RE: RC flying in NY
Try doing a search for Floyd Bennett Field here on RCU. It's on Long Island, west of JFK airport (probably where you'll enter the US). There was a thread about r/c flying out there a while back, I think it was in "The Clubhouse". I can't speak to the laws regulating what you can or can't do in Central Park, but if you can find FBF and fly there, you'll be in some truly historic company. The Golden Age of Flight had some of its best moments there.