Deep Dive Into New York City Air Traffic Control Using Flightradar24

June 13,2019

Introduction

Who doesn’t look up from time to time and wonder where an airplane is coming from, where it’s going, or how high it’s  cruising?  It turns out that there’s a free program named flightradar24 that provides live, incredibly detailed flight radar tracking data for flights anywhere in the world.   With just a few clicks you can zoom in on your neighborhood and magically watch aircraft fly across your computer screen while simultaneously watching – for real – out your living room window. Click on the plane and you’ll discover its origin, destination, airline, flight number, aircraft model, altitude, speed, and heading – along with a trail showing its entire flight path from where it’s been, and where it’s going. Click on the 3D option and your perspective will shift from looking down from the heavens,  to a birds-eye view from inside the cockpit or from behind the tail.   You can also listen to air traffic controllers and pilots communicate in real time (for free) using another website tool named liveatc.net. When you put these two capabilities together – tracking the planes and listening to the controllers and pilots – it puts you right in the middle of this exciting, demanding,  fast-paced world.

I discovered all this six months ago, and found it mesmerizing. I also happen to live just 35 miles east of the second-busiest airspace in the world – New York City. And because New York City is home to three major airports – John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, and LaGuardia – there’s a lot going on in my back yard. And so it became my passion to learn the approach and departure patterns for these three airports by observing flights using flightradar24.

In this post I share what I’ve learned:

• • Detailed runway layouts and descriptions for JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports
  • Approach and departure patterns for all three airports
  • Introduction to flightradar24 for tracking planes, and liveatc.net for listening to controllers
  • A video containing radar tracks of approaches to JFK, Newark and LaGuardia played at 24 times normal speed, along with sample air traffic controller / pilot communications

• Whether you’re just curious about what’s “up” there, or whether you’re a flightradar24 enthusiast looking for detailed information on New York City’s airspace, I hope you find this post helpful and interesting. Caution: entry into this world can be addictive!

Above Left: Airliner low over Cold Spring Harbor on the north shore of Long Island,  heading west and banking left to line up for final approach to JFK Runway 22 Left. Above Center: Similar aircraft, same spot and heading, being tracked on flightradar24 –  it’s Delta Flight 1512, Las Vegas To JFK, Boeing 755, 2,000 ft, 164 kts, heading 268 degrees.  Above Right: Delta 1512, same spot, in flightradar 3D view, looking north-west over Oyster Bay. Pretty cool!

DISCLAIMER: All information and diagrams in this post were compiled by / generated by  the author and are NOT OFFICIAL sources of information. I say this in part because pilots are visiting this page and providing  positive feedback.  I take this as a compliment, but just to be clear!

New York City Airports: JFK, LaGuardia, Newark 

The New York City airspace is home to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK),  Newark Liberty International Airport,  and LaGuardia Airport. All three are located within a 12 mile radius of Manhattan. The New York City airspace also encompasses an additional half-dozen  smaller regional airports that my post and charts do not address, although of course the local controllers have no such luxury.

The New York City airspace is the second-busiest airspace in the world  – second only to London – moving 138 million passengers and 1.3 million flights per year,  which is 3,500 flights per average day. Given the combination of this volume and how tightly these three major airports are packed together, New York City is arguably  THE most complex airspace in the world.

Above: The greater New York City region, showing the relative locations of JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports. To understand how it all works, you need to understand how each airport’s runways are aligned; how they are named; and how they are configured.

Above: A six second loop played at 120x speed of all air traffic over New York City and surrounding airspace on 7/8/21, courtesy of flightradar24.

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)

JFK is located 12 miles south-east of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the largest airport gateway between North America and the rest of the world, and is the 22nd busiest airport overall in the world (Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson in the United States is number one).

JFK’s runway configuration is show below:

JFK  has two sets of parallel runways. One set runs approximately along the headings of 40 degrees and 220 degrees – depending on which way you are pointing – and the other runs approximately  130 degrees / 310 degrees.

By convention, there is a unique identifier for each runway for each direction you are heading. If you were approaching JFK from the south-west  on  a heading of approximately 40 degrees and lining up with the runway on your right,   in air traffic control lingo you’d be landing on runway “4 Right.” Runway identifiers use the first two digits of the runway heading, rounded to the nearest 10 degrees,  and  this particular runway’s magnetic heading is 44 degrees, which is the heading that pilots would  steer when lining up with this runway. (The “44” is rounded to “40” and then truncated to “4.”)

Similarly, if you were taking off on this runway and heading in the same direction (44 degrees), you’d  be taking off on runway 4 Right. If you were approaching this runway from the opposite direction, you’d be landing on runway 22 Left, heading approximately 220 degrees  (actually 224 magnetic) and landing on the left runway from your perspective.

When you need to refer to a runway as just a hunk of pavement regardless of which way you are heading, the convention is to name the runway using both directions, hence the pavement in the example above would be runway “4 Right / 22 Left.”

Active runway  landing and takeoff configurations are selected so that, to the greatest extent possible, aircraft take off and land heading into the wind. The increased lift over their wings helps them take off and land at  slower ground speeds.  If the prevailing winds were from the south-west at JFK, then planes would be primarily taking off  on 22 Right and landing on 22 Left, essentially facing into the wind in both cases.  At JFK, the runway closer to the terminals is 22 Right (technically, “4 Left / 22 Right), and that is the runway primarily used – in either direction – for takeoffs, as it has extra taxiways  allocated for long lines for planes waiting to take off.

