Helicopters, helicopters, helicopters

[MarkD]

Interesting that we are not getting much discussion on this topic. I reposted my lava viewing site thread and made a (mild) comment about a lot of helicopter flights, but no one bit. (The helicopter thread on Punatalk 6 months ago had sustained comment.)

Some free-flow thoughts:

1. Some commercial helicopter pilots have been an asset in this crises by providing news and great footage of the status of the eruption. We look for their footage daily.

2. The ban on ground access limits viewing to helicopters and boats. According to a recent letter to the T-H and two source I spoke to (I do not live near helicopter fight paths), there has been a steady increase in helicopter flights. There are also assertions of greater violation of flight rules (not an expert in that topic either).

3. The eruption has settled into a somewhat static pattern--a lava river--and tourists realize Hawaii Island is safe to visit (remember the hyperbole about Halemaumau throwing out refrigerator sized rocks?)

Many more tourists seem to be taking helicopter tours. Are the companies bringing over additional helicopters and pilots from Maui and Oahu to handle this extra business? Tours come from both Hilo and Kona.

(I am speculating here. Something for an enterprising journalist to look into? Start with trend of total flights a day past 2 months. If this is indeed the case, it is a significant story.)

4. Opinion: The continued ban on ground viewing is unfortunate. The opposition of some community critics should not derail this option.

Here is a recent quip: Maybe we could start doing tours to the shelters and the FEMA center too - just so tourists could have a look.

So having tourists come by bus is an offense to the unfortunate folks in evacuation locations and their remaining neighbors? But bringing in people by air is just fine? Really?

[leilanidude]

From the various videos available, it appears that the tourist flights are not flying below 3,000 feet, which is the current minimum in the TFR (temporary flight restriction). No pilot wants to violate an FAA TFR! The military, fire department and civil defense, are able to fly as low as they want, whenever they want.

[glinda]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkD

Interesting that we are not getting much discussion on this topic...

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I saw a feature on Hawaii News Now a few evening's ago about how the gov.. Army? National Guard? has set up an air traffic control center in Pahoa.. a picture of a big RV parked somewhere in town.. and had air traffic controllers designing flight paths to accommodate Harry's wish that the helicopter tour industry not be forgotten in all of this. Maybe they have created routes that are now allowing the tours to come down lower and have a more up close view for their passengers? One would kind of hope they were getting feedback from locals on the ground as they plot these paths, but the reporter never mentioned it.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

One would kind of hope they were getting feedback from locals on the ground

My neighbor recently retired from working at the FAA, based in Honolulu. He call when he sees an aircraft breaking flight regulations, because he knows who to call (direct) and can accurately eyeball the altitude of any flying object.

He said almost all of the tours have been adhering to the minimum altitude regulations, at least off the coast from, and over HPP.

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[Lodestone]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkD

So having tourists come by bus is an offense to the unfortunate folks in evacuation locations and their remaining neighbors? But bringing in people by air is just fine? Really?

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I'm pretty sure most tourists would feel very uncomfortable gawking at a disaster in the company its victims. I know I would.

[mermaid53]

I've been logging the flights over the past few days. Just this morning the helicopters are going over Kaloli Point on average every 2-4 minutes. Sometimes there's 2-3 overhead at the same time.

12-17 in one hour...to have this backdrop of noise everyday for hours on end is wearing thin on a lot of us. I heard there's been lots of complaints made but yet....and this morning at 7:21 the schedule of every 2-4 min began. A 10+ min span of quiet is wonderful.

Over 55 since 6:27 AM. Years ago I was told the minimum altitude over land was supposed to be 1500'. A guy I spoke to the other day said he thought the minimum was 500'. All the flights today haven't been following the 1500' or 1000' minimum.

[MBB]

"...tourists realize that safe to visit..."

This opinion seems premature and inaccurate in view of

1. Ongoing daily seismic activity
2. A lava river flowing at 30-40 miles an hour from a fissure that is pumping out ?? however much lava hourly; how can it be said that the path it is taking this hour is the path that it will continue on in next day or week. Scientists are analyzing the data but like us all they do NOT know or can they accurately predict what will happen and anyone who states otherwise is ....fill in whatever verb fits, mine would be lying.
3. Air quality is at dangerous levels for negative health effects

Reasons enough for me to not recommend people spend their hard earned money coming here. Yes, tourism is the number one driver of Hawaii's economy but the thinking that we just take their money, and don't give a hoot about what kind of experience people have visiting here, smacks of rip off to me.

[Frankie Stapleton]

No one is allowed to take pictures inside the evacuation centers, in respect to the refugees' privacy. I would think the same should apply to bus tours of the shelters and FEMA center too!!!

Re: the helicopters: I live in Nanawale, with F-8 just to the SW of my home, PGV just south, and the N flow of the channel before it turns east toward the coast just east of my house, so it's like a semicircle of the eruption, all less than 2 miles away as the a'ala flies. So even though the choppers arrive around 5 every morning, with multiple flights throughout the day and into the dusk, I don't have any problem with the choppers because I want them to notice those spillovers! It just takes one to send a fluid flow toward Nanawale! And neither would those of you in HPP, if the eruption was going down Makuu. [8]

[leilanidude]

So even though the choppers arrive around 5 every morning, with multiple flights throughout the day and into the dusk, I don't have any problem with the choppers because I want them to notice those spillovers! It just takes one to send a fluid flow toward Nanawale! And neither would those of you in HPP, if the eruption was going down Makuu.
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@Frankie - Perfect!

[kalakoa]

the helicopters are going over Kaloli Point on average every 2-4 minutes

WIth all this tourist revenue, we don't need any tax increases, right?!