KJFK questions

Hello every NY-spotter out there!

In two days I'm leavning cold Sweden for vacation in NYC for around a week. On sunday I'm planning to go out to the airport for about 2-3 hours, at what time is there the most traffic at JFK? What I can see on Flightstats, there's most traffic at 14-15PM.

I've taken a look at the weather-sites and they're saying it will be sunny and winds from the north. That means the landing runways will be 4R or 4L, right? :confused: I actually didn't want 4R or 4L to be active, because what I've readed, I need atleast 300mm there, and sure i've got 300mm, but it's rather soft after 250mm. :frown: ..

So, if I'm not lucky enough, and have to head out to Bayswater Park, when will the sun be in my face? Is it even to recomend to take pictures at Bayswater Park?

I'll anyway call the atis when I wake up so I have the runways confirmed.

Sorry for long post, here's some pictures from Sweden! :wink:

http://i46.tinypic.com/osbafm.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/x2l1zl.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/2usy26h.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/2eam5bn.jpg

Greetings :cool:

Some nice shots there! I'm sure others will have some better info, but here's a shot. I think any time from mid to late afternoon until dark will be great for you in terms of traffic, though I don't know if there is really a bad time to spot at JFK when it is light out. As for the Bayswater questions, I will leave those to others who are more experienced with that area, however I will say that you are going to want a car to go spotting at JFK. Don't know if you had planned on renting or if you know somebody in the area who can drive or lend you theirs.

What a beautiful Fokker!

Hello eskillawl (if that's not really your real name, please introduce yourself with real name :smile:

First welcome. Nice pics from Sweden! For Sundays, you may be surprised to find that in these summer months, winds can be usually from south/southwest and typically JFK is on a 22/13 split which is really bad for spotting, especially without a car. Also JFK will switch RWYS readily and multiple times throughout the day/night. All that being said, if they can help it, they will give 22s to European arrivals in the afternoon as much as possible. If winds are calm, no matter the direction, afternoons are usually 22s for Arrivals and departures with Western domestic and Southern routes taking RWY 31L from Kile Echo intersection.

Do you want Arrivals or Departures? The guide is very helpful but it does not target specific times of the year for the sun position and direction.

For this time of year, if on the 4s and you want arrivals, Bayswater Park is the best place until around 12:00pm at which time the sun begins to cross over to the other side of the RWY making for back-lit shots. Bayswater park is very friendly and safe for spotting during daylight hours. It is a State Park and is usually open from 9:00am to 6:00pm

If on the 22s for arrivals, you can go to The Mounds location from around 2:00pm until sunset. 200mm on crop sensor is plenty for the heavies.

RWY 13L and 13R have no public spots for arrivals. Departures can be photographed from Bayswater park from around 10:00am to sunset .. you will need at least 300mm on a crop sensor ...

If you are lucky enough to get RWY 31 ops, then from Costco or Panera spots on the guide, nothing more than 300mm on crop is needed... good from 1:00pm to sunset

If you have any specific questions about RWYs and photography, feel free to ask more :smile:

between the runway 22/13 split, usually everyone would start coming to 22L/R between 4 and 5 oclock since thats the time runways r changed. I prefer to be at the mounds around 2pm.

Thanks for the excelent answer! My name is Eskil, sorry for that! :redface:

Agian, thanks, then I can only hope for 22s, for my part, and maybe I'm right if the wind's calm. As I said, I'll call the ATIS before even planning to leave for the airport. I'm not planning to go by car, mostly because I'm out of license. :wink: I'll probably take the train from manhattan to JFK, and then I'll go for a taxi the short ride, (taxi in US is more then half the price cheaper than in Sweden, so thats great!) to the active runway and the spotting location, hopefully 22 or even better 13!

I'll write hear agian when I'm back in Sweden and I'll show you some photos of the hours at JFK.

Have a great week! :)

Eskil, welcome and good luck. If you don't have a scanner but have a modern mobile, please use LiveATC.net to listen to tower or approach control or even ground control for more information than ATIS which is sometimes delayed in update.

Also if you have Twitter, please use the hashtag #nycaviation and see if anyone is out spotting the day you are here. If I am around you're welcome to hitch a ride from me anywhere.

Hi Eskil- see my response in your anet thread

I've taken a few photos of 13L arrivals from the outside deck on top of the Starbucks on Cross Bay Blvd in Howard Beach. They're probably a bit too head-on for most folks on here, but it's a different spot, elevated and honestly there aren't too many spots for shooting 13L arrivals.