River Visual Runway 13 @ LGA

I was out all day yesterday painting the house, but in the morning/afternoon, I noticed a few aircraft (AA 757, NW 319, DL MD80) fly rather low heading south over Brooklyn. This has never occurred where I live (Midwood section of Brooklyn). So I called up LGA ATIS, and they were landing the River Visual runway 13. This surprised me because I never heard of this runway in use for landings (I was actually going to make a post a few days earlier regarding why 13 is never used for landings).

Any reason to use this runway? They said something about severe weather. Was it the wind, because usually if a wind is coming from the east, LGA will use 22 or soemtime 4. Thanks in advance for any info!

Oooh! I wish I had known about this...I would've gotten a good view from my office. I was actually out on the terrace around 3:15 yesterday afternoon, but they were departing 13 at that point.

I'm pretty sure that with more severe weather they use 13 for arrivals. I remember during those really bad lightning storms that's what they used.

I flew into NYC in April on the River Visual approach. It was awesome! I was on the right side of the a/c so I had an amazing view of Manhattan, and looked down every avenue on the approach...

The approach was used because of weather. Whether or not it had to do with t'storms, I dunno... I could look it up, but I have too much stuff to do...

13 arrivals are a lot more common than many people realize, although by far the least used of the 4 approaches. I was working a double yesterday and I believe the 13 arrivals lasted about 3 hours, from approx 1100-1400. It's pretty cool from my work location as many aircraft turn off on the high speed right in front of our Ramp Tower still decelerating with speed brakes still up and reverser's still open, I love it. Yesterday I managed to snap photo's off all three US retro jets landing on 13 as PI and PSA where on the Shuttle all day and the AL did the Shuttle till 1400 then swapped over to Mainline to go to CLT-RDU-LAS. Two cool things happened yesterday but where to far away for a photo. The PSA did a go-around on 13 starting at about the intersection (was to high, common on 13 landings) and then about 90 mins later as PSA departed 4 she went thru the intersection with Allegheny on final for 13. When I cleared Allegheny to the gate I commented to the crew that it was kinda cool PSA departing in front of you, I expected a no big deal type response but instead the crew said, "Kinda Cool, that was WAY Cool" ! Yesterday was another pretty good day at the office !

Cheers

LGA777

Sounds like a fun day Ron! And congrats on the shots and sightings. THis is actually my first time ever hearing 13 open for landing. Hopefully I'll get to see it sometime again.

Everyone, thanks for your help and comments =]

My only flight at LGA involved landing on 13, flying the, um, Rikers ILS, breaking out around 400' AGL, according to the crew.

Very cool approach indeed . a former MD80 Captain who is a friend of mine told me some stories about that approach. ATC likes to keep you as high as possible over the river and some pilots arent as quick to get the aircraft turned onto final while slowing and decending. That leads to a long landing or a go around . Some aircraft are more difficult to do this than others . There are some other factors that contribute to bad approaches to 13 as well. The VASI is 3 degrees and glideslope is not

He told me of 1 particular approach where the FO was flying and wasnt agressive enough getting slowed and decending . He finally took over and landed.

Ron , as you remember we have seen some things we would rather not see again on that runway :(

For rwy 13 approaches, I recall the DL MD-80 that clipped thelanding lights and pulled a 180 spin in 1996.

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

For rwy 13 approaches, I recall the DL MD-80 that clipped thelanding lights and pulled a 180 spin in 1996.

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it was a surreal thing to watch it as it unfolded..

FYI you can see the plate for this and other LGA approaches on http://www.airnav.com/airport/KLGA

Just follow the link to the PDF of the approach you're interested in.!

Or you can do it without leaving this domain name!

http://nycaviation.com/lgadata ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

Or you can do it without leaving this domain name!

http://nycaviation.com/lgadata ;)

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NICE Phil!!! :D

Sorry if I'm hijacking, but you can get to the local airport's fact sheets and plates under the "Tools" button in the navigation bar and by then going to "Airport Data".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

Sorry if I'm hijacking, but you can get to the local airport's fact sheets and plates under the "Tools" button in the navigation bar and by then going to "Airport Data".

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Shame on you, Hijacking a thread on your own site......well, I just found
them and they are very cool...thanks for posting them!!! Great Stuff as
usual! :wink: :D

Here is a photo of the US-PSA 319 coming off 13 as described in my above reply on 8-25.

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5807753

Looks even cooler when the reversers are still open as is sometimes the case but no in this one.

Cheers

LGA777

what's more strange is the amount of time that LGA has been arriving 04 lately.... it's rare but over the past 2 or 3 weeks it's been happenning more and more often.

I've been noticing the 4 arrivals a lot lately while I'm on the 7. It's a very cool sight to see while approaching 61st and Woodside on a Manhattan-bound train, if a plane is about to pass overhead.

Mel. not to rain on your parade but when on you are on the employee bus on the service road and a 757 passes about 50 feet above the bus, now that is way cool. When I lived in Queens I actually hung out a few times at Woodside 7 train platform watching the runway 4 approaches, very fun.

Cheers

LGA777

Does anyone know the reason that the River Visual 13 at LGA is no longer used?