The most commonly used configuration at JFK appears to be departures on 22 Right and arrivals on 22 Left. This also appears to be the preferred configuration when winds are light to none.  Departures on 4 Left and arrivals on 4 Right also see a lot of action.  In either of these two configurations, sometimes airliners will use both parallel runways for landings when convenient.

When planes  are landing or taking off on 31 Left, the start of the runway is actually north-west of the physical end of the runway, so that it doesn’t interfere with the crossing 4 Left / 22 Right runway. Controllers  refer to 31 Left as “31 Left Shortened” to highlight that the start / touchdown point is not the physical “end” of the runway.

JFK’s  near-in approaches are shown above. Depending on where aircraft are coming from, they will merge into these approach routes somewhere along the paths shown.

Note that the approach patterns for 13 and 4 are aligned in a clockwise rotation off the southern shore of Long Island, while the approach patterns for 31 and 22 form in a counter-clockwise rotation. This  affects the flight paths that airliners will take as they join the New York City airspace.  Specifically, for aircraft arriving from the north-west, when 22 and 31 are being used for arrivals, they will fly south over Manhattan  (west of JFK) and will then turn east to merge into the counter-clockwise approaches for these runways; but if runways 4 or 13 are being used for arrivals,  aircraft arriving from the north-west will fly past the airport and  then turn south over Long Island  (east of JFK), and will then turn west to join the clockwise approach patterns for these runways.

In general, approach routes for JFK stay as far away as possible from the approach and departure routes for Newark and LaGuardia. In particular, the super-tight  right turn required for approaches to 13 L and  13 R is considered one of the tightest turns required for large aircraft in the United States. But this is necessary to keep aircraft away from the approach routes to LaGuardia.

Runways at major airports have Instrumented Landing Systems (ILS) that transmit electronic beams  (“localizers”) that guide aircraft through their final glide path. The localizers at JFK are shown above. Each localizer has a specific frequency that pilots tune into, and also have named “fixes” along their path that controllers can refer to. The final fix  for each localizer is called the Final Approach Fix (FAF), and is typically about six miles out and two thousand feet in altitude.   This is where pilots start their final descent glide slope.  Note that JFK runway 13 Right does not have a localizer. Instead, pilots rely on navigational beacons at ASALT and DMYHL to support their approach, as shown in the diagram above.

Newark Liberty International Airport

Newark Liberty International Airport is located 8 miles south-west of Manhattan. Its two primary runways are parallel and aligned  with one of  the parallel runway pairs at JFK: 4 Left, 4 Right, 22 Left, 22 Right. Newark also has a shorter,  less-used runway aligned in a mostly east/west configuration: 11 and 29.   The runway closer to the terminal (4 Left / 22 Right) is primarily used for departures, and the adjacent runway (4 Right / 22 Left) is primarily used for arrivals. As with JFK, sometimes airliners will land in parallel on both runways.  The 3-letter identifier for Newark Liberty is “EWR”.

Newark’s near-in approach routes for  22 Left / Right and 4  Left / Right are shown above. Note that their rotations are opposite those at JFK.

LaGuardia Airport

Laguardia airport is located 6 miles north-east of Manhattan. Its runways are oriented in the same direction as JFK’s, but with  only one runway in each direction instead of two. The runways cross, and are simply designated 4, 13, 22 and 31. LaGuardia’s runways are extremely short, and pilots note that landing at LaGuardia is like landing on an aircraft carrier.  Larger airliners – referred to as “heavies” or “supers” in controller lingo – such as Boeing 747s and Airbus 380s, respectively, don’t land at LaGuardia. The three letter identifier for LaGuardia is “LGA”.

At peak load times, when winds are light to moderate,  LaGuardia is typically configured to have planes  land and take off on separate, criss-crossing  runways, instead of on the same runway. This allows controllers to maximize the number of arriving and departing aircraft within a given period of time.

Laguardia’s near-in approaches are shown above. Because LaGuardia is sandwiched  between Newark and JFK, it’s approach paths are squeezed and complex.

As the upper-left and lower-left panels indicate, planes landing on runway 22 mostly approach the airport from the south, fly past the airport, and then make a sharp 180 degree turn to line up with the runway. If planes are taking off on runway 13 ( upper-left, heading south-east),  the planes on approach to 22  will pass the airport on the opposite (west) side before looping back clockwise for runway 22. If planes are taking off on runway 31 (lower-left, heading north-west), the planes on approach will pass the airport on the east side before looping back counter-clockwise for runway 22. Runway 22 appears to be the most frequently used runway at LaGuardia for arrivals.

Similarly, there are two approach paths for runway 31. The simpler, shorter route (center top) has planes approach the airport from the south-west and then bank left to line up with the runway. But when traffic is heavy, the approach route is stretched out (center bottom) by having the planes fly past the airport heading north-east, then make a figure-eight style turn by banking right and looping around until they line up with the runway.  Because this approach  doubles back and crosses over itself,  the planes on final approach are at a lower altitude than the planes still heading north-east.

Runway 4’s approach pattern,  center-bottom,  is simply straight in from the south.

Runway 13 appears to be rarely used for landing, but its approach route is shown in the panel lower-right.

New York City Air Space – The Big Picture

The flightradar24 screen capture above shows all international and domestic flights originating from AND heading to JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia airports at 3:25 PM local time on a routine Monday, 25 March 2019.

Zooming in closer, the screen capture above shows “just” inbound traffic to JFK, Newark and LaGuardia on that routine Monday afternoon. In each of the circled areas – Cleveland to the west, Washington to the south, Albany to the north, and Boston to the north-east – air traffic controllers for these regional “Centers” handle aircraft just passing through their airspace at high altitude for distant destinations.

