We go back on Sunday afternoon, so I'm gonna spend some time wandering around Manhattan. Hopefully tropical storm Ernesto won't be a big deal on Sunday. Hopefully.
Here are a few pics. I'm certainly lack Brian's skills (he did the airplane pics featured in yesterday's post) but hopefully you can see some of what I saw.
That's a definite perk to this job - I get to travel to some fairly fun places.
First a crappy video from my camera - yeah I know the resolution sucks. Then some pics, taken at a much higher resolution.
The view from Times Square
The Empire State building. You can take an elevator to the 102nd floor for $16, but it's about a 4-hour wait in line.
When this building was going up, the builders ran out of money and threw a roof on the floor they had just completed. That's why it looks half-finished, 'cause it was.
This building occupies a wedge of land. It's only 6 feet wide at it's most narrow point. In Manhattan, every inch of space is being used for something.
This was across from Ground Zero. There are piles of messages on this fence, looking for lost loved ones. Ground zero itself is just a big hole, but for some reason there are high fences around all of it so it's really hard to see the hole.
And then my batteries died, so that's it. That'll teach me not to bring spares.
I bought some rechargeable batteries for tomorrow.
Have fun in Manhattan. You might want to escape from the giant Disney store that's Times Square and see the more interesting parts of the city, like Hell's Kitchen, SoHo, the East Village, Canal Street, etc.
ReplyDeleteI've flown my Warrior into Teterboro twice with my whole family on board. I imagine that my reasons are the same as yours -- I can fly non-stop from Ottawa and clear customs at Atlantic Aviation, rather than having to make an extra landing at Massena or Watertown. Even in my slow Warrior, it's only a 2-3 hour trip, depending on winds.
Atlantic has very expensive gas, but the parking fees are quite reasonable for a single-engine piston plane ($20/night with first night free after a fill-up, I think), and there are no handling charges or ramp fees. Gas is a bit expensive, but I typically burn only about 22 US gallons flying down -- so what if it's $1/gallon more?
A lot of other private pilots tried to warn me away from Teterboro, but I think they're just scared of the traffic -- I don't find Republic or Caldwell any cheaper, and then I have to add an extra stop to my flight for customs and spend a lot longer getting into the city.
Fortunately, I haven't had to depart KTEB in IMC yet, so I haven't had the long waits for an IFR release and the dreaded SID. I did have a long delay waiting for an IFR release from Republic, so I know what it can be like.
The double-decker bus tour that I went on was 3 hours long, and it was the downtown tour. I saw all of the places you mentioned, Soho (south of Houston street), Tribeca (triangle between canal street), Hells Kitchen, the meat packing district, the east village, and more. It was pricey at $40, but totally worth it, especially because I can take the uptown tour tomorrow for free, which I plan on doing. That is assuming Ernesto doesn't flood the entire state.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much to see in New York it can be overwhelming - I think to do justice to this city I'd have to spend a month of hard-core tourism and even that would be just to see the famous stuff.
When my main boss is on board we use Signature at TEB, but mostly we use Atlantic. This time it was another owner, so I used Atlantic, who seem to give a lot better value for the money spent than Signature.
I have only been into the larger airports around here; Teterboro, Newark, JFK, La Guardia, White Plains, etc. and I'm not familiar with Republic or Caldwell, but a quick look at Jeppvu shows me they are nearby. When I plan for an alternate around here I also have to consider US customs, and unfortunately they seem to stick to a few main airports.
Teterboro is really no big deal, but I'd come in here IFR instead of VFR for sure - then again I'm too scared to fly VFR in the states for fear of accidentally flying through some section of restricted airspace and getting my licence taken away. IFR is really easy - they just lead us around by the nose and I never have to worry about winding up over the White House and getting shot at with stinger missiles.
Tourists in New York must walk into lampposts a lot. New Yorkers in Stony Rapids must feel as if they are in a sensory deprivation chamber.
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