Helicopters From Hell...

[Sue Nomie]

Posting for my neighbor who can't seem to get on Puna Web.
Darn helicopters started fling overhead at 8 am this morning.
I’ve tried to be polite and asked them to choose a new flight path but, most of them seem to think that saving gas, by disturbing the peace and quiet of my little sanctuary, is more important than a person’s sanity. And the FAA says well there’s nothing they can do because they’re allowed to decide to fly over your hose anytime they want.
I chose to build here about ten years ago, because of the distance from any, city/town or highway noises. And we as neighbors of lower HPP have worked hard to make sure we have a safe, crime free and quiet neighborhood to retire in.
I some times wonder how these pilots would feel if I were to park outside of there home and honk my horn from eight in the morning to six thirty at night and see if they don’t complain about, disturbing the peace.
I guess it’s time to start a petition to raise the height over private homes from 500 feet to 1000 feet and one miles distance from a residential neighborhood, with the exceptions, of course, of areas in and around airports and for emergency flights.
Wish someone could help me with this problem, it sure is frustrating.
FAA Hilo; 935-4658
FAA Noise; 1-888-697-7813

[gramps]

@sue nomie

suggested a while back that the choppers fly 1/4 to 1/2 mile out )from the airport to kumukahi( over the ocean when weather forces a change in day to day flight paths...would add maybe 2 miles to length of flights...that idea was panned "what if one of these flights go down?! in the water? my question is .. what if a flight went down over hpp? possibly into someones home:? same difference.. good luck with your wish..

gramps

[sittall]

Has anyone seen this petition? Might be the way to go...

http://www.change.org/petitions/modify-h...opter-laws

[LeeE]

Mahalo, sittall. Hope it carries some weight with the muka muks.

I called Governor Abercrombie's office to talk about this and got nowhere. The person on the other end of the phone was cool in tone, but polite and took my comments, which were respectfully presented.

Lee Eisenstein
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event

"Be kinder than necessary, as everyone you meet is engaged in some kind of strudel."

[csgray]

The BBC is doing a series of 4 live broadcasts from what they are mistakenly calling "Big Island" this week. It looks like a volcano equivalent to Shark Week and is all about Hawaii volcanoes, with a mix of live and pre-taped footage. Today was the third show, which they did from Kalapana this morning (night BBC time). I wonder if they were responsible for some of the traffic while figuring out where to film and how to do it?

Carol

[pahoated]

Saw what looked like a Kiowa attack copter slowly circling Hilo this morning. It wasn't a tour copter, they generally are in steady flight to get to the lava. RIMPAC is going to last until August.

It's going to get worse. Microsoft Flight, which replaces their MS Flight Simulator game, is their venture in free-to-play, start with a free map and then have to buy every single piece of real estate and equipment from there. Their free map to start out with is the BI and the starter plane is an ultralight floatplane. This is the opening screen map:

http://h9.abload.de/img/flight2012-02-2219-48fklj5.png

Each of those dots are airfields and names when zoomed in. Didn't know there was an airstrip in Pepeekeo so went to the one. The little ultralight floatplane is actually pretty awesome:

http://www8.pcmag.com/media/images/32992...pg?thumb=y

Probably the only saving grace is the sim is pretty horrible, the clouds have less detail than FlightsimX and flying over areas, pitifully inaccurate, so it isn't that popular. They detailed waterfront Hilo pretty well with the opening air slalom around hot air balloons floating above the hotels (a great idea for another festival.

[maukamakai]

Helicopters are destructive. They should not be in residential areas at all.

[TomK]

The last two or three posts seem to have come from the twilight zone.

Carol, yes, the BBC did do a live show from Kilauea a couple of weeks ago. I doubt they were responsible for increased traffic while figuring out things. They normally have a very small crew for things like this which likely involves one helicopter given previous experience. Maybe two helicopters if something special happened but don't think it did. I also wonder what you mean by BBC time but that's not a major point. I also wonder why you say calling the Island of Hawaii "Big Island" is so wrong. I've lived here many years and if I say "Big Island" to Hawaii residents they seem to know what I mean. Or are you just being pedantic?

I don't understand why PC flight simulators are being brought into the conversation and can't agree with the comment that helicopters are destructive. They have saved many lives all over the world, including here, and I don't believe they are in residential areas in general. Yes, they fly above them which pisses many of us off, and they are used to invade people's privacy, but that is not the fault of helicopters. The people that fly them also save many lives in residential areas, so do you really think they shouldn't fly in residential areas at all?

Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/

[Aaron S]

Bradshaw Army Airfield is only 3,700 feet long. C-17s, nor C-5s can land
or takeoff from this facility.

[csgray]

Tom,
The show was broadcast live from here in the morning,and shown live in the evening in England, so that is what I meant by BBC time. It had a pretty small crew, but they were all over this side of the Big Island, and used a lot of helicopter time on the show, I think they may have planned it when we still had the lava ocean entry putting on a big show.

My point about calling this Big Island was that people who live in Hawaii don't call Hawaii "Big Island" we call it THE Big Island and it sounded really funny to hear someone keep calling it Big Island (sort of like Big Dog) instead. Those three little letters make a surprising difference to the ear.

The woman who co-narrated the show has done some great shows on the spice trade, and the geologist guy has done some of my all time favorite nature documentaries, but the fact that the show was live really seemed to rattle her. He is also a university professor at Edinburgh so is used to lecturing live, but I think she was more used to retakes being an option. It was still a pretty good show though.

Carol