But for aircraft nearing their destinations, each of these Center controllers merge flights from different directions into corridors specific for each destination airport. For example, the Cleveland Center controllers  above are receiving flights from the south-west, west, north-west, and north, each of which may contain flights heading to JFK, Newark and LaGuardia. By the time the flights leave the Cleveland Center airspace, all  JFK-bound flights will be in one route;   Newark-bound flights in another; and  LaGuardia flights in a third. Specifically, the JFK route is on top; Newark under that; and LaGuardia under that.

Zooming in even more tightly over the New York City airspace, individual flight paths for approach AND  departure are clearly visible.

The diagram above, when broken down, looks like this:

Above: Planes approaching the New York City airspace have already been organized into flight paths specific for each destination airport.   JFK approach routes are shown in red, LaGuardia in green, and Newark in purple. Blue flight paths are departure routes from the New York City airspace, regardless of airport origin.

New York Approach – Getting Closer

When aircraft reach the greater New York City airspace, they will already be under the control of New York Center controllers, and they will already be  slotted into airport-specific flight paths.  Eventually, New York Center controllers will hand flights off to the approach controller(s) for each individual airport.

The main task for the airport-specific approach controllers is to receive traffic arriving from multiple directions and merge them into a single, well-spaced  flight path  for the specific runway(s) currently in use at that airport. As the flights get closer and closer to the airport, the controllers will gradually reduce both altitude and speed while maintaining spacing as they guide the pilots through the pattern.

Note that the initial legs of these approach patterns are the same regardless of which runways are in use. But as flights get closer to the airport, the flight paths become runway-specific. When the aircraft are lined up on final approach for the runway, about eight miles out, they are handed off to the airport’s Tower controller for final clearance to land.

The somewhat-simplified diagrams  above show runway-specific approach patterns into JFK 22 (Red), LaGuardia 22  counter-clockwise (Green), and  Newark  22 (Purple).

Above: This diagram  merges the individual approach diagrams for JFK 22 (red),  LaGuardia 22 counter-clockwise (green), and Newark 22 (purple) into one composite view, illustrating the complex  interplay between  the patterns.

In a few places, the approach patterns must cross. This is handled by having the flight paths cross at different altitudes. For example, the east-bound LaGuardia approach crosses the north-bound Newark  approach at 12,000 feet, with the Newark pattern well below at 7,000 feet. Likewise, the south-east bound JFK approach crosses directly over Manhattan at approximately 16,000 feet, staying well clear of all arrivals and departures, and then descends sharply once reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

In the diagram above, all three airports are landing aircraft on the same heading of approximately 220 degrees. In moderate-to-heavy wind conditions, all three airports will typically be configured to receive aircraft in the same direction to the greatest extent possible. In lighter wind conditions, however, there is a greater variety of configurations, and the total number of permutations across all three airports is significant.

The following diagrams illustrate other integrated approach configurations for JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.

Above: JFK 31 (red), LaGuardia 22 counter-clockwise (green), Newark 22 (purple)

Above: JFK 4 (red), LaGuardia 22  clockwise (green), Newark 22 (purple)

Above: JFK 13 (red), LaGuardia 4  (green), Newark 22 (purple)

Above: JFK 31 (red), LaGuardia 31  (green), Newark 4 (purple)

To see LARGER versions of the above set of integrated approach diagrams, click HERE.

Dynamic approach views

Above: A 6 second loop of aircraft from the west, south and east merging into final approach to JFK Runway 22L on 7/8/21, viewed at 64x speed (all other aircraft have been filtered out of this view).

Above: A 6 second loop of aircraft on approach to JFK 22L, Newark 22L, and LaGuardia 22 on 7/8/21, viewed at 64x speed (all other aircraft have been filtered out of this view).

To view extended approach videos, see the link at the end of this post!

Approach Corridors

When aircraft are approaching a major airport,  before their flight paths becomes runway-specific they fly along corridors that have names.  The approach routes to JFK are shown below, with names like ROBER to the east, CAMRN to the south, and LENDY to the north.

Deep Dive – Final  Approach to JFK Runway 22 Left

The following sections provide a detailed breakdown for final approach to JFK Runway 22 Left.

The pattern for JFK 22 Left (and Right) takes shape about fifteen miles south of the airport, over the Atlantic Ocean. Then, in a counter-clockwise rotation, the pattern sweeps up over Long Island east of the airport, turns left in the general vicinity of the north shore of Long Island, and finally lines up with 22 Left for final approach.

Above Left: Joining the pattern from the west and north-west, these aircraft, which may originate from Dallas, Los Angeles, Anchorage, Chicago, Boston, and all points in between, fly over Manhattan at about sixteen thousand feet before descending sharply once over the Atlantic.

Above Center: Joining the pattern from the south and south-east, from locations such as Miami, Washington DC and Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

Above Right: Joining the pattern from Europe and Asia.

While most landings in this pattern are on JFK 22 Left, sometimes JFK 22 Right is also used, especially during peak loads.

Above Left: The localizers are displayed for 22 Left and 22 Right, with two aircraft on the 22 Right localizer (one almost landing) and three on the 22 Left localizer. Note that even though they are on different, parallel tracks, the aircraft on both localizers are still spread out for safe spacing.

Above Right: A wide angle view of the approaches to 22 Left (purple) and 22 Right (blue). Note that the 22 Right pattern sweeps further to the north than  the 22 Left pattern.

