Flying the Hudson Corridor

Every time I go to New York, I spend my time searching for Desi-food.  I go to Time Square, and when tired, I drive to somewhere in New Jersey for a cheap hotel and free parking.

The agenda was much different when I flew to NY on the NSAC Cessna with Ali on March 10, 2012.  The plan was to fly over the Hudson River at 1500 feet. Enough of Desi-food, Time Sqaure, and New Jersey!

The weekend started with less than ideal weather for VFR flight. It was forecast to be clear by 2 PM local time. The sky did not clear, but the ceilings lifted to 4000 feet overcast. I decided to fly at 2500 feet all the way to NY.

Sun breaking through 4000 foot ceiling over CT

Flew direct from Beverly, over Hartford, to White Plains. Other than for some minor communication issues, it was uneventful.  Unlike the last time, the landing at White Plains was uneventful.

Even Hartford looks interesting when NY is far

We tied down the plane, then took a train to Grand Central Terminal.  Since we did not have a car, it was much more convenient to stay close to Grand Central Terminal, so we did.

The hotel room was a charm. It had great views of the East River.  The room window was screwed-shut for safety reasons, and the pictures were turning out hazy with reflections from the window. We kicked-open the window to get clearer pictures of the East River.  No Time Square this time so we were in deep sleep by 10 PM.

View from the UN Hotel

Reflections and Shadows

East River at 9 PM

And East River at 6 AM

The next day we woke up at 6 AM, grabbed some bagels, and headed back to White Plains to get into the plane and fly over the river. I talked to the New York approach for clearance to fly to "Statue of Liberty and back".  I was granted clearance in Newark/Laguardia class B airspace.

When you head south towards Statue of Liberty, you stay on the Jersey side.  The first landmark on the river was George Washington Bridge.  The Bridge stands 600 feet high, and was quite impressive from 1500 feet.

George Washington Bridge. Zoomed in though.

The next landmark was Goldman Sachs Building on the right, from where we could see Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty.

Goldman Sachs, return the money or we will drop crap on you

Ellis Island

We circled counter clock wise around Statue of Liberty, then headed to Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

The lady

Immigrants (or tourists?)

On the right, we flew over Staten Island Ferry, and the Tear of Grief.

Tear of Grief (Commemorating the Twin Towers)

Staten Island Ferry (The ugliest dock I have ever seen)

As we made a sharp turn from Verrazano Bridge, we saw Coney Island, then headed North towards Manhattan.

Verrazano-Narrows and Coney Island (My favorite view)

Sharp turn at Verrazano Narrows Bridge

We passed over Governer's Island, and there stood the majestic skyline view of Manhattan.

Manhattan from Verrazano Bridge, Breathtaking

We passed the Empire State Building, and then flew next to Ground Zero.

Empire State (Its a bit far from Hudson)

Window open, Window closed: Much difference in picture quality

Ground Zero.

We flew North to the left of Manhattan, all the way back to Tappan Zee Bridge.

Manhattan: Concrete Jungle

Departing View of Manhattan

Tappan Zee is not as impressive as the other two bridges on the Hudson (and that we had climbed to 3000 feet by then).

Tappan Zee Bridge at 3000 feet

Made a right turn at Tappan Zee, over White Plains, and back home to Beverly.

White Plains Airport at 3000 feet

Bored, Sleepy, and "lost in dreams" of the just concluded river tour

When the air is smooth, the plane is trimmed, the autopilot is engaged, and you have just flown over the Hudson Corridor, you find yourself lost in the majestic views of the NY city.  You keep yourself awake through some interesting maneuvers:

I do not plan to fly the Hudson Corridor any time soon again.  But I will be back to NY soon, and my agenda will most probably be Desi-food, Time Square, and New Jersey again.


I thank Muazzam Ali for the great pictures he took, that made this trip worth sharing.

A warm day in NE

Today my scheduled run was twenty-two miles. I ran only fifteen. After being on the road for two hours, I ran out of water because it was warm, sunny 80 degrees, and humid.

