and headed for the coast.
The arrival was quick and easy, and we set off for a wander on the beach and boardwalk before dinner at Hula Grill. We strolled back to the airport (via ice cream, of course) and enjoyed short night flight up and down the Atlantic City skyline before heading back to Philadelphia.
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