Above: The size of the approach pattern  into JFK 22 Left and 22 Right expands or contracts based on the density of traffic: the greater the density, the larger the pattern.  During light to normal traffic loads, the pattern will look like the purple track above.  During peak loads, as shown in yellow,  the pattern will extend north-east all the way to East Northport; will curve west along the north shore of Long Island over the towns of Huntington and Cold Spring Harbor; and will then turn left for final approach over the town of Oyster Bay. In super-heavy loads, the pattern will extend even further north, into  the Long Island Sound.

A sample approach to JFK 22 Left follows:

The illustration above  tracks a JFK-bound flight from the southern approach route CAMRN  through a landing at JFK runway 22 Left. The corresponding  communications between controllers and pilot are portrayed below.

In this example, the approach controller  workload is spread out between two controllers, as is often the case during peak loads at JFK.  The first controller (large green circle) is responsible for merging all JFK inbound flights from the approach routes CAMRN to the south, ROBER to the east and LENDY to the north, into a single, properly spaced flight path.  (Spacing between airliners is typically about four miles, which means they will eventually land 80 to 90 seconds apart.) The approach controller will then hand off each flight to the JFK “Final” Approach Controller (smaller green circle) as they near Long Island’s south shore barrier beaches.

The Final Approach controller will  direct each aircraft through the necessary maneuvers as he slows them down, reduces their altitude, and lines them up  with the runway before handing off to the JFK Tower Controller (red oval).

The Tower controller will then clear the aircraft to land, and will issue taxi instructions once on the ground until they are clear of all active runways.

Scenario  Dialogue:

A: American flight 320 is approaching JFK from the south along the CAMRN4 corridor, and has just been told by the New York Center controller to contact the JFK Approach controller.

Pilot: “New York Approach, American three-two-zero with you out of thirteen-thousand for eleven-thousand speed three hundred at CAMRN with Victor.” (The pilot identifies his flight, announces his current altitude (13,000 ft) and the altitude he is currently heading towards (11,000), his location (CAMRN), his speed (300 kts), and a letter code that identifies the latest weather information he has last accessed – in this case “V” for “Victor”. Weather is updated hourly, and each new weather package has a new letter identifier. In this case, the next weather update will be “Whiskey.”)

Approach: “American three-two-zero, expect ILS two-two left approach, altimeter three-zero-point-one-five, head zero-four-zero descend and maintain seven-thousand.” (The controller is advising the pilot which runway is in use (22 Left), giving him local barometric pressure, giving him a new heading (040 degrees) and advising him to descend to and maintain an altitude of 7,000 feet.)

Pilot: “Expect two-two left, head zero-four-zero down to seven-thousand, American three-two-zero.” (Pilot repeats instructions.)

B: Approach: “American three-two-zero, turn left heading zero-two-zero down to four-thousand speed two-niner-zero.” (New heading, altitude, speed … pilot acknowledges.)

C. Approach:   “American three-two-zero, contact final one-three-two point four.” (The controller is telling the pilot to switch to the Final Approach controller frequency on 132.4 … pilot acknowledges.)

(Pilot switches to JFK Final Approach frequency 132.4)

Pilot: “Approach, American three-two-zero with you at four-thousand.” (The pilot just joined the final approach frequency and is announcing his altitude.)

Final Approach:  “American three-two-zero, turn left heading zero-one-zero descend and maintain two-five speed two-two-five.” (Down to altitude 2,500 ft, reduce speed to 225 kts  … pilot acknowledges.)

D / E : More course  / altitude / speed  adjustments as the controller guides the plane through the pattern and reduces altitude and speed to 2,000 ft and 200 kts.

F: Final Approach: “American three-two-zero, turn left heading two-five-zero, five miles from ZALPO, maintain two thousand until establish the localizer, clear to ILS two-two left approach.” (Controller gives pilot new heading, advises  he is five miles from the localizer’s  final approach fix  position named ZALPO (H), maintain altitude of 2,000 until lined up with the localizer … Pilot acknowledges.)

G: Pilot intercepts 22 L localizer and lines up for a 22 Left approach.

Final Approach: “American three-two-zero, maintain  speed one-niner-zero through ZALPO, contact tower one-one-niner point one.” (The controller is telling the pilot to maintain speed of 190 knots until reaching positional fix ZALPO and to change to the Tower frequency 119.1 … Pilot acknowledges transmission.)

(Pilot switches to JFK Tower frequency 119.1)

Pilot: “Kennedy tower, American three-two-zero  two-two left.” (Pilot is announcing his presence on the tower frequency for a 22 left approach.)

Tower: “American three-two-zero, Kennedy Tower,  following Airbus three-twenty,  winds two-six-zero at one-five gusts two-five clear to land runway two-two left.” (Pilot acknowledges.) The tower is telling the pilot that he is following an Airbus 320 (re: turbulence),  winds are blowing in from 260 degrees at fifteen knots gusting to twenty-five, clear for landing. Note that planes are routinely “cleared for landing” even as other planes in front of them are still on approach, and even as planes on the ground are also getting ready to take off on the same runway.

H: Pilot passes through positional fix ZALPO at 2,000 feet 190 knots and  begins his final descent onto runway 22 Left. Pilot lands at 130 kts.

After the pilot lands the tower controller will direct the plane off the runway and will eventually hand off to a ground controller – see Ground Operations section.

Holding Patterns

Aircraft on approach to airports are sometimes placed in holding patterns. The holding patterns may be established within ten or twenty miles from the airport, or hundreds of miles away. Holding patterns may be required for a variety of reasons, including:

• • The number of planes heading towards an airport  exceeds the  number of planes that can be safely sequenced into the final approach pattern.
  • Adverse weather conditions, including heavy rain, snow, sleet, very heavy winds, wind shear, and fog may shut down landing operations.
  • A mishap on a runway may leave a runway non-operational.
  • A change in the landing / takeoff pattern at the airport may lead to temporary holding patterns as the controllers re-route  planes into a new pattern.

