Flying Into JFK

So I have been fortunate enough to score a sweet time building package this summer in a Seminole. We started planning some cross countries and we decided that we want to try to get into JFK.

Now before everyone tries to talk me out of it, here's the scenario. We are both Multi-Engine Commerical instrument pilots. The other person flying with me has his CFI-A. By the time we plan on doing this, I will have my MEI. Combined we will have about 1000TT.

Were hoping to go about 2-4 AM, or whenever JFK is slow(er). We expect to file IFR, but we could do it VFR if they wanted. Does anybody have any advice on an arrival or how to get in without causing much of a headache for the controllers? Also, any chance they would just let us do a touch and go or are they going to force us to full stop/ fuel/ ramp/ atc fees?

Thanks!

JFK is not difficult at all. You will have absolutely no trouble what so ever getting in OR out at 2-4AM. You don't need to inconvenience yourself by going that early/late, but it's thats what your heart is set on, go for it. Bring a airport diagram, and don't be afraid to ask for directions if you get lost.

Also...I don't think the port authority takes Amex, so make sure you have another C.C.


Edit- *http://flightaware.com/analysis/graphs/airport/KJFK

From midnight through 6 a.m. the place is dead. That being said, what fun is going to your first Class B airport if no one is around! Go between 11 and 1. You will catch a lot of big jets, and should not face any traffic issue's.

Wow it seems that JFK won't be that terrible then! What time is the rush hour, meaning we were kind of hoping to get in there about 6 am. We just figured that in the dead of night would be best so we could get in/ out easy.

Would they let us do the option?

Dunno, pull out and A/FD and check.

Well I found out that between 3-10 pm, we would get an extra $100 charge for being there, so that sounds like a rush hour to me.

How friendly is JFK tower for letting two pilots in for a tower tour?

If you are serious about the tower tour pm me I may be able to set something up for you

You should have no problem at all. I flew to LGA, EWR and JFK with a buddy of mine all in one night. I think we did it some time after 10pm to avoid the higher landing fees. We filed IFR to make it easy but the entire time we ended up getting vectored which was nice. The controllers were wondering what we were doing there but when we told them, they had as much fun with it as we did. If you get to land on 31L at JFK make sure to land long otherwise you'll have a nice LONG taxi to parking. Have fun!

Aaah man that sounds awesome! If you don't mind me asking, what was the routing you filed?

We had a blast. If I'm not mistaking we filed direct the entire way and the routing they gave us was the departing instructions then CCC or DPK (Calverton or Dear park) then destination. Nothing crazy at all. This was a while back though, it was when JetBlue had the nose gear incident out at LAX, we were watching it happen while were at LGA.

Oh man sounds like you had some fun. Did you do a full stop, or touch and go?

Since you are going for the NE Experience hit up ol Teterboro around 6pm for the full effect .

Flying into JFK in something smaller is a fun experience.

My first and only time into JFK was last winter when I took my company's 414 in there. It's very straight forward. Just keep your eyes/ears open and do what you do at any other airport.

Take pics!

Haha loved the vid, and now I'm going to start looking into TEB.

Yeah I'm pretty stoked about doing it. Pics/ Vids definitely to come! (if only it was June now lol)

I don't know why anyone in the world would ever volunteer to fly into teterboro! If you're going to do it, might as well do it like the locals. If you are coming from the North or East, go below the Bravo, find the alpine tower, direct the airport.

When I was an instrument student, my instructor took me to ATL to do ILS's with touch and go's. Did this at 1am and it was awesome! However the landing was so bad because the landing light disappeared into the skid marks on that 150ft runway that I didn't even flare because I thought I was higher than I was. Needless to say it was low approaches from there on out. But overall it was really neat to do that. The controllers couldn't have been more willing to help us and that place was a ghost town when we were there. At the end they gave us a 180 heading midfield at 500ft and we got to fly over the terminals on our climb out. It was a great time! I bet JFK would be equally as cool.

We did full stops at all three. One of the best nights of flying I've ever had!

haha man i never would have thought about that happening... glad you had fun though!

What's wrong with teterboro?

Nothing wrong with Teterhole, I've been there a zillion times. If you're going, I would call all the FBO's and find which one has the least expensive fees for your aircraft, there are about 5 or 6 FBO's to choose from. Heck some might not charge anything for a small plane, but I don't know.

Also, since nobody else has mentioned it yet, JFK's FBO is pretty bare bones. Well, they do have fuel, if you can track down the fuel guy who may be gone fueling airliners for a few hours at a time. But last time I was there (a few years ago), there was no computer to check weather or file a flight plan with. So just make sure you bring your own computer or tablet if you want to do those things. Actually my info is a few years old, maybe things have improved there by now.