Early morning EWR cargo departures- over Manhattan?

[Nonstop2AUH]

I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, as an insomniac with a flexible schedule, I am often up at around 4am when I hear what sounds like large jet aircraft passing over my head. Having played around a bit with PASSUR and Flightaware, I have concluded that these can only be the cargo departures from EWR, the ones headed in a northeast direction (New England and Europe), mostly seems to be FedEx 727 or MDs but somtimes Kalitta 747 or whatever (can't actually see them for obvious reasons). I have also concluded that this is the only time of day Newark departures seem to overfly Manhattan, at least at an altitude low enough to be so audible from my bed. Does anyone know if the above is correct, and if so, why is it only in the early morning hours that this routing is used? Is it because LGA is not yet open and during LGA hours of operation, this airspace is for them? Answer this and maybe I will be able to get some sleep!

[727C47]

flying ewr- bos in the 727,i've overflown manhattan at 8k ,at sunset,sublime, just sublime. trust me,we are audible at 8000 feet.

[PhilDernerJr]

Living in northern Queens I am often looking up at random points during the day and I see that Kalitta 747 making the slow, straight climb you speak of.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Thanks for the firsthand input guys, this is apparently part of the MERIT departure from EWR but they only seem to go over my neighborhood, at least at that sort of altitude, in the wee hours. Anyone know why? 727 I am jealous, I'd love to see what you saw, especially from where you see it! Snap a photo sometime...

[Mateo]

If you depart northbound off of the 4s from EWR (out over MERIT/GREKI, for example), you fly right up the Hudson climbing to 8-10K, growing ever closer until you finally cross over the River near the GWB. The view, especially at night, is jaw-dropping. The CRJ, you probably wouldn't hear. A heavily loaded 747 Classic, oh yeah.

[Idlewild]

I've seen EWR heavies bank east over the Upper West Side since I was a kid. Sporadically of course and mostly during the afternoon. I've also seen and experienced all sorts of flights from JFK climb straight over downtown Manhattan. My JetBlue flight did that after a 8 hour delay on a very snowy Xmas evening a few years back leaving 31L going to Seattle. The view is pretty nice.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Ok, this makes me sound really nerdy, but since I was up, I went down to the corner to spot what I think from Flightaware was FedEx MD-11 to Stansted. He did seem to cross Manhattan a bit further downtown than GWB but this may be an optical illusion (I was looking north from 79th)...

[Matt Molnar]

I think with LGA closed overnight the airspace might be less restricted so you see these freighters in places where you might not during the day. I live about 6 miles NNW of the end of JFK's 4/22s and very often if I'm up around 1am and later I hear/see 747 and other widebody freighters, still noisy up around 8,000 feet, heading north right over my house and then turning left enroute to Asia. The Europe-bound jets don't go as far north, and usually turn right before getting to my house.

[Matt Molnar]

Right on cue, a Cathay 747F on its way to HKG via ORD and ANC passed overhead at 1:06am. In the past few mins, a loud Prince Edward Air BE-99 going to Hamilton, Ontario, and a much louder JAL 742 heading to Narita via ANC.

:arrow: Sorry for the thread hijack
:arrow: I should start a new thread for this
:arrow: I should go to bed NOW

[Nonstop2AUH]

No problem, it's all very interesting, cargo flying is part of the 24/7 global economy that the general public often never sees. I write this at 338am waiting to see what;s coming from EWR :roll:

[DHG750R]

You're right , of course many times I hear/see what's obviously an older generation widebody (loud) climbing thru the LGA airspace , I know Kalitta is one that has regular 747-100/200 operating from EWR to Liege,Belgum . I believe they support USPS service for the troops in the middle east.

Additionally you'll see or hear freighters from JFK headed to ANC quite often at those very late hours... I am definitely part of the nocturnal crowd...

[nwafan20]

I think you can tell that all of us are, the last 4 responses (including mine) have been in the early AM hours. :)

[Nonstop2AUH]

Glad to see some others on here find this late night stuff as interesting as I do, as it seldom gets mentioned here or on A.net, etc. In addition to the FedEx and Kalitta services like the ones that overfly my neighborhood in the wee hours, we shouldn't forget the feeder services, all those Caravans flying packages between hubs like EWR and smaller regional cities. Without those little planes and the pilots that fly them (who work alone and in many cases also have to load and unload the plane), many parts of the country wouldn't have overnight package delivery.

And then there are the other nocturnal fliers like the bank check flights and the medical lab services, you see some on Flightaware for TEB late at night. Having talked to a few people who have done night-flying feeder jobs, it all seems like a really unique, hardworking part of the aviation business that the general public often never thinks about.

[Mateo]

Not to mention that a lot of those are single-pilot IFR flown at night in all sorts of conditions. It's no surprise that those are among the most dangerous jobs in all of American commercial aviation. All of the Fedex feeders, Labquest, AirNet, Castle, Royal Air Freight, Priority, there are more night freight companies than you've ever heard of....

[Nonstop2AUH]

Very true, I think alot of pilots get into it as a time and experience builder and then can have difficulty moving on to the CRM environment of 2-pilot operations. This sort of happened to someone I know, who flew single pilot night freight for long enough that ultimately, when the chance came to move on, it was difficult to work in a more normal environment, with other pilots and for a management who cared about attitude, dress, this sort of thing. When you're out there by yourself in the middle of the night, you don't think these things matter, but when you have to work with colleagues and even self-loading freight (i.e. passengers), they suddenly become very important.