Very active airspace over LI

today was a strange day, aviation wise at least. even though i didn't make it out to FRG like i wanted to but i noticed a few very interesting movements over the skies of LI this afternoon.

first off, as i mentioned in the B6 FRG thread, i think i saw thier A320 departing FRG today around 1100. on top of that, i saw the Virgin A340-600 pass overhead at maybe 2500-3000 ft directly overhead ikea. wile driving back on the northern pkwy i saw a C-5A on approach into JFK, floowed by what looked to be a C-40. i know bush is going to be here tommmrow night, hence the TFR message i got so that explains those. also, i could swear that i heard another set of fighters on a CAP over the city last night. i'm willing to put money on them being there till bus leaves too.

The UNGA is the 18th to 20th. FRG is one of the designated gateway airports so who knows what you may see. You will get a lot of copters coming through since they need to land there and be searched before continuing to the manhattan heliports.

There will be the usual TFRs for the UNGA also.

And to add to all this, there are TWO F-18D's sitting at the jetcenter, ready for a US Open flyby tomorrow. Should be departing for that around 10:30am, returning right after.

I saw the C-5 fly over Hicksville also. It was the Galaxy which is used for heavylift. She made a slow pass and turned to the West to make the RWY 22 approach. It was a shame I did not have a camera.

I caught the C5 as it was passing over Garden City when I was walking from the train station to my car. It took me by surprise, and I was fumbling through my camera bag to get my camera out, and I didn't have time to set up for a good shot (I was stuck using the 35-15mm I had on the body). I managed to get one photo, but it's not going to win any awards, even after going over it in Photoshop to the best of my (limited) ability:
http://image.pgengler.net/c5_20060909.jpg

I was at a BBQ in West Babylon this evening...those two F-18's (or perhaps a different pair of F-18's) passed right over the house at about 1200ft on approach to FRG around 6pm. Frikkin awesome.

Those F-18s passed right over the US Open and Shea Stadium on Sunday at 1636 exactly. They were awesome and scared the s--- out of me as I didn't see them coming. I heard that Shea was having a ceremony for the 911 anniversary. I don't think they were associated with Bush's visit.

The F/A-18 D's were from VMFA(AW)-533, the Hawks, based out of Beaufort, SC. I had a confirmed a sighting of 4 aircraft arriving at FRG on Saturday. I drove by Republic on my way home from Oceana last night and only 2 Hornets were left with one them being a CAG bird. They departed this morning at around 9, but I didn't have my long lens.

Thanks for the info, MORS. Now that I think about it they flew over probably just before 5pm. We were all standing outside and all of a sudden heard very loud jet roar which I knew right away had to be a fighter. Looked up and sure enough there was a very low F/A-18, making a slow right turn and then banking sharply to the right and descending toward the airport. About 30 seconds later the second one flew over, this one apparently pushing the throttle on and off to maintain separation with the first, with nice puffs of black smoke accompanying each throttle up. Some people at the party were like OMGWTFBBQ but I reassured them that they were just landing at FRG and probably had something to do with Bush's visit or the US Open. It was my first time seeing 18s in the air, a nice day-early birthday present. :)