As I sit here with helicopters buzzing overhead...

[Rob Tucker]

islandlvng, You are griping about someone's choice of a word. I think you are getting carried away a bit and its certainly not worth the effort.

It does remind me of what a state politician told me about how they deal with Puna.... get everyone arguing and simply walk away.

[YurtGirl]

Why is it so hard to use this forum for good, intelligent, respectful discussion and debate? I find myself having to walk away from it for weeks, sometimes months at a time because of the mean spirited, confrontational personalities that seem to have a consuming desire to take things and MAKE things so personal. SO. LAME.

There is an abundance of good, thought provoking, valid content and subjects throughout this forum. Why do some people insist on using it as a weapon, looking for any weakness to exploit and point an accusing finger at another person? Most people who do that hide behind anonymity. I don't care if you want to do that or not, but it isn't a free ticket to be snide and negative. It doesn't bode well for the world if we can't even get along in writing. !

Here's a suggestion. If you wouldn't speak in a certain way or say a certain thing to someone's face, then don't write it either. It's called etiquette. It's called class.

Dis heartened.

[YurtGirl]

I just got a call the other day from a lady who has been dealing with the copters for years. She and her husband painted a sign on their roof and she said they got some relief from it. I started thinking... that's an interesting idea! Plenty of people are feeling harassed by the copters, why not start a grassroots movement to get the word out to the tourists? It isn't their faults copters take the routes they do, and they should be able to see the lava and take heli tours. But we should also be able to not get bombarded by the overhead flights. Companies would likely choose alternate routes if there are all sorts of tastefully painted roofs exposing the other side of the cost of these flights. So, free roof painting! Tastefully done.

[terry.way]

If you want to get into the details of the regulations the helicopter air tour operators are supposed to follow:
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/fiel...n_proc.pdf

The first map (on page 14, i think) is a map of the noise sensitive areas, areas in pink, that the helicopters must be 1500 feet above, or higher.

I don't think they have 'routes' that they rigidly follow. If you're in lower Puna: Kehena to Kapoho, you'll only notice them when the weather is so bad up the ridge that they're forced to come down closer to shore. On good days, they'll go along 'the corridor' in a straight line from the airport to the Vent.

If they're very very low over your neighborhood, chances are: hired helicopter doing Green Harvest, or power line inspections for Helco, or fire department, or MedEvac.

Hope you are all well,
T.

[YurtGirl]

Thanks for that Terry! Yep, the copters are buzzing away again. Started a bit later this morning, a bit before nine, but we're at a few overheads an hour again. So that map shows that we're in the pink zone, so most copters should be above 1500'??? No WAY are most of them doing that... where do I get a blimp and a 500' cable?? lol~

[Obie]

Did you ever think that the reason you get about 2 per hour is that they are flying different routes so that no one has to endure all of the overflights?

When it is raining hard mauka of us we get at least 10 to 20 overflights an hour.

I would still like to see a nice clear picture of a copter at 500 ft or less.Every picture I have ever seen is an out of focus long range picture taken with a telephoto lens that distorts the altitude.

It would be nice if we had some other industry that could be the main economic engine of these islands but our main marketable resource is warmth and sunshine.We sell that to the tourists and the noise is a byproduct that we put up with to be able to live here.How many yurts would you sell if the tourists were gone tomorrow and all of the thousands of jobs related to the tourist industry left too ?

People in Hilo put up with the helicopters and the noisy jets that bring in the tourists.In my own neighborhood we put up with about 50,000 visitors a year that come to the tidepools.

[DanielP]

I bet that you could buy party balloon helium, a silver weather balloon with streamers and some super strong kite cord. Run the spool out with a electric drill. I will if you will. Let the copters play dodge ball! Smallish balloon with bright streamers. watch the wind! and we don't want to kill anyone.

Dan

[terry.way]

Re-reading the thread, there was mention of a helicopter spotting guide. I remember now: I wrote that! Y'all may have read it on the peaceful sky alliance website.

http://www.wayforward.net/Helicopters.pdf

If you do get a tethered helium balloon up to 500 feet, be prepared for the FAA to work very closely and very quickly with local law enforcement to bring it down, and to ensure it doesn't go up again. Unfair, but there you have it.

FAA: "For noise abatement, we require you take down your balloon"

Punatic: "Are you kidding me? How much noise can my balloon make?"

FAA: "Have you heard the noise a crashing helicopter makes?"

Hope you are all well,
T.

[YurtGirl]

Actually Obie, I've considered that the reason we get so many overheads is because tour companies are NOT flying different routes in order to spread the noise out. It seems much more likely that they fly the most direct route to Halemaumau to increase their profit margin. It seems they SHOULD spread it out a bit more! Perhaps they could have a percentage of their flights be a more expensive, but less invasive route. Cost can be dispersed across all flights. Even for safety's sake, it seems this would be better. I wonder if there isn't a cap on how many copters can fly the same general area flight path.

Just spoke with all the tour companies this morning. Blue Hawaiian actually has cameras on all their copters, so if we call with a time and date, they can see which pilot it was and take corrective measures. They seem the most responsible of all the tour companies and the most willing to talk and work with. Sunshine helicopters is investigating a super low flier over our house this morning, they have the black copters and green and white ones. Paradise and Tropical seemed the least concerned, promising a call back 'sometime this week', though right after I got off the phone with them, one of their bubbly white copters zoomed by super low over the house. I was asked our address a couple times... No way am I giving that out... I talked to that lady a few days ago, maybe she was off her rocker, maybe not... she said after her husband complained to Hilo tower and gave their address, copters swarmed her place, acting as though they were going to land and just hovering about, severely harassing them. Sounds crazy, but I'm not sure which part to chalk up the craziness to.

Btw, I don't know any of any of our yurt clients that work in the tour industry. But that's not to say that I don't see the importance of the tour industry in our current economy. Of course I'm aware of that. However, I would argue that B.I. has less of a dependence on tourism, especially on the East side, than other islands and that much of our economy, THANKFULLY, deals with agriculture, healing, sustainable/green markets, etc. I believe we should cultivate that far more than tourism. I maintain that if we don't set parameters on the effects or acceptable levels of 'by-products' of tourism, then we will be over run by the negative effects and by-products and there will be no quality of life to be had here anyway.

It isn't impossible to have tourists and residents peacefully co-exist. But parameters have to be set and enforced. It's encouraging that most of the tour copter companies seemed willing to look into it and make corrections or adaptations if needed... then again, that's a quick fix for a small squeak. We'll see long term.

[YurtGirl]

AWESOME GUIDE TERRY!!! Thank you! While the 500' balloon sounds like a great idea theoretically, I'm hoping there's a better way, lol.