As some of you know, a couple of weeks ago, I tried to do a “Touch & Go” at JFK.  I figured that due to Covid-19, the skies would be pretty empty and ATC would have plenty of time on their hands.   That attempt did not work 🙁 The controller told me “Touch & Gos” were not allowed @ JFK without prior permission from the Port Authority.

So this past week, I decided, I would try to get permission.  I didn’t really know who to call.  So I started my research by looking up the JFK entry in the FAA Airport Facility Directory.   The first line of the comments stated that JFK was a “Part 93 High Density airport”, which means it had special rules.  But it didn’t state what the rules were.  It did have the phone number of the airport manager.  So I just called and asked.  He told me to talk the manager at the control tower and gave me that number.  When I spoke to the Control tower, they explained that “Touch & Gos” must be authorized by the Port Authority and gave me that number.  However, the tower told me something interesting.  While “Touch & Gos” require Port Authority permission, full stop landings (with a taxi back) does not require any special permission.  He suggested that I do that and also suggested filing a flight plan as that would guarantee a clearance.  So that would be my back up plan.  But I did want to try to get the authorization.

So I called the Port Authority.  They were helpful.  But not cooperative.  They told me that “Tough & Gos” are no longer permitted at JFK AT ALL 🙁 While I had them on the phone, I asked about landing fees.  While most US airports have no landing fee, this was JFK.  So the basic landing fee was $25.  If you land between 3PM and 11PM, there is an additional $100 surcharge.  Plus if you go to the FBO ramp, the FBO charges a ramp fee of ~ $50-100.  So I decided I would go in the morning (to avoid the $100 surcharge) and just do a full stop taxi back to avoid the FBO fees …. This would make the fee only the flat $25 🙂

You can see how it went in this video:

Overall, I am glad I did it… because it is sort of a bucket list item.  But there really are so many other scenic places to fly that are a lot easier to get to.

Cheers,
== T.J.==