Now the twenty-two mile run will have to wait for the next weekend. It is wise to give up sometimes, and live to tell about it.

This short blog entry is to thank the most recent donors. Due to my generous friends, I have reached about eighty percent of my goal of four thousand dollars towards cancer research.

Faisal Bashir, David Wong, Matt Randmaa, Shua Jafarey, Mughees Khan, Rashid Shaikh, Tahir Chaudhry, Syed Raza, Zaki Sherwani, Seeme Moreira, Imran and Huma Parekh, Imran and Bushra Nasrullah, Anila and Kashif Bukhari, Scot Armstrong, Scott Wilson, Chris Brearly, Claus Benjaminsen, and Mark DeMarais donated a total of one thousand dollars in the month of March.

To date, there are more than fifty donors. I am more proud of the number of donors than the total amount of the donation. The more the number of individuals who care for their fellow citizens, the bigger the heart the human race has.

A Painful Experience

Only a cancer patient can know the fatigue and pain of a chemo treatment.

So most people who take up running, never run more than 5 kilometers ever.  They get bored, or think that running is needlessly hard and tiring.

Some poeple train hard to reach distances of up to 10 kilometers.  Its true that running 10 kilometers is twice as hard as running 5.

Still fewer people train harder to reach distance of up to 20 kilometers. And it is also true that running 20 kilometers is twice as hard as running 10.

Marathon runners train their bodies to run 40 kilometers. But running 40 kilometers is not twice as hard as running 20, its a totally different experience.  Somehwere around kilometer 30, your body starts "falling apart" regardless of who you are (Kenyan, or Pakistani).

The body has a capacity to store about 2000 calories of energy in the muscles.  At around kilometer 30, all that energy has been used. This state of body (and mind) is called "hitting the wall" and most people including me dread the feeling it brings.

Your breathing rate doubles, your heart rate jumps, your muscles cramp, your mind clouds out, and you lose concentration. Your body is out of energy, and now it must "burn" itself to generate energy.  If you have not run a marathon, you have not experienced this physical and mental pain.

Running after hitting the wall is the hardest thing I have ever done, and it is the most painful experience I have ever had in my life.

There is something similar but more painful. Its chemo. How do I know? I know because I keep my hair after hitting the wall, while a chemo patient loses it.

I hope you never hit a wall, or handle a chemo session.  Please help those who are experiencing the pain of chemo at:  Dana Farber Cancer Research

First Attempt at Flying the Hudson River Corridor, Family, and NYC

I had 24 more hours to spend on the President's day weekend, and if the weather would cooperate, I would spend all my adrenaline reserves. That is what exactly happened, and I ended up mentally and physically sore. An unforgettable weekend that I will remember for as long as I live.

Flew to NYC with my sick family on Sunday in the NSAC Cessna, attempted to fly over the Statue of Liberty, stayed overnight in Manhattan, then flew back on Monday.  All that after an 18 mile run on Saturday.

Took off from Beverly, MA on Sunday morning for a one and a half hour flight to White Plains, NY.  Throughout the way I comforting Momina, who after eight years of absence from GA flying, was holding on the seat as if it would fly in case the plane wont. We did a diversion to fly close to George Washington Bridge, but no good pictures were taken as she was fighting nausea, and used both her hands to hold on to the seat when not holding a bag to her mouth.

Maheen, and Zain were sick with cold and fever (and they still are).  But they behaved well by sleeping the entire way, TILL I was about to land at White Plains.

White Plains is a very busy airport with crossing runways, both of which were active when we arrived.  Then Zain woke up and started yelling and crying in his microphone.  No distraction more annoying.  I was asked to make right pattern on Runway 34, and as I did, I found a jet, half a mile on my tail on the final (and Zain was still yelling).  I did a go around on my own decision to let the jet land, the controller asked me to make an immediate left turn to avoid a helicopter, I did, and then followed another jet to land on the same runway in left traffic pattern.  Another jet landed just before I landed on the crossing runway, and as soon as I landed, Zain stopped yelling.

