Every once in awhile I flip open FlightRadar and look at downtown Manhattan, looking for helicopters, usually in the middle of south Manhattan.

You have to make some inferences for sure, but looking the owner, takeoff and destination (if any) are enough to give you a guess if it is a tourist, commute, police, news, or something else.

This trip was to an airport not far away. May have saved a couple of hours in NYC traffic.

To be clear, I don’t begrudge anyone because they have access to a helicopter. It’s interesting to see.