Some holding patterns are designated on air traffic control maps so that controllers can refer to them by name.  These patterns are often  elliptical in shape, and may have many planes sharing the same pattern. Other times holding patterns are more ad-hoc  and may have a more haphazard appearance.

When planes are held in holding patterns for too long, depending on their fuel reserves, they may eventually have to divert to an alternate airport. Planes holding south of New York City often divert to Philadelphia, and planes holding north or close to New York City often divert to Boston.

The five holding pattern tracks shown above are actual flight tracks, each for a single plane, captured using flightradar24. The panels in the upper left and lower right, both taken east of JFK over Long Island, show that the planes eventually diverted (to Boston). In the upper right and lower left panels,  six and three planes, respectively, are sharing the same holding pattern.  In the lower-middle display, the plane made a few loops to the right, then a few to the left, before continuing to JFK.

Aborted Approaches, Missed Approaches, and Emergency Approaches

Above Left: If an aircraft aborts its landing approach while on final, either due to its own problems or due to a command from the controller for whatever reason, in coordination with the controller it may break out of the final approach vector and rejoin the approach pattern again. In the diagram above left, while on final approach to JFK runway 22 Left, the aircraft did precisely this.

Above Middle: Other times, if an aircraft needs to abort its approach, the controller may tell the aircraft to “fly the runway heading,” meaning to continue on and fly directly over the runway, and then loop around to rejoin the pattern. This would be considered a “go-around.”  This often happens when pilots receive a wind shear indication from their cockpit at the last minute.  Similarly, if an aircraft attempts to land but aborts due to an inability to line up safely, wind gusts,  pilot error or whatever, the pilot will gun the engines to rejoin the approach pattern for another attempt. This would be considered a “missed approach.” The middle panel above shows  a go-around for a missed  approach to LaGuardia runway22.

Above Right: If a pilot declares an “emergency,” the  aircraft will receive immediate priority handling for whatever it needs, whether this means diverting other aircraft or opening up another runway. In the panel above right the highlighted aircraft declared an emergency and was given priority handling to cut in front of other aircraft, giving it the shortest, quickest route to JFK 22 Left.

Departures

Air traffic control for departures is not as complicated as arrivals. When aircraft are approaching the New York City airspace, they are coming from all directions and must be sequenced into specific flight paths for each airport. For departures the reverse dynamic is at play: the aircraft are moving into less-constricted airspace. The environment is more forgiving.  Eventually, departing aircraft from all New York City airports merge  into flight paths  corresponding to their general destinations, regardless of which airport they came from.

Approach flight paths near airports are fairly low, around 4,000 feet, until aircraft begin their final descent.  One of the main ways that departing aircraft stay clear of approaching aircraft is that they usually ascend very quickly after takeoff, so that when they cross  approach flight paths they are already well above them. This is especially true at a congested air space like New York City.

The diagram below captures the general flow of departing aircraft from JFK  runway 31, Newark 4 and LaGuardia 4 as observed using Flightradar24.

Of course, it gets more interesting when arriving flights are also shown:

The above diagram illustrates flights on approach to JFK 22 Left (red) and departing from JFK 22 Right (blue). In general the departing flights ascend quickly to get above flights on approach, but the departing flights heading south-west pass UNDER flights on approach from the north-west, as this approach path is extremely high over Manhattan (16,000 feet) and these flights have not yet had enough time to descend to 4,000 ft.

As with approach paths, the flight paths for departing aircraft, once they get out of  runway-specific flight patterns, have names.  The departure flight paths for JFK are shown below:

Detailed Approach / Departure Charts Integrating JFK, Newark and LaGuardia

When I started using Flightradar24, I began to chart  flight paths to and from JFK, Newark and LaGuardi on a single map for a single viewing session. Because the flight patterns vary for each runway configuration at each airport, the combinations across all three airports are extensive. That said,  I still – somewhat obsessively –  managed to capture the basic patterns at each airport using five maps.  One of these maps is shown below. Approach flight paths are shown in black, and departure flight paths are red.   Altitudes are shown in units of thousands of feet (4K means 4,000 feet). While of course “not official” and subject to my own limitations, these charts nevertheless capture the overall interplay between JFK, Newark and LaGuardia in a way that I haven’t seen before. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I hope you find them interesting. (The whole inspiration for this post began with the notion of just sharing these diagrams. Then I got carried away.)

Above:

JFK: 31 Left Approach (black), 31 Right Departure (red)
LGA: 31 Approach (black), 4 Departure (red)
Newark: 4 Right Approach (black), 4 Left Departure (red)

Above Right:

A tight-in zoom of a small section of the detailed chart above, showing one of the more interesting approach patterns into LaGuardia runway 31 when traffic is heavy. Most aircraft approach the airport (lower left, in black) on a north-east heading at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, turn right and fly past the airport on an easterly heading a little south of the airport, then make a half-figure-eight loop to the right as they descend and loop around until they fly under the tail of their own approach as they line up for final. This pattern stretches out the approach to allow more aircraft to fit into the pattern. It also allows aircraft to join the pattern from the north by entering the loop in its southward segment. The panel above left illustrates this pattern with a flightradar24 screen capture.

The diagram also shows that sometimes aircraft from the north-east (from Boston, etc)  join the pattern by flying westward directly over LaGuardia at about 4,000 feet, turn south parallel to the northbound approach, and then make a sharp left turn to join the  pattern. In the example above, there is an immediate opening for the flight to cut in.

