Having now filed IFR out of Linden several times in both VFR and IFR conditions, it is pretty much every time. Although a climb to 6000 does add 10 minutes, as Matt mentioned, it’s not a big deal to me because I would be climbing there at some point in the flight anyway.Rich wrote:Makes sense. At least it's not for every departure. It looks like the GPS-A is no fun, either, especially coming in from the North. Or is that an approach they never (or rarely) let you use? I've encountered those situations.
Rich, the GPS-A LDJ is an approach I have never flown. The controllers don’t want you to do it and it’s “NA at night”. They’ll vector you to within 5-15 NM KLDJ and then usually strongly hint to cancel IFR. Yeah you can fly the approach in a pinch, but why bother when there are so many more fun practices around NY?
I haven’t yet tried taking the Hudson SFRA to get north past LaGuardia for clearence (assuming VFR is posssible). The north NYC approach controller is still quite busy and might not be able to handle a clearence either. When I do the math, it’s wash between flying higher-but-faster, or low-and-slow (with VFR river traffic).