I wish Momina was a pilot and could realize and record the unusual events as they happened (especially the jet close behind us). She thought everything was smooth except for the crying kid, who was unreachable to her in the back.

Panorama at White Plains airport is the best FBO I have ever been to. If you park your plane at Panorama, they make you feel like an executive.  They gave us a ride to the Metro North Station, from where we took a train to the Grand Central Terminal.  On the way, we met another pilot family, who had flown from Chicago in their Columbia 400.  They had landed just after we landed.  They told us that some kid was crying on the radio.  I guess Zain was heard all over White Plains through my microphone.

We walked to our hotel from the Grand Central Terminal, relaxed a bit, then walked to Times Sqaure.  The kids had fever, and my leg was hurting from Saturday's long run, so they took turn on Momina's back.  Did the usual things at Times Square, then walked back.

Grand Central Terminal

Lights lights!

We were in bed by 9 PM.  All night long, we were taking turns putting wet cloth on Zain's forehead to reduce his fever. And in the morning, Maheen started throwing up.  I could not sleep enough, and all my desire to fly over Statue of Liberty was waning. All of us wanted to get back home as soon as possible.  Took a train to White Plains, picked up by Panorama, pre-flight, then on our way back.  Gladly, Momina had got some of her confidence back, so we were able to take some pictures, and make a video.

My second attempt to fly the Hudson River corridor will be in mid March.

An uneventful but bumpy flight back home over Hartford. It was Monday evening already.

Screeeeeach!

Hands are still holding the seat, and its turbulent.

Hartford, CT

Please give up. Wait for next year's snow.

What will happen when he wakes up?... Nothing! as this is on the way back

Lakes around Framingham

Back home, Beverly. No, there is no wolverine trying to climb up the wind shield

To Block Island

Block Island is a small island, 12 miles by 4 miles, and about 15 miles off the coast of Newport, RI.

Decided to fly there with Ali on a wonderful sunny day. The plan was to get there, bike for a few hours on the coast, then head back.  Unfortunately the wind was gusting to 25 miles, making it a bit cold for biking, so we dropped our bike plan.

NSAC has a set of folding bikes that you can put in the back of the plane.  They will come in handy for future trips, when the weather is suitable for biking.

We were at Beverly airport at 9 AM, and up in the air with N172EF by 1030 AM. This was Ali's first cross country in a small plane so I could feel the nervousness.  But once we were on route, I could feel him getting more comfortable.

Flew through the Boston B airspace at 4500 feet, over Norwood (KOWD), Newport (KUUU) to  Block Island (KBID). I gained some height before crossing the channel at Point Judith.  I like to fly high over the ocean so I could get to dry land safely in case of an emergency.  The flight was about 50 minutes each way.

The views were magnificent as always.  The world looks much different from up there, and the pictures never do the justice.

My only concern when landing at Block Island was the gusting cross wind. It turned out to be a no factor since the wind was aligned with the active runway at the time of the landing, making it a very smooth touch down.

The Island was dead at this time of the year. Most businesses were closed.  We walked from the airport to the center of the town, found a place to eat, ate, then walked back.  However, this could turn out to be a great destination in summer.

We took off at Block Island at about 3 PM.  Gained some height over the ocean to be safe, then headed back.  Wanted to fly low over the Newport Mansions, but since I had climbed to 5500 feet to cross the ocean, decided to leave that plan to some other day.

On the way back, crossed the Boston B airspace direct to Beverly.  We got so close to Logan, that we could see jets taking off under us.

We landed at Beverly at about 4 PM, fueled the plane, tied it up, and headed back.  On the drive back home, I was lost in the beautiful memories of the day when someone honked and reminded me that I needed to concentrate on the road.

Ali did a good job helping me navigate.  He took some great pictures as well. The pictures in this page are courtesy of Muazzam Ali.

I was going to fly this Saturday, but the weather had other plans.  We were supposed to get a few inches of snow.  We got dusting instead. I could have flown to Martha's Vineyard.  But its better to respect the weather and be safe.

