An explanation of the airspace over the Hudson River.
I'd known for a couple of weeks that family was visiting that weekend. But the club airplanes were booked. So, I didn't give it too much thought.
Then, on Sunday, I received the note that one plane was due back early. Exploiting this unexpected opportunity, I took my brother-in-law to the airport for a trip down and up the Hudson VFR corridor. I toyed with the idea of doing the corridor in the class B, and trying to get a pass over Manhattan. But I'd never done that before, so I decided to postpone that to another time. My brother-in-law had never flown with me before, and I didn't want to worry him with something new to me.
At least, that was the plan. But while I was still north-west of Teterboro, heading for the Hudson, I noticed that I wasn't seeing reply lights on the transponder. The last thing I needed was to attract armed and high speed attention, so I decided to check into this.
I contacted NY Approach. I explained where I was, and that I saw no reply light on my transponder and wanted to confirm its operation. A squawk code and few minutes later, and he reported RADAR contact with no difficulties. I then expected to be told to switch back to VFR, but the ATC gods were apparently not too busy.
"Say Intentions".
Well, since you asked...
I requested the Hudson south at 1500 (in the class B), with a turn up the East River and then another turn to the west direct [back to] Caldwell. I thought perhaps that he'd balk at this, but..."proceed as requested".
I was switched briefly to NY on 120.8, and the finally to Laguardia on 126.05.
On my way down the Hudson, I had to explain what I wanted again a couple of times to the Laguardia controller. I thought that she didn't want me there, and was trying to subtly tell me so. This turned out to be wrong, as I later learned.
Finally, though, I thought we'd reached an agreement that I'd follow the plan I'd originally proposed to NY on 127.6. But around midtown, she said I could proceed with my turn over midtown. That is, she wanted me to cross midtown to the east instead of to the west.
A brief discussion followed, and I decided that I'd follow her plan: cross midtown, down the East River, and up the Hudson. That actually was better than what I'd proposed, as it gave my passenger the best view.
Did the controller know this? I suspect so. Thinking perhaps that she wanted to be rid of me, I offered to do the northbound Hudson in the "exclusion zone" (what we call the VFR corridor). But "you're the only aircraft I'm working right now, so whatever you want is fine." Wow. My very own controller.
[But I'm a nice guy; I share. I didn't chase away the occasional additional user of my controller.]
The day was incredibly smooth, by the way. Surface winds were around 3 knots, and FSS has told me that winds were calm up to 6000'. But over Manhattan, we experienced our flight's first and only bumps. I guess that this was from the air rising with all the waste heat from the city. It's an interesting reminder that we do affect the weather.
We tootled down the east river, passing sights new to me as well as my passenger. Around the Battery, and then northbound. Around the GWB, my friendly Laguardia controller turned me over to Teterboro for the trip back to Caldwell. But things were going so well...
I told Teterboro that we'd be back later, but that we were going to do the VFR corridor. So drop 500', U turn, and down the Hudson we went, this time self-announcing. A circle around the Statue of Liberty, and back up to the GWB. Teterboro cleared us to cross their airspace en route to Caldwell, where I did my first night landing with a passenger in ... I've no idea how long (yes, I'm current {8^).
By the way: in the dark, I could see the reply light on the transponder without a problem. It was just a little dim, and therefore had been lost in the shine of the setting sun.
How fortunate was that?