Noise Abatement over NYC

[Bootcamp]

Does anyone know if there are any published or un-published noise abatement procedures over New York City? Someone forwarded me this e-mail but I couldn't find anything on any other websites to back it up.

 

By Leslie Albrecht

 

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

 

UPPER WEST SIDE — There's a new kind of bird watching happening on the Upper West Side.

 

People who've been driven batty by helicopters whirring overhead can now use a "cheat sheet" from the city's Economic Development Corporation to spot choppers that are breaking the law by not following proper flight paths.

 

The city started fining helicopters $100 in February if they violate route rules. Those fines ratchet up to $1,000 per violation in May.

 

The new regulations follow years of complaints about the noisy whirly-birds. City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's office received "dozens and dozens" of angry phone calls about droning choppers back in 2009, said Jesse Bodine, Brewer's director of constituent services.

 

Since then, new laws have gone into effect for sightseeing helicopters. They're no longer allowed to zip around Manhattan and buzz over Central Park. Instead tour helicopters have to follow two specific flight paths.

 

But the city depends on the public to call in complaints about the rogue helicopters, and the cheat sheet is supposed to make that easier. The full-color flier has pictures of helicopters that fly over the city and explanations of what each type of helicopter does.

 

For example, the Bell Helicopter B-206 is used for aerial cinematography, air tours, corporate charters, and news gathering, while the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, also known as Marine One, is used for transporting the president.

 

The cheat sheet also shows a map of the two legal flight paths for tour helicopters.

 

People who spot a tour helicopter they suspect of breaking the new rules can call 311 and tell the operator the type and location of the alleged misbehaving chopper. Then EDC can compare that information with its own tracking system, which shows where and when tour helicopters are operating, Bodine said.

 

"If you're walking in Central Park or you're walking on West End Avenue and there's a black and gold helicopter, that shouldn't be there (if) it's a tour helicopter, and you can call that in," Bodine said.

 

But some called the cheat sheet too little, too late.

 

Upper West Sider Rhonda Waggoner, who lives on the 16th floor of a building at West 86th Street near Riverside Drive, said the noise from helicopters has gotten so bad that she wears ear plugs to shut out the racket.

 

"It's one after another, a grinding roar," Waggoner said. "It's like living on a subway platform. It's a feeling of dread from the time you get up until darkness."

 

Waggoner doesn't like the cheat sheet idea because she think it's the city's responsibility to track errant helicopters. Waggoner wants the city to use video camera to monitor helicopters, the way cameras at traffic intersections nab red-light running cars.

 

"The onus shouldn't be on citizens who are about to kill themselves from the noise and vibration to identify the helicopters," Waggoner said. "Get a camera to monitor the offenders."

 

The helicopter "cheat sheet" is available on the Economic Development Corporation's website, or at City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's district office at 563 Columbus Ave. and West 87th Street.

[Darren Hughes]

There are noise abatement procedures for landing and departing the airports and heliports. The EDC is the organisation subjecting us to the fines, but their authority only applies to tour helicopters departing from the Manhattan heliports as they only have authority in NYC. They have no authority over aircraft flying in federal airspace who did not originate in NYC. So, if you're just doing a sightseeing flight up from MD or transiting the area via the hudson river corridor, you can get away with whatever the FARs and ATC allow you to do. Make sure you take the SFRA course online. If it's a photo flight at any level in the exclusion, make plenty of position reports as you're maneuvering over the river. Make plenty of radio calls even if you're just transiting the area, not just the mandatory position reports.

 

Here's a few non mandatory spots that we all use. Northbound on the Hudson; Brooklyn Army Terminal, Governer's Island, Holland Tunnel, Chelsea Piers, 79th St. Boat Basin, Columbia University, Spuyten Duyvil.

 

Southbound on the Hudson, Hess Tanks, North Hudson Park, Lincoln Tunnel(use instead of the Intrepid going Southbound), Stevens Institute of Technology, Holland Tunnel, Goldman Sachs(or "The Clock", or "Colgate"), Bayonne Piers, St. Georges Terminal.

 

If you don't know were they are, look them up on Google Maps/ Images or Google Earth.

 

 

Stay away from Brooklyn. That's who generate most of the noise complaints, and they're the tools that are trying to shut down the Downtown heliport. The're the loudest people in the country and live in the noisiest city on the planet, yet helicopters, they can't stand, go figure!!! If you're going to fly up the east river, be up at 1,000' or more for both noise and traffic. On busy days you'll have a helicopter departing Downtown every 20 seconds, climbing to 500' southbound between Governer's Island and Brooklyn, then West for the Statue.

 

Now if you want to do the rest of us a favor, you can stay at at least 1000' while in the exclusion, that minimizes the noise and keeps you from having conflicts with the sightseeing aircraft operating at 500' at the statue. Be alert there too, because we climb up to 1,500' from 500' into the Bravo with Newark and get handed off to LaGuardia for our tours. Another good way to transit the area is to get on with Newark from the south or LaGuardia from the north and do the whole flight at 1,500' or 2,000'.

 

That's about all I can think of for now, plus I'm going to bed!! If you've got any other questions, I can answer them tomorrow.