Flying Safely

I recently started flying again, and I feel more concerned as compared to when I used to fly in California.  I did not have kids then, and most of my passengers had similar family situations.  I have two wonderful kids now, whose lives depend on me.  While I am not afraid of dying, I cannot be selfish enough to leave a family behind.  And I cannot kill a passenger who has a one year old kid.

But, is flying really that risky? Isn't driving risky too? I need to know how much risk I am taking, and how I can reduce it to a "safe" level.

"Life is about managing risk, not elimination of it".

I find myself reading through accident reports, and statistics at the NTSB and AOPA websites.  Facts are that travelling in a jumbo jet is unbelievably safe. If you were to travel in a commercial jet for every single second of your life, the risk of dying from old age is far greater than the risk of dying in the commercial jet accident.

Statistics are very different for general aviation planes. Small single engine planes are much more risky. While there is no general agreement on how much more/less riskier than driving a car, some statistics indicate that flying a small single engine plane is five times more likely to get you in a fatal accident as compared to one in a car! I simply cannot take this much risk.  But how can I reduce my risk to a level at which it is safer to fly than to drive? Or is it possible at all?

A closer look at the accident statistics of general aviation reveals that 60% of all these accidents occur when pilots enter instrument weather inadvertently. These accidents are almost always fatal. JFK junior died when his small plane entered low visibility weather at night, and he became disoriented.

An additional 20% of all general aviation accidents occur due to problems that could be easily detected through proper pre-flight inspection.

This means that 80% of all accidents in general aviation are EASILY avoidable by the pilot.

If I can avoid bad weather, and do thorough pre-flight inspection, my risk factor goes down by 80%, and I can be as "safe" as being in a car.

These are my flying safety principles for life (regardless of my experience, and ratings):

1. I will fly for pleasure, and not for commute
2. I will never fly at night
3. I will never fly near clouds
4. I will never charge my passengers, nor be obliged to do anything for them
5. I will completely evaluate the condition of the airplane every time I am away from it

A 17 mile run in snow

Sunday (1/22/2012), I ran 17 miles in knuckle deep snow, after a snow storm had dumped about 3 inches of snow a day before.  To those of you, who donated for Dana Farber Cancer Research, I assure that your money is at work here.

 It was my first experience running in snow.

Saturday (the day before the run) was the preparation day.  We went to a party at our friend Mubarak, where we were served some excellent food, and I carbo-loaded to my heart's desire. Some were amused by the idea of carbo-loading, when they saw me help myself to the third serving of the fudge bar.  If they had the context, they would understand.  The context that I was preparing for a tough 17 mile run the next day, in snow, cold, and at a decent pace (for me).

The plan was to get into the run in the morning, and be done by noon, so I could watch the Patriots game with friends. But I left the Saturday night party at midnight, which left me no option but to delay the run for Sunday afternoon, so I could get some good sleep.  I gave up the cozy game gathering for a cold snowy run.

If I could run fast, I still be able to watch the later part of the game at home.  I started the run on Sunday at 2:30, and was done in time to watch the third and the fourth quarters (which were the most exciting anyways). I had enough left in me to watch the Giant's game as well. Then to bed at 11 PM like a "baby would sleep". What a day it was Sunday!

The run itself was easier than I expected.  I was expecting to hit the wall at around mile 15 (and be in pain for the rest of the run), since I was spending more energy than usual in snow and cold.  Those fudge bars the previous night helped, and I finished the last mile at a strong 7:30 minute a mile, for an overall 9 minute a mile run.  I was worried about my shoes getting wet, resulting in frost bite. The shoes did not get wet, as the snow was dry.

I could have run on the paved road to avoid snow.  But I never run on the road. I do not want to put my life in the hands of distracted drivers.

There were some great views, that I came across, and stopped to capture with my cell phone.  These views are ordinary during my regular runs, but stood out in the snowy contrast.  I marveled how much better could the Patriots game be? Most people watch sports on TV everyday, preferring to stay in their cozy warm homes. Only a few appreciate the beauty of the wild winter, and I am proud to be one of them. Thank you Marty Stouffer, my favorite wild explorer, and thank you PTV/NTM for airing his show "Wild America" when I was in high school.

