[vTLWqa1l]

During a recent stay in NYC, a friend of mine from Europe, who's about to enroll at an aviation college, made his first visit to Roosevelt Island, where I took several photos of him with the Belaire towering above his left shoulder. Today, while discussing the accident with him, I encountered a web site entitled "Flying around Manhattan," where the pilot-author makes these observations:

At the north end of Roosevelt Island, the East River dead-ends onto LGA’s air space. I always turn around well south of the Island, where the river is nice and wide. I warn the passengers of the G-forces and usually make a 60°-banked turn (it’s my sadistic streak – 45° is plenty to make the turn – but do brief your passengers on the turn or they’ll freak out). Watch the wind – it’s usually from the west, so a left turn is into the wind. Rarely, winds are from the east, however, and then a right turn makes more sense to keep the radius small. Remember, the turn takes 20 to 30 seconds and a 10 knot wind will displace you by 300 to 450 feet during that turn; that’s significant. Also, slow down before turning. The radius of the turn dramatically increases with speed. Make sure you announce well and look behind you before turning. Do I need to tell you to be proficient in steep turns before venturing into the East River? This is not a place to practice them.
http://netlib.bell-labs.com/who/sape...son/index.htmlNews reports on the day of the accident stated that there was a 12-knot east wind at the time.