Sign waving Rally at Hilo Air. Tues. 9-19 3-5pm

[My 2 cents]

people are going to keep enjoying their amazing views of the lava

I'm fine with this, even encourage it. Just not crazy about having my property being part of the tour.

[mermaid53]

Cruise ship days are currently Tues - Thurs and Saturdays.

Blue Hawaii has 2 flights from west side to Hilo and both helicopters fly at over 3500ft A.G.L at 7:55am - 7 days a week unless dumping rain.

Which explains why last Saturday morning Kaloli Pt was inundated with helicopter traffic for about 1 1/2-2 hrs. I'm talking over Kaloli Pt, not over the coast. At one point three blue helicopters were in the sky at one time, two flying parallel to each other towards Hilo. Max altitude appeared to be 1500'. It was annoying but just as quickly as it had started, it stopped. Don't know if it stopped because people had called in complaints..???

What we've surmised is that on overcast and/or light rainy days, they fly over KP for land reference as was discussed on the other thread, but on sunny days it seems they're cutting across KP on their way to Hilo Airport, taking the most direct path, to save fuel...???

[leilanidude]

http://crew-center.com/hilo-hawaii-cruis...edule-2017

Actual schedule, in the link. Ship today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday).

[Tink]

To save fuel and increase profits by more customer turnover would be my guess. If they were rude and inconsiderate during the flight I would "do a flip".

Community begins with Aloha

[leilanidude]

During whale season, pilots will take flights over the ocean if whales are visible and Kaloli Point is a good spot to see whales. One way of the flight might go over land and the other over the ocean so they get to see more of the island. Also depends upon weather.

[kalakoa]

pilots will take flights over the ocean if whales are visible

So they "can" fly over the ocean "if they feel like it".

[leilanidude]

So they "can" fly over the ocean "if they feel like it".
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Only if they follow the rest of the FAA safety rules, which includes the VFR regulations and must be in visible contact with the coast and be able to make it to land in the event of a power failure. With all of the pop-up storms/clouds all day long, that hampers flying over the ocean. This is why they fly so close to the coastline.

[kalakoa]

Only if they follow the rest of the FAA safety rules

But they are doing it. If they want. So it's clearly possible, which means objections to an ocean flight path are BS.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

pilots will take flights over the ocean if whales are visible

Anchor inflatable (or floating) whale decoys along the route we desire helicopters to fly. They'll look real enough to the tourists at the minimum altitude copters are required to fly.

Get the county involved. Add a whale tax for helicopters and tour boats to maintain the decoys. Could even hire county workers to sit inside, when a helicopter approaches they can switch on a pump and firehose nozzle hooked up the the "spout."

The Donner Party really wasn't that great of a party, was it?

[PaulW]

Ha, fake whales, great idea!

Can anyone tell me how to estimate how high a helicopter or plane is flying? Not many tall buildings to compare with around here.