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Flying the Hudson in a Mooney


KLudwick

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Who else has flown the Hudson corridor in a Mooney?  Just checked off that bucket list flight over the weekend.  Super easy if you haven't done it before, just make sure you take the FAASafety.gov course and comply with the speed limit and reporting points!

 

 

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Gorgeous.

I did it about a dozen years ago in a Cessna 172.  Its beautiful in any airplane.  I didn't own an airplane yet.  We stopped at white planes first, KHPN just to spend a half hour chatting with a CFI just to make sure we were well briefed in the local wisdom of this flight.  It is not hard and nothing that cannot be gleaned from the written FAA materials, but there are several technical things to keep track of, so I am glad we did it that way.

E

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I flew the corridor several times before the change in the regs that brought some sanity to managing the flow of air traffic. Back in the day I swore off the corridor. There was a lot of helicopter traffic as well as GA that required extreme vigilance. Probably easier now.

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I flew it many times in a rented Cessna, although I don't think I would do it now in my older age in my Mooney. Maybe somebody else's. Several years back I hitched a ride with the Coast Guard in an HH-65 and did the river tour. We approached the statue and there were several tour helicopters orbiting above. We dropped down to no more than 100 ft off the water and did our orbit. That was quite an experience.

 

Matt

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2 minutes ago, Matt M said:

I flew it many times in a rented Cessna, although I don't think I would do it now in my older age in my Mooney. Maybe somebody else's. Several years back I hitched a ride with the Coast Guard in an HH-65 and did the river tour. We approached the statue and there were several tour helicopters orbiting above. We dropped down to no more than 100 ft off the water and did our orbit. That was quite an experience.

 

Matt

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Nice!

I have a nice selfie somewhere of me and you see looking down the statue behind me and a wing.

We did our turns around the statue too - and yes for sure it there are a bunch of tour helicopters there all the time - and possibly other fixed wings. We tried to stay above them, which is a trick since there is the class B shelf to mind.  I think that spot is a bit sketchy with all that unstructured tour flying going on.  Its the sort of thing I did once, but I would not feel the urge to do twice.

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I’ve done this about a dozen times in a Cherokee 180 both before and after the reg changes.  Doesn’t get old. 
 

it was especially fun doing it as a loop from FRG- depart along the south shore under JFK’s inner ring at just under 500, up over the Verrazano bridge, circle the lady, fly the Hudson, cross over the GW, U turn and call in a clearance to cross at Central Park and then back via direct LGA cab direct FRG. 

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Flying the Hudson River exclusion is one of the things I miss most since moving from DC to California five years ago. That and the Ethiopian food in DC, and running in Rock Creek Park or along the Mall. For those of you who haven't done it, I urge you to give it a try. It's every bit as beautiful as the videos and photos above make it look.

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