General aviation pilot reports near midair collision with blimp while transiting beneath new york cl...

Narrative:

My route of flight required transition of jfk class B/class G airspace. Due to ceilings; elected to do 'shoreline transition' west to east; at or below 500 ft; outside of class B but within class G. This is not my usual route; which is a VFR transition of the class B. The corridor is actually fairly narrow; bounded to the north by the shoreline; to the south by safe glide distance to the shore from below 500 ft; to the top by the 500 ft floor of the class B; and to the bottom by safe distance from the ground. Traffic was a banner towing plane to my left and a blimp to my right. Passed the plane uneventfully; easy see-and-avoid. The combination of the unfamiliar size and slow speed of the blimp created an illusion that I was closing much more slowly than I actually was - assuming blimp was moving at perhaps 30 KTS. I was probably closing at close to 100 KTS. As the blimp loomed in front of me; I descended rapidly to insure passing safely. Probably I should have deviated to pass the blimp on the right; even though this would have taken me further from the shore. I definitely should have slowed down as I approached the blimp. Were it another airplane or helicopter; the closing speed would have been much slower; and more easily judged.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General aviation pilot reports NMAC with blimp while transiting beneath New York Class B using the 'shoreline transition'. Large size and slow speed caused perception difficulties for the reporter.

Narrative: My route of flight required transition of JFK Class B/Class G airspace. Due to ceilings; elected to do 'shoreline transition' west to east; at or below 500 FT; outside of Class B but within Class G. This is not my usual route; which is a VFR transition of the Class B. The corridor is actually fairly narrow; bounded to the north by the shoreline; to the south by safe glide distance to the shore from below 500 FT; to the top by the 500 FT floor of the Class B; and to the bottom by safe distance from the ground. Traffic was a banner towing plane to my left and a blimp to my right. Passed the plane uneventfully; easy see-and-avoid. The combination of the unfamiliar size and slow speed of the blimp created an illusion that I was closing much more slowly than I actually was - assuming blimp was moving at perhaps 30 KTS. I was probably closing at close to 100 KTS. As the blimp loomed in front of me; I descended rapidly to insure passing safely. Probably I should have deviated to pass the blimp on the right; even though this would have taken me further from the shore. I definitely should have slowed down as I approached the blimp. Were it another airplane or helicopter; the closing speed would have been much slower; and more easily judged.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	839664
Time
Date	200906
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	JFK.Airport
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	VFR Route
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15 Flight Crew Total 1100 Flight Crew Type 110
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown
Miss Distance	Horizontal 300 Vertical 300

General aviation pilot reports near midair collision with blimp while transiting beneath new york class B using the 'shoreline transition'. Large size and slow speed caused perception difficulties for the reporter.