If there is no immediate opening to cut in, these flights from the north will continue to fly south parallel to and west of the northbound approach flights until an opening occurs, and then will execute a very tight 180 degree turn to the left to cut into the pattern.  This technique of flying parallel to and in the opposite direction of an approach path, and then cutting in when an opening occurs, is a common technique I’ve observed in other approach patterns for airports in other cities.  In the New York City airspace, however, I’ve only seen this employed on approaches from the north to LaGuardia 31 and LaGuardia 4.

Additional Approach/ Departure Plates:

Click Image Above or HERE to view  ** FIVE **  Detailed
Approach / Departure Plates in High Resolution – or to download them

Ground Operations

After a plane lands, the Tower controller will instruct the pilot where to go using a lexicon of letters that designate taxiways. On the airfield, the pilots will see signs that say “J” for example, but verbally the controllers and pilots will refer to the “J” taxiway as “Juliet.” The full alphabet is as follows:

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Pappa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Xray, Yankee, Zulu.

Some taxiways are a concatenation of two letters, e.g. “FA”  for “Foxtrot Alpha.”

Using Flightradar24 you can zoom in so tightly on an airfield that you can monitor the movements of  planes on runways and taxiways as you listen to  tower controllers via liveact.net. To understand what the controllers are telling the pilots, you need to know the taxiway map for that airport. Below is an official (downloadable) schematic map for JFK:

If you’re running flightradar24 with satellite imagery as the background map option – as I typically do – it’s helpful to see the taxiways labeled on satellite imagery rather than on a schematic diagram. I’ve created the following map for JFK below.

Click HERE to see the map in full page mode. Or, download it and then zoom. As with all information in this post, this diagram was generated by the author and is ** NOT AN OFFICIAL DIAGRAM **.

Note that two taxiways are aligned in concentric rings around JFK’s terminals. The inner taxiway, Alpha, carries traffic in a clockwise rotation, and the outer taxiway, Bravo, carries traffic in a counter-clockwise rotation.

At JFK,  tower controllers handle all aircraft on final approach and stay with them until they are clear of all active runways before handing them off to Ground controllers. This means that all taxiways between runways 4 Left / 22 Right and 4 Right / 22 Left are under tower control when those runways are active.

Tower controllers at JFK also handle all aircraft before they roll onto an active runway for take-off; they issue final  take-off clearance to departing aircraft; and then rather quickly hand them off to Departure Controllers.

After a plane lands on  JFK runway 22 Left, the taxiway instructions the Tower controller issues to the  pilot might sound like this:

Tower: “American three-two-zero,  exit Juliet, Zulu, Golf, hold short runway twenty-two right.”  Translated: exit the runway  turning (right) onto taxiway “J” (Juliet), turn (right) onto taxiway “Z” (Zulu), turn (left) onto taxiway “G” (Golf), come to a full stop before reaching runway 22 Right (so as  not to interfere with planes taking off on 22 Right).

Then, after departing planes are clear  of runway 22 Right, the Tower Controller will tell the pilot to proceed:

Tower: “American three-two-zero, cross runway twenty-two right no delay, left Alpha contact ground one-two-one point niner.” Translated: cross runway 22 Right without delay, proceed straight ahead to taxiway “A” (Alpha), make a left  onto taxiway Alpha, and contact the ground controller on frequency 121.9.

The taxiway route in the dialogue above is  illustrated above. The purple route shows landing on runway 22 Left, right turn onto Juliet, right turn onto Zulu, left turn onto Golf, hold short runway 22 Right (at the blue bar). The green route shows crossing runway 22 Right, proceeding to taxiway Alpha and making a left onto Alpha.

When planes leave their gates and head toward their takeoff runways, they are guided by ground controllers and then handed off to tower controllers. They will “hold short” of the takeoff runway until they are directed to “line up and wait,” which is a command to taxi onto the takeoff runway, line up, and wait for clearance to take off. “Clear for takeoff” is the command to begin rolling down the runway.

JFK Airport:

1 – Aircraft on final approach JFK Runway 22 Left
2 – Aircraft “lined up and waiting” for takeoff – Runway 22 Right
3 – Aircraft taxing on ramp Bravo
4 – Aircraft taxing on ramp Alpha
5 – Aircraft on taxiway Hotel, holding short of runway 22 Right  after having landed on runway 22 Left
6 -Aircraft on taxiway Juliet, holding short of runway 22 Right  after having landed on runway 22 Left

Tracking Helicopter Operations – Police, Sea Search, & Ambulance

When viewing a flightradar24 map, helicopters are distinctly recognizable from other aircraft because their icons depict spinning blades. Even at incredibly zoomed-out perspectives such as the entire  north-east sector of the United States,  individual helicopters are still distinctly noticeable. And as with all aircraft displayed on flightradar24 maps, when you click on a helicopter you’ll see a track of its entire flight history. For helicopter operations such as sea-based search, police criminal search operations and emergency air ambulance runs, the tracks reveal powerful stories, which can be viewed both in real-time, and in fast-forward playback mode.

Helicopter Police Search: When the cops are looking for bad guys, their flight paths render crazy visuals. One sure-fire way to find these flights in real-time is to look in urban areas such as Baltimore in the wee hours of the morning on a Friday or Saturday night. If you see a helicopter, click it to reveal whether it’s associated with a police force or hospital or whatever and to display  its flight path. Or, use flightradar24’s playback feature at fast-forward speeds to visit these areas after the fact, in which case you’ll see the aircraft’s entire flight path both before and after the “current” time.

Above: Police helicopter search over Baltimore.

