09-18-2017, 08:09 AM
Reality is: anywhere the helicopters fly will be "near someone's house".
There are a lot of natural areas with no houses, but there is some truth to this. Which is why helicopters are so fundamentally different than cars and buses (a topic that came up when I raised my "elitist" argument.) Cars and buses are relegated to roads, excepting some 4-wheelers. There are regulations, strict in most places, on off-road vehicles for several reasons. (Some folks inexplicably still seemed hesitant to accept the basic distinction between flying and driving.)
Helicopters' capacity to go anywhere, with varying degrees of noise, depending on elevation, is what makes them such a nuisance. A key element in judging whether the nuisance is excessive is the number of flights per day.
And to anticipate an argument likely to be raised, a fair number of folks live on long private driveways or in isolated neighborhoods. Despite the fact that there is a road to their house, and theoretically they could be bothered by traffic, they do not have much (or any) traffic bothering them.
Which is how they want it. But there are annoying helicopters in the airspace above.
There are a lot of natural areas with no houses, but there is some truth to this. Which is why helicopters are so fundamentally different than cars and buses (a topic that came up when I raised my "elitist" argument.) Cars and buses are relegated to roads, excepting some 4-wheelers. There are regulations, strict in most places, on off-road vehicles for several reasons. (Some folks inexplicably still seemed hesitant to accept the basic distinction between flying and driving.)
Helicopters' capacity to go anywhere, with varying degrees of noise, depending on elevation, is what makes them such a nuisance. A key element in judging whether the nuisance is excessive is the number of flights per day.
And to anticipate an argument likely to be raised, a fair number of folks live on long private driveways or in isolated neighborhoods. Despite the fact that there is a road to their house, and theoretically they could be bothered by traffic, they do not have much (or any) traffic bothering them.
Which is how they want it. But there are annoying helicopters in the airspace above.