Brand new 31L at JFK? Or maybe not...

[flyflyfly]

Here's what Bricktop mentioned in the listener forum. I dug up the chatter about who gets to be first on the brand new 31L@JFK from the archives. Eventually none of them got the cake...

And there's a goody after the "first" release:

"Ah, we let Delta go, there's some weather out there that we just wanted to see how we get through this weather before we release s.o. else off that runway."
"Did Delta know that?"
"I didn't want to spoil his judgement... Hopefully he finds it as smooth as the runway was...."

[svoynick]

I love it....

Jet Blue:  "Are we the first?"
American: "Noooooooo....  American is!"

[fredpnt]

 

Excellent !
But as a french pilot flying in the US Airspace, I'm kindda feel bad when I hear most of my fellow Air France guys on the frequency.... 

.... Position and.... old! 

clir to take of rwy tou tou rite! 

[rekno13]

Thanks for the post! Good fun. Welcome back 31L!

[Marty Becker]

Here's an interesting photo of the new 31L.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/JetBlue-Airways/Airbus-A320-232/1736501/M/

[phil-s]

"Was that a 'negative""? "That's affirmative." Not really, but it must have been tempting. 

[rekno13]

I wonder when they took this, might have been some fun ATC chatter.

Here's an interesting photo of the new 31L.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/JetBlue-Airways/Airbus-A320-232/1736501/M/

[flyflyfly]

I wonder when they took this, might have been some fun ATC chatter.

Here's an interesting photo of the new 31L.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/JetBlue-Airways/Airbus-A320-232/1736501/M/

According to the controller it "had been used for the day shift, a little bit...". I had checked the archives for the shift before, but couldn't find anything. Maybe I just missed it. Maybe they used a different frequency since the first three to depart, as seen on the photo, obviously had some special event. Those three may have been what the controller meant by "used a little bit...". 
But I wonder - wouldn't there also be special check flights by the airport authority or FAA prior to opening a new runway officially - and allowing commercial airliners? Maybe not much you can check since only the surface was new and not the ILS etc. But anyway, in aviation there's always someone who has to check something - and someone else, of course, just to double-check... 

[glencar]

Excellent !
But as a french pilot flying in the US Airspace, I'm kindda feel bad when I hear most of my fellow Air France guys on the frequency.... 

.... Position and.... old! 

clir to take of rwy tou tou rite! 

I deal with a lot of French pilots & I love the accent. Going there in a few months to visit Normandy.

[erau2006]

[/quote]
[/quote]

According to the controller it "had been used for the day shift, a little bit...". I had checked the archives for the shift before, but couldn't find anything. Maybe I just missed it. Maybe they used a different frequency since the first three to depart, as seen on the photo, obviously had some special event. Those three may have been what the controller meant by "used a little bit...". 
But I wonder - wouldn't there also be special check flights by the airport authority or FAA prior to opening a new runway officially - and allowing commercial airliners? Maybe not much you can check since only the surface was new and not the ILS etc. But anyway, in aviation there's always someone who has to check something - and someone else, of course, just to double-check... 
[/quote]


They did use it earlier in the day shift, for the three departures (jetblue, american, and then delta, in that order) for the opening of 31L.  And trust me there was plentry of checking and double checking of everything.