Helicopter Air Sea Search: flightradar24 can be used to track helicopter (and airplane) sea rescue searches in both real-time and in playback mode. As the two search diagrams below illustrate, these rescue operations start with very concentrated search patterns and gradually expand to cover greater regions.

Above Left: A first responder  helicopter searches for a man that fell overboard in Huntington Bay along the north shore of Long Island. Above Right: The track of a second helicopter that arrived on the scene after the first helicopter departed, revealing a much broader search pattern.

Above Left To Right: Widening search tracks along the south shore of Long Island for three successive helicopters that arrived on the scene looking for a missing boater.

Air Ambulance Helicopter Runs

Above: A helicopter air ambulance track, likely transporting a motor vehicle accident victim to a hospital. Unfortunately, these tracks appear most frequently  in the wee hours of Friday and Saturday night.

Using Flightradar24

The program that I used to explore air traffic control patterns over New York City is called flightradar24. I have no affiliation, other than as a very satisfied customer of the entry-level paid subscription plan.  All of the screen captures in this post are from flightradar24.

Flightradar24 collects real-time flight information for thousands of flights throughout the world, including flight number, aircraft model, airport origin, airport destination, altitude, heading, speed, and rate of ascent / descent. The detailed flight path of each flight is also available, along with a history of all flights that stretches back days, depending on your specific plan.

Flightradar24 essentially presents two view options.

The first view option is like a virtual radar that shows an icon for each aircraft superimposed over a map. The map can be shown in multiple formats, including satellite imagery that enhances as you zoom in tighter. The aircraft icons are both scaled in size and shape to match the specific aircraft model, right down to engine positions, and are oriented in the current heading of the aircraft. The maps update about once a second, although performance will depend on the power of your computer and the bandwidth of your internet connection. When on the ground, if you zoom in tight enough, you will see aircraft icons positioned and moving along  taxiways at airports, right up to their gate.

The second flightradar24 view mode is called 3D.  When you select a specific aircraft (by clicking on it) and then switch into three dimensional view mode, you viewpoint will move to behind a simulated 3D avitar of the model aircraft you have selected – right down to the paint job for the specific airline – and the background will present as daylight pre-recorded satellite imagery rendered to match your viewing perspective.  As the plane moves along, turns, descends and ascends, the background imagery will refresh in real time. By moving the cursor you can swing your perspective around the aircraft 360 degrees in both the horizontal and vertical plane, meaning you can watch from off the left wing, for example, or you can look straight down from above.  As you get closer to the airport, you will see the runways and terminals and, if you choose, you will see other aircraft on the ground (and in the air). Once on the ground, you will be able to follow “your”  aircraft along the taxiways. Another 3D option is to view the action from a virtual cockpit.

The flightradar24 user interface is clean, intuitive, and powerful, and allows you to customize a wide variety of features.  Four of the most useful features – all applicable in radar view – are as follows:

• • Aircraft Labeling: You can select what information, if any, about each aircraft you want displayed next to the aircraft. (How much information can be displayed varies by subscription plan, see below.) You basically have four lines to work with, and useful information to display includes aircraft handle (what air traffic controllers use to talk to and identify a specific aircraft), altitude, speed, ascent / descent rate, heading, airport origin / airport destination, and aircraft model. I typically display aircraft handle on line 1, altitude on line 2, and speed on line 3 (and leave line 4 blank to reduce clutter). As you zoom out further, flightradar24 will automatically reduce or fully eliminate how much information is displayed.
  • Aircraft Track / Detail: If you click on an aircraft, you will see the track for that aircraft – including diversions, holding patterns, etc.- all the way back to when it left its gate at its airport of origin, and all the way to its destination gate (if it has already gotten there).  And, a pop-up window will appear to the left that shows a picture of the aircraft with the airline’s specific paint job, and detailed information about that flight including heading, speed, altitude, rate of ascent / descent, origin, and destination. All of this information will update in real time until you deselect the aircraft.
  • Aircraft Filters: Filters allow you to select which aircraft are displayed or hidden on the radar view. The number of filters available depends on the subscription plan, see below. You can set a filter for aircraft between two altitude settings, for example, or for aircraft going to JFK, or departing JFK, or for going to AND departing JFK. In the New York City airspace, I usually watch the action by setting three filters: aircraft going to JFK, aircraft going to LaGuardia, and aircraft going to Newark.
  • View Aircraft On The Ground: This is a setting within the “Visibility” tab of the Settings page. When toggled on, it will show aircraft on the airport tarmac, and when off, it will not. When watching aircraft movements on taxiways this of course must be turned on, but when viewing aircraft in flight, if this setting is on, you will see a jumble of up to dozens of aircraft icons all piled on top of the airport position, which is not very attractive.

Other flightradar24 features allow you to display the planned track for a selected aircraft all the way to it’s planned destination; to view flight history radar tracks going back days; and to view history in fast-forward mode, eg. twelve-times speed, twenty-four times speed etc. You can also dynamically set filters while playing back history, so that, for example, you could just watch flights on approach to JFK and LaGuardia at 36x speed from four days ago. At high playback speeds, the playback shows what’s going on in ways that are hard to perceive in real-time.

Above Left: A basic flightradar24 radar view, zoomed in over the greater New York City airspace, with filters set to display aircraft only on approach to JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, with no aircraft labels selected for display and no specific aircraft currently selected for amplification.

Above Right: The same airspace, with a particular aircraft selected for detailed amplification. The aircraft track is displayed (it’s on approach to JFK runway 4 R), and the aircraft model and paint rendering is displayed in the pop-up window, along with additional flight information. Also shown in the display at right,  aircraft labels have been turned on and customized to show call sign, altitude, and speed.

