November 16, 2003

Flight schedules

Most people are interested in flight schedules because they help them get from point A to point B. Those of us who live in the airport's flight path learn flight schedules because the sound becomes a part of our daily rhythm. Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (which seems to have a corner in Dryden) conveniently provides flight schedule cards at the ticket counters, and the information is also available online.

The airport has two primary flight paths, one for each direction of the single runway. They direct planes to land from over Dryden or from over Cayuga Lake depending on wind conditions, a pilot friend of mine tells me. At night, we always seem to get the 11pm flights. Must be something about prevailing winds.

We're too close to the planes going by for much plane watching - they're here for a minute of noise, half a minute of viewing. Further away in Dryden, especially if you're up on the hills, you might be able to watch the planes coming and going and see how well they match the schedule.

Hmmm... it doesn't look like we have jet service at the moment. There used to be a daily jet which went to and from Pittsburgh via Elmira, and then they had regional jets. Maybe now that US Airways is owned by the Retirement Systems of Alabama, they have less patience for us. It's not Mohawk Airlines any more, focused on upstate New York.

Posted by simon at November 16, 2003 8:25 AM in
Note on photos