HouseOfPAE

Gotta love the LGA Visual 31! VanMurph Expressway Visual to 31 at LGA - YouTube

Sliceback

757 w/winglets is worse. 737NG w/winglets is even worse - "gear is your friend".

Sliceback

Most guys fly the 'Tour of Flushing NY' instead of the Expressway Visual. Ground track is supposed to be west of the Van Wyck, barely east(like over the parking lots) of Citibank field, cross the intersection of the Van Wyck and Northern Blvd over the East River, and then align with the runway.

At the 5:00 mark the green area is where the ground track should be. The 6:15 mark shows the river off to the left where the depicted ground track is. If you're over the buildings in Flushing you're outside the depicted ground track.

Laguardia Expressway Visual Approach (LNAV/VNAV) - YouTube

Fly the depicted ground track and the guy next to you will be going "uh, can we be doing this?" It's a hoot if flown as designed(to avoid overflying the buildings in Flushing).

LaGuardia Airport Approach Charts

Sliceback

And not the Dash 7 guys doing the STOL landings to hold short of 18/36? Man, you know how to hurt a guy's feelings.

B-99 visual to 36. Tower (female) - XXX, you've got an Eastern 727 with 30 knts of overtake behind you. Can you keep it up as long as possible?
Me - "no complaints yet ma'am".
Captain - "Oh, you didn't..."

MD-80 visual to 36. Tight spacing behind a squadron mate flying for another airline. TWR puts a King Air into position "be ready for an immediate". FO and I are thinking "this will never work." "Start S turning for spacing please." Okay....

Jerry clears. King Air cleared for takeoff. Oh, we'll be going around. It's gonna happen. "King Air abort and exit ASAP." Nah, we're still going to have to go around. TWR - "can you circle to 33?" Sure. Fun stuff doing a last minute switch to 33 in front of a squadron mate.

DCA, SNA, and LGA. Best domestic fun for airline pilots.

hemaybedid

I've heard that before on this one. And "no they want you right of the expressway and the park". Me: "it shows over the expressway and the right side of the park" that makes the most sense to me as to noise and obstacles. Then "well no one does it like that". It is a blast to do when done correctly.

80ktsClamp

Agreed on the 757... however the 737NG comes down like a brick comparatively. Just get below 250 knots and throw out flaps 5 and it comes down real nice.

The A320/A319 is similar to the 757/767 where speedbrakes are needed virtually every flight.

With the draggy flaps on the 737NG, I could routinely get away without using speedbrakes. That and you didn't have to slow down very much to get stabilized since the final approach speed should be measured in mach....

Sliceback

When we first transitioned from the 727 to the S80's the old school was 'it's really slippery. You don't want to get behind the jet. 210 kts at 20 DME works well."

210@20 DME? That's enough time for a nap!

In comparison I sit on S80 j/s's and think 'oh, this might be ughly'. But the S80 has so much drag (high slat/flap extension speeds) that it's no big deal. New Boeing? You'd be behind.

JungleBus

I don't think I've ever flown the Expressway Visual nearly as wide as shown in that video. I usually keep Citi Field immediately on the left and turn final inside the mouth of the river, rolling wings level at 200-300'. When they had the cranes up last year, that's how you had to do it! Good fun, feels more like Cub flying than the usual boring 15 mile final airline stuff.

I flew in and out of LGA the morning it reopened after Sandy when 4/22 was still closed. We spent a good 25 minutes waiting to takeoff on 31 as the arrivals were coming fast and furious - was fun watching the various expressway visuals. My favorite was the DL 757 that tower asked to make a short approach so she could get us out. Pretty sure he went right over Citi Field, and rolled wings level as he came across the threshold! Nice!

At my airline, there is absolutely no way to fly the EV31 or RV19 and meet stabilized approach criteria (wings level by 1000'). For that matter, it's impossible to do a circling approach, remain within the Cat D circling radii, and be wings level by 1000'. As important as a stabilized approach is, it really irks me that flight ops would use criteria that they know has to be disregarded to do the job correctly. Or maybe they don't know, some of those guys never see the line .

Phantom Flyer

I'm somewhat surprised that it hasn't made the evening news or at least Wolfe Blitzer in "the Situation Room".

"We have a reporter on scene at National Airport where hundreds of people are unaware of the fact that they could have been killed if a missed approach had gone slightly wrong and the DC-9 had crashed into a busy terminal. Let's bring in Miles O'Brien for a full report....oh....Miles is no longer with us.
Well, there you have it folks. A near fatal airline incident is barely averted."

Who wants another brew ?

G'Day Mates

Phantom Flyer

I must have dozed off during basic flight training when they covered that.
What is the difference ?

Thanks for your time and G'Luck Mate