Above: British Airways Flight 117, a Boeing 747, on final approach to JFK runway 4R as it approaches and then flies over Breezy Point before landing, as rendered using flightradar24’s 3D view. At the time of the first picture, the aircraft was at 1775 feet altitude, 171 knots speed, and heading 30 degrees.

flightradar24 provides four subscription plans, with rates (as of April 2019) as follows:

• • Basic: This is the free version. It provides very substantial capabilities, but has the following limitations: only one filter can be set at a given time; only one line of information can be displayed as part of an aircraft’s radar label; and only a few 3D sessions can be initiated per month.
  • Silver: Allows multiple filters, multiple lines of aircraft label information, unlimited 3D views, greater aircraft history. $ 1.49 / month or $ 9.99 / yr.
  • Gold: $ 34.99 / yr, more features; see the flightradar24 website for details.
  • Business: $ 499 / yr, additional features, see flightradar24 website for details.

I am running the Silver Plan and find the value phenomenal.  This is a beautifully designed and kind of addictive program.

The only feature I have found a little “glitchy” is I believe a limitation not of the program itself but of the flight information that is provided to the program. Occasionally a flight will continue straight ahead on the radar view (or 3D view) because the program is dead-reckoning its position in absence of updated position data. This sometimes happens during flight, and so what may appear as a controller allowing two planes at the same altitude to get way too close will – hopefully – be just a lag in the data update rate for one of those aircraft. When the data comes in, the plane will smoothly jump to its correct position.  Related to this, it appears that once on the ground, aircraft data is not always provided in real-time, and so an aircraft may just continue to fly past the end of the runway before snapping back to a position on a taxiway.  This limitation is dependent on both the equipment at the specific airport, and  on the equipment on board the specific aircraft. Unfortunately this happens virtually every time at JFK for planes after they land .

Listening To Live air traffic control Radio  Using LiveATC.net

LiveATC.net is a free website that allows you to listen to air traffic controllers throughout many areas of the world.  I typically use it to listen to approach and tower controllers for JFK as I simultaneously watch aircraft on approach using flightradar24.

To view the various frequencies applicable to a given airport, type in the airport code in the upper left box. (Google it if you don’t know the code you need.). All associated frequencies will appear below, along with a few options for how to launch your audio media player. The above screen capture shows just the first few frequencies applicable  for JFK.

Some options combine frequencies, such as tower and ground. Not all frequencies are always in use. At JFK, the number of controllers sharing the workload will vary depending on the load and time of day. At peak loads, there may be multiple approach and tower controllers. At very slow times, the tower controller may be handling final approach and departure as well as landings and takeoffs.

To help gauge which frequencies are currently in use, look at the number of “listeners” for a given frequency. It sometimes takes a little trial and error to find what you’re looking for.

If you want to be able to switch immediately from an approach controller to the tower controller when an aircraft is ordered to switch over, you should have a media player ap already running for each of the two frequencies. Use the mute / unmute toggles to turn one on and the other off. (Do not use “pause” – if you do, then when you resume that ap, you’ll be resuming audio that is now “history.”)

If you’re interested in viewing and listening to aircraft movement on the ground, turn off any “approach only” or “departure only” filters, and turn on the option to view planes on the ground (Settings -> Visibility).

If you’re tracking flights on radar while listening to  controllers, you’ll want aircraft call signs displayed, but you’ll also want to know the most common airline codes so that you know who the controllers are talking to (e.g. the controller will say “Air France” but the aircraft call sign label will show “AFR”). Some of the most frequent  handles that appear over New York City include:

• • AAL – American Airlines
  • ACA – Air Canada
  • AFR – Air France
  • BAW – British Airways
  • DAL – Deta Airlines
  • DLH – Lufthansa
  • FFT – Frontier Airlines
  • JBU – Jet Blue
  • SWA – Southwest Airlines
  • UAL – United Airlines
  • UAE – Emirates Airlines

Also note that if you have a filter active for aircraft on approach to JFK, for example, and you can’t locate an aircraft that controllers are talking to, it might be because the aircraft does not have JFK as an originally-planned destination – which is what the filters look at. If an aircraft was heading to Philadelphia and was then diverted to JFK, for example,  it wouldn’t appear on your filtered radar display. Turning off all filters would “reveal” all mystery planes on the radar view. Another reason why you might not be able to see an aircraft that controllers are talking to is because that aircraft does not have the transponder equipment onboard that feeds the information that flightradar24 uses to display it.

Views From Long Island

Three altitudes:

• Left – On approach to JFK 22 Left, est. 2,000 ft,  over Cold Spring Harbor along the north shore of Long Island
• Center: On departure from JFK, est. 10,000 ft, over Northport along the north shore of Long Island
• Right:  Just passing through: est. 25,000 ft, heading north-east over Northport, in the general direction of Boston

Above: Busy Sky: High-altitude flights westbound over Cold Spring Harbor.

Above: A “heavy” heading west on approach to JFK 22 L, 2,000 ft over Huntington Village along the north shore of Long Island.

Above: Kids Don’t Try This At Home: this photo is NOT zoomed.  Est. 200 ft, seconds from touchdown on JFK Runway 22 Left,  taken by me from as close as you can get to a JFK runway on (semi?) public ground (don’t ask).

Video

Click HERE to watch an eight minute TIME-LAPSE video  that contains a 24-speed playback of radar tracks for JFK, Newark and LaGuardia from in close and afar. The video also contains air traffic controller communication with pilots  merged with the corresponding flightradar24 radar displays.

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