HICoP Rally Saturday Sept. 9th 6-8 pm

[Obie]

They fly over my residential neighborhood !

They have to because they are flying VFR. It would be impossible for them to fly at the altitude and distance Ino suggests.

[mermaid53]

They fly over my residential neighborhood !

A neighbor who used to live in upper HPP said there's far more helicopter fly overs there than along KP. They're grateful and wonder why people complain down here...and I didn't realize til recently that upper HPP had tour helicopter issues.

Perhaps if the subdivisions actually were "residential", the helicopters might not fly over them?

Good one...therefore would exclude a majority of Puna... and KP and Ala Heiau area w/it's half acre lots would seem as residential as you could get in HPP.

[MarkP]

FWIW I have several helicopter flights a day over my place. Had several today. It only really bothers me when Green Harvest is orbiting at 500'. Other than that I live with it. I admit I am biased. I am a pilot.

[MarkD]

Speaking abstractly, helicopter tours are a superfluous, elitist activity. It is passive recreation engaged by people who are not content to enjoy nature like everyone else--drive your car, take a bus or hike to a locations to see the beauty of nature. They demand to see the site from the air.

Why don't you stay home and watch some footage on your TV.

If the copters were noiseless, they would still be irritable, marring the beauty of the sky, but that would be tolerable. The noise problem takes it to a whole other level.

Attended the HICOP meeting on Saturday. Some attendees reported 60-plus flights over their homes on some days. Electing to engage in this business, or supporting it by taking flights, is an anti-social act. It shows a fair amount of contempt for others, kind of like those people who start a weed eater @ 6 a.m. on a Sunday or those people who sit in a supermarket parking lot with stereo on full volume.

At least those people commit their offense intermittently, by and large. The helicopter operators are at it every day...

[Hunt Stoddard]

Not sure if this has been considered or not, but nighttime police helicopters in California have fitted with some kind of noise dampening devices on their props. Don't exactly understand the mechanics behind it, but the choppers are whisper-quiet. You can hardly hear them go overhead. When inside, you can't hear them at all.

[TomK]

Obie,

"They have to because they are flying VFR. It would be impossible for them to fly at the altitude and distance Ino suggests."

Are you saying the professional tour helicopter pilots here can't fly in IFR conditions?

I can accept that's what they're doing but would like to know why. Perhaps it's a requirement they need to follow but I hope it's not for the tourists' benefit. Expert input from others would be appreciated!

[Obie]

"Are you saying the professional tour helicopter pilots here can't fly in IFR conditions?"

I suppose some of them are IFR qualified but to fly IFR they would have to file a flight plan and be under positive radar control.

Flying VFR they are required to maintain visual contact with the shoreline and the surface.Hard to do that most afternoons when there is usually a band of clouds just off shore.

[PaulW]

Okay, I'll ask it once again. I don't expect any answers, but I keep trying.

Where exactly can I go, park my car, and actually see and hear 60 helicopters per day flying over me?
If we reckon 12 hours of daylight that's 5 an hour or one every 12 minutes. For 12 hours straight.
No, near the airport does not count.

Surely people aren't just making this stuff up because they think helicopters are "elitist".

[Eric1600]

Some of the claims are pretty high. I know they turn and often pass over the same areas several times during their tours. However I'm skeptical of the 40+ numbers. There was a recent article about the FAA meeting HiCOP group.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2017/0...s-in-hilo/

One of the random comments is they had nearly 20 passes in 2 hours. Wasn't Ino or someone setting up a tracking system to log the overflights?

[MarkP]

It is the nature of humans to exaggerate. That is part of my objection to the anti-helicopter and anti-TMT rhetoric. I am asked to be complicit in what at best is willful irrationality and at worst is lying even if there are kernels of truth mixed in.

Visiting an island paradise for a vacation is a superfluous, elitist activity. All of our visiting tourists, the ones who indirectly pay our mortgages, are in that category.

ETA: IFR sightseeing trip? Ya, right.