april 16, 2008
East End meeting in Southampton
Community outreach continues as ERHC Special Advisor Robert Grotell met Monday with Mark Epley, Mayor of Southampton Village. Grotell informed the mayor of ERHC's past achievements, recent efforts, and agreements along the East End, and listened to the mayor's concerns and reports of community complaints. Village Board Trustee William Bates is an outspoken opponent of the heliport in online reports. ERHC welcomes contact from news media to provide more balance to their articles on East End landing facilities.
ERHC reminds members to fly neighborly in the area, and encourage non-members to do the same. The Village is considering further limitations to operating hours and charging fees, as well as suggesting they will consider closing the pad, despite deed restrictions. In this latter eventuality, someone would have to file a lawsuit to reopen the pad, clearly not the best solution, and air transportation would suffer.
APRIL 14, 2008
ERHC meets College Point Civic Assn
By Robert Grotell, ERHC Special Advisor
NYC Council Member Tony Avella (D-Northeast Queens) asked the Eastern Region Helicopter Council to attend a meeting in the College Point community of Queens to address helicopter noise complaints that his office had received.
ERHC Special Advisor Robert Grotell met with approximately 30 residents at a College Point Civic Association gathering on April 9, 2008, and provided background information on the Throgs Route, the Class G Flushing Exclusion and listened to several local concerns from residents who live under the route. Information was also provided on how to file a noise complaint with ERHC (flyneighborly.net) as well as NYC's 311 system. The meeting opened a productive dialogue with the College Point community and is another example of ERHC's ongoing public outreach efforts.
April 2, 2008
Productive meeting with Rep. Bishop
By Robert Grotell, ERHC Special Advisor
On March 31, 2008, Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) held a follow up meeting to continue the discussion on helicopter noise impacts in his district and other areas of Long Island. The meeting was held in his Coram, NY office and was attended by Robert Grotell (ERHC); Manny Weiss, Diane Crean, Leo Prusak (FAA); Jim Brundige, Matt O’Brien (HTO); Tony Ceglio (FOK); and representatives for Senator Schumer and Senator Clinton.
The Congressman expressed his doubts over the voluntary nature of the current structure and our letter of agreement with the airports and Senator Schumer. His concern stems from continued complaints that he feels will only worsen during the summer season. One particular issue the Congressman raised was the lack of specific transition points off of the new North Shore Route for aircraft heading to HTO, FOK or 87N.
The FAA and I explained why transitions were not included on the new NY Helicopter Route Chart and how the recommended minimum altitude should go a long way in mitigating last season’s concerns from North Fork communities as well as those along the North Shore of Nassau and Suffolk counties. I then described our significant efforts over the past months, including working with the airports on modified noise abatement and monitoring procedures, conducting flight tests at HTO and FOK, our new websites, and our underlying commitment to work with communities and local elected officials to address their helicopter noise-related concerns. Jim Brundige described his positive perspective on the ERHC flight tests and explained how aircraft should be at or above 2,500 feet at Ferry before they begin their descent into HTO. Lastly, Tony Ceglio explained FOK’s draft helicopter procedures and also thanked ERHC for our efforts.
I further explained that our priorities include educating ERHC membership on the new North Shore Route and developing a series of performance indicators to determine program success. The Congressman was clear to all that he will push for increased FAA regulation if the program fails to adequately address the noise concerns.
Overall, Congressman Bishop was pleased with our efforts and those of the FAA and the airports. He was encouraged by our collective progress to date and closed the meeting in a positive manner with an improved outlook. He specifically thanked ERHC for aggressively taking the lead on many of the noise issues.
MARCH 24, 2008
Proactive donation of blade time
In the teeth of Friday's strong winds, and the President and Chief Pilot of an ERHC Regular Member flew a Eurocopter Dolphin from NJ to East Hampton (HTO), and Francis Gabreski (FOK) airports on Long Island in NY.
They conducted several flights along HTO's voluntary noise abatement routes with the airport manager and a prominent member of a local and vocal airport noise committee. ERHC Special Advisor Robert Grotell and the airport's assistant manager monitored the flight paths of the aircraft from the airport using the Air Scene equipment installed for traffic monitoring.
Both Grotell and the pilots report the series of activities provided some valuable information for improving the procedures and assisting area residents through sound reduction. The FOK meeting was productive and informative, said the pilots, who expect the airport's latest procedures to be issued to pilots in May.
MARCH 21, 2008
Ongoing communication
Our Special Advisor, Robert Grotell, continues to respond to submitted complaints. ERHC has responded to a misleading article in the East Hampton Star, and we continue our work with the Town Supervisor and management of the airport to address their concerns.
ERHC is bringing in industry assistance to the airport and developing relationships with airport businesses and the local aviation group. We hope to have a visible helicopter presence at the airport day in September, to allow the public to talk with operators and see the amazing flying machine that is the helicopter, up close.
An ERHC member is today donating an aircraft and pilot to conduct flights for airport and town officials, and discussions to facilitate resolution of current issues will take place.
february 18, 2008
Complaints to date
We're on the way to success.
The feedback we've received so far has been general in nature, and our Special Advisor, Robert Grotell, has been making contact with the correspondents. In the process we've made the complaints page more evident, since the writers so far have been writing via the general communication page instead of the more detailed complaint page. More information makes our subsequent action more useful to correspondents.
JANUARY 28, 2008
Let's get acquainted
ERHC has committed to follow up on resident complaints in our area in 2008, so if you're not yet a member, please check out our web site, write to us with your contact information, and we'll call to get acquainted. The more we know about your operation, the better we can explain it to the public, whether you're a member or not. Keep in mind members get access to a wealth of content on the members pages that will help you be safer, more professional, and more efficient. To date, our membership is mostly larger commercial operators, so we do need to get to know the utility, public service, and smaller commercial operators better.
