Posts: 10,978
Threads: 748
Joined: Sep 2012
WIth all this tourist revenue
If we could get helicopters to fly lower, homeowners might rent out their rooftop as billboards (no County enforcement worker would likely climb up to check if the sign ordinance was violated) and get a few hundred $ a month for an:
Eat At Pesto’s
Downtown at Bayfront
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
Posts: 1,252
Threads: 10
Joined: Sep 2014
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.
Comparing your situation w/HPP is like apples and oranges. They're flying over Kaloli Pt to save fuel and time (?). It would seem the tour helicopters are making enough revenue that they could show some courtesy and fly over the ocean instead of over a large population every 2-5 minutes.
Posts: 4,204
Threads: 96
Joined: Mar 2014
They're flying over Kaloli Pt to save fuel and time (?).
------------
They can't fly over the ocean if they are under VFR (visual flight rules) and the cloud cover is low. They also cannot fly out over the ocean without flotation devices on the helicopter. These points have been made repeatedly.
Posts: 1,252
Threads: 10
Joined: Sep 2014
72 times over Kaloli Point so far today....it's been beautiful and sunny most of the day.
Posts: 10,978
Threads: 748
Joined: Sep 2012
72 times over Kaloli Point so far today....
I heard the first helicopter about 5:45 AM, maybe a little earlier.
When I walked to the Hilo side of Kaloli Point after 8:00 AM and looked out over Paki Bay, I watched one headed back to the airport, as three others in quick succession flew over the Point toward the flow.
I’m listening to them now as I type. Keep counting mermaid!
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
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
Posts: 1,131
Threads: 39
Joined: Oct 2016
They also cannot fly out over the ocean without flotation devices on the helicopter..
Considering how almost all of the aerial footage of the lava going into the ocean is taken from helicopters flying around the flow front offshore I wonder... do all those helicopters have flotation devices? Or maybe they can go over the ocean just a little bit? Only when in so many feet from land so they can auto rotate safely?
I am still confused, obviously.
Posts: 703
Threads: 15
Joined: Jun 2013
"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?!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, here's the announcement on the public hearing for increasing the GET!
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...-increase/
There was another interesting story a few weeks back , suggesting that the reduction of Big Island tourist dollars might not be the death knell for the Gov. that some are projecting. The quote is taken from the article linked below. .
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...o-project/
“The growth rates were set to be so large, rates in the double digits, that if we get a pause, as long as it’s not the 50 percent loss of business that some people are talking about all summer long, the Big Island will weather this,” said Carl Bonham, executive director of UHERO and professor of economics at UH-Manoa.
And about those helicopters. the helecopter noise in the morning wakes me up much sooner than I would prefer . I'm o.k. with that as I know how important it is for those living near the lava to be kept informed. Then it is all day long. If Leilani remains the new tourist attraction than maybe they'll need flotation devices.
Posts: 1,120
Threads: 57
Joined: Mar 2013
Article reposted from 6 days ago: "county, state and visitor industry officials" are pondering opening a viewing site.
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/06/11...-industry/
- - - -
Critic: "I'm pretty sure most tourists would feel very uncomfortable gawking at a disaster in the company its victims. I know I would."
The concept is likely to call for a remote viewing site. So all local residents would be subject to is seeing tour buses drive by. Is that a huge offense? Residents look up and see helicopters and take no offense, but then see a tour bus and take offense? OK.
My text: "...tourists realize Hawaii Island is safe to visit..."
A critic: "This opinion seems premature and inaccurate in view of...(various items cited)...
Two points:
1) We continue to see lava footage with residents roaming in the area (or lava footage made by residents) time and again. If the safety issue is so acute, then everyone should be cordoned off.
2) The designated viewing site would very likely be much further out. Officials will certainly keep safety in mind. Indeed a decision such as selecting a lava viewing site might be a very protracted deliberation. Months of study, maybe.
(Does that sound about right, kalakoa?) I'll probably post regularly on the progress of this decision--or lack thereof.
Lava viewing proposal/story date: June 11 -
6 days elapsed
Posts: 14,079
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
a decision such as selecting a lava viewing site might be a very protracted deliberation. Months of study, maybe.
I think in this case County would fall back on "the lava is dangerous because it could change direction at any time, therefore no potential site can be declared safe".
Right about here I usually suggest taxing the helicopters, but of course they're magically exempt from everything because aircaft of any kind are different and special and beyond the authority of State or County.
Posts: 14,079
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
they would be less noisy if they flew higher
They would be less noisy if they paid a $5 per lot "flyover fee".
(The punchline being: they would suddenly discover there was enough margin to fly over the ocean to avoid paying $5/lot...)
