Experimental Pilot Visits Newark, La Guardia And JFK In One Flight

Citizens aren’t the only ones isolated these days and a New Jersey pilot took advantage of the empty skies in what is normally the world’s busiest airspace with a video tour of the big three New York airports in his RV-8 last week. “I flew my RV-8 from Caldwell, NJ to EWR>LGA>JFK the other day and I believe I may be the first to have done that in an homebuilt/experimental,” Jon Weiswasser told AVweb in a message. He did “low passes” (really low) at Newark, La Guardia and JFK to the amusement of controllers who have seen their workload shrink drastically over the last few weeks.

Weiswasser, the leader of an Eagles tribute band called Eaglemania, normally produces videos going through the planning and execution of missions to band gigs in his Meridian demonstrating the practical use of private aviation. For this flight, he pulled out his tricked out RV-8. He said his knowledge of the airspace, especially the Hudson VFR Corridor, and his careful planning helped a lot but it all came down to the controllers. The first one in Newark approved the runway buzzing with a chuckle before handing him off to La Guardia. There, the controller was obliging but as Weiswasser climbed out he delivered the bad news that JFK couldn’t accommodate him. Weiswasser pressed on and asked for himself. He was cleared for the low (really low) and over with a couple of 777s in the mix.