Much thanks to Mahmood Sharfi, Amir Khan, Hamayon Mujeeb, Masood Shaikh, Asif Khan, Bill Bannon, and Irshad Siddiki for their contributions to the cancer research. Due to such generous friends, I have reached the half way point of the $4000 goal.

Please keep donating at rundfmc.org/2012/zubairk.

Training Update

My foot injury is almost cured with rest, icing, and change of shoes. Took a couple of months.
I did not go to a doctor as it never got so bad as to require a serious look. It was just a nuisance, rather than debilitating.
I met some nice people at Marathon Sports in Wellesley.  They looked at my foot and recommended a wide sole shoe. They said that I have a low arch, and my foot was pushing against narrow shoe walls, causing pain on the side of the foot. The pain subsided after I started using the new shoes with wide soles, and lots of cushioning. I highly recommend Marathon Sports for your running shoes.
It was not only the narrow shoe to blame. Thick wool socks were taking up available space in the shoe. I switched to thin nylon socks to give more space to my foot when in strikes the ground and expands.

A couple of weeks of Bronchitis helped get me some needed rest from running. I missed first week of training, but that was an easy week. I ran a strong 12 miler last Saturday with little foot pain.

I would like to thank my friends for contributing to the Dana Farber Cancer Research, and to my Boston Marathon goal.  Amer Husain Syed, Nadeem Shakoor, Sam Merra, Imran Iqbal, Femina Ali, Ather Khawaja, and Bill Burk contributed. There were two anonymous donations from PAGB (Muhammad Mumtaz, and Nahdia Pirzada).  Total to date is $1250.

I have not received any donation since December 14 :(
Please help!! This is a link to the donation page:
http://www.rundfmc.org/2012/zubairk

Flying over the Mansions in Newport, Rhode Island

We are lucky to be flying in mid December here in Northeast this year, without a need to shovel the plane out of snow, and without a need to fly over the runway to inspect for black ice before landing.  Its inevitable that the crappy freezing weather, and piles of snow will keep the most aviators inside, wishing for an early spring.  

Today the weather was great for flying, with density altitude at -1100 (yes minus) feet.  This means that the air is thicker than it is at sea level at room temperature, and standard pressure.  Thicker air means better plane performance.  This morning when I got to Lawrence airport, the temperature was much below 40 degrees (F).  Wife chickened out, so once again I flew with Scott.

I planned for a flight to Newport, RI, with an intention to fly a thousand feet above the famous mansions.

Plane engines need to be heated up when temperature is below 40 degrees. There is a scientific explanation for that (or at least that is what the club requires).  You drag a propane tank heater to the plane, light it up, and direct the warm air from it to the engine.  Its an excellent device to warm up the hands as well.  Took off at 1100 EDT.

Here we are close to Newport, approaching from the North, about 10 miles from the airport.

It was a short 45 minute flight from Lawrence/Lowell. We were with the Providence approach before we 

knew it.  This is the Newport bridge heading into the city.  On car, you always get stuck here in traffic. Not today!

While setting up the approach to land on runway 34, I saw this interesting building (which I thought to be a prison).  Later I looked it up on Google, and found that this is a park.  Its Fort Adams, a popular summer concert arena. 

Here is a close up shot of Fort Adams. http://www.riparks.com/fortadams.htm

I  landed at Newport, added some fuel, then took off to check out the mansions.  I let Scott fly the plane, and let him circle around Newport, while I took some shots.  We are getting close to the mansions.

Here is a view of the Newport coast line with a few mansions, but Scott is going to get closer.  A view at 1500 feet.

Getting closer.

A much closer view.  I remember this mansion from when I visited it last year.

Another view.

Third view.

Just before heading back out to Lawrence, I saw this mansion that my friend Salman got us into, through his connections :)  And this is how it looks on the ground: