Meeting and Petition for Pesky Helicopters

[seekir]

I'm not aware of any formal/official documentation of the Nelson corridor's location or usage. I learned of its existence when I began flying tours in the late nineties from other pilots, and was given a handout from one of them with a description of favored flight paths that pilots were advised to take. As I recall operators used the corridor to limit community objection to overflights. There was an understanding that doing so when transitioning to the vent from the north and back to Hilo would reduce friction and cause minimal delays to the flight, so most tours not taking the highway route toward Ainaloa used the corridor if weather permitted. Transitioning over residential areas in Puna outside of the corridor was not condoned by operators who recognize the need for noise abatement, though as I've mentioned pilots are essentially free to make their own choices once airborne, and doing so with sufficient altitude was perfectly legal (but not necessarily a great idea).