We have a strong emphasis on safe, legal flying practices and professionalism. We can be a good resource for you. So again, let us know about you, we'll talk and get to know each other in a relaxed way so that if we do call again later in response to a complaint, we are starting from a basis of mutual aviator understanding. Thanks.
January 1, 2008
Introducing this site
Thank you for your interest in learning more about helicopter aviation in and around New York City. 'The Best' in many things, the NYC area also boasts one of the industry's safest and most professional helicopter communities.
ERHC has worked quietly in the background with FAA, government entities and citizen groups in the past, and now in 2008, as we begin our fourth decade of activity under severe criticism from residents and leaders along Long Island, it's time to present ourselves more publicly through this site.
We believe in the principle that factual information is at the crux of good solution finding among persons with different views on any given issue, and the best solution finding takes place at the lowest level possible through communication, mutual understanding, and voluntary efforts.
To that end, this site begins with the Learn link, where you can find out more about aviation generally, and FAQs on specific topics, plus technical information about the site. We will enhance this page with answers to questions you send us.
This set of pages is for the NYC region, with current events and announcements on this page, plus and introduction to ERHC. Other regions may join in the future in the same way.
The Contact pages allow you to reach us for anything from compliments to complaints, and is your avenue to tell us what you observe so we can help as part of our commitment in the letter to Senator Schumer. Links to and information about East End airports are also included.
The Future link puts the aerospace industry into perspective and explains why it takes so long for quiet technology innovations to reach the skies.
For Pilots is our appeal to pilots to continue to follow the spirit of friendly flying as often as possible, and our general suggestions on ways to accomplish this. Safety is a pilot's foremost responsibility, and the weight of information for any given flight may make it more or less difficult to be considerate as well.
December 27, 2007
Media Clarifications
Recently we've reviewed some media coverage of our Letter and our meeting with FAA and community leaders at Brookhaven Town Hall December 19. As in the past, few questions were directed to ERHC. Concerned citizens deserve the facts, so here are our clarifications of some media reporting:
- Lack of balance
- When reporters quote one side of a story but not the other, there is a lack of balance; we are seeing this in many stories in which the helicopter community is stridently attacked by residents and/or their leaders, with no report of the other side of the story, in fact, we're rarely given the opportunity to respond to these comments. Lack of balance is lack of fairness, indicative of careless publishing, and disregard for the truth. ERHC believes citizens are best served by factual, balanced reporting.
- Editorializing in reports
- A number of stories are published with writing flair such as "steady low-flying procession". This might make entertaining reading, but news entities seeking to inform public discourse with facts do not use flair in news reports. Aviation businesses are tightly regulated and entitled to operate transportation businesses to serve their customers using the national airspace. Operators in this region have an exemplary record of safety and good business practices; some members have even won awards in their communities for business excellence.
- False expectations from flawed reporting
- Several published textual and graphic accounts imply routings and requirements that do not exist and thus misinform readers and set false expectations for citizens, thereby setting a trap for considerate flight operations. Publications that show graphics of routes are not true: the new route chart is scheduled for publication mid-2008, but ERHC will encourage members to follow its intent right away. Media that state that helicopters "will" be "required" to fly at any given altitude are publishing false information. While routes and altitudes are recommended and voluntary, there is good reason to believe operators will meet or exceed these recommendations. Our members have a track record of proven performance on developing and following fly-neighborly guidelines around the region. It's been part of the flying mentality here for decades. Last summer's changes in flight paths on the east end shows voluntary response to complaints from the previous summer: we're doing the right thing!
- Unwarranted skepticism
- Quite a few citizens and leaders are quoted as being skeptical any change will occur, with no clarification provided why the interviewee believes this. While ERHC is not a regulatory body, our mission is in part to enhance professionalism and be a communication conduit. Our members believe in flying neighborly and now that we are being given a chance to make a difference, please have the patience for ERHC members to show responsibility in action. We are well known in and around Manhattan for handling community issues quietly and without fanfare. Perhaps our low-key approach made us difficult to find. We believe in resolving concerns among humans at the lowest level possible and look forward to engaging in this solution.
- Airspace misrepresented
- Some news reports indicate the possibility of sanctions for aircraft not exactly on published routes. Precise concentration of air traffic concentrates acoustic effect and increases risk to safety of flight, so variety of flight paths serves safety and dispersion well. The airspace over the East End allows pilots the freedom to choose flight paths that maximize the efficiency that the aircraft provides, thus enhancing its benefit to mankind. But all over the region, communities, airports, and operators have successfully joined in developing voluntary traffic flows out of a sense of civic duty and neighborliness. Pilots have been meeting or exceeding the intents of these flows as a matter of course, and aviation businesses absorb the cost of longer flights, fewer pasengers served, and produce more emissions in the process of following these procedures. This trust- and communication-based system has worked well and will continue to work well into the future, even on the East End.
So, as more and more people are enjoying enough economic prosperity that they can afford the benefits of personal air travel, and as more discover how available and empowering it can be to learn to fly, aviation's benefits are spreading, and that's a great thing. More air traffic to the East End may cause distress for some, and it's understandable human nature to be frustrated when public officials can't produce immediate results to complaints, but communities and ERHC have now found each other, and we have a plan for next summer. Please have the patience for the information to get out, and for ERHC's efforts to help, here at the lowest level, where the solution belongs.
December 17, 2007
Letter to Senator Schumer
Last week, ERHC joined with the managers of Westhampton and East Hampton airports in signing a Continued Cooperation and Compliance Agreement letter to US Senator Charles E. Schumer, D-NY.
Over the summer, many Long Island constituents contacted their national representatives instead of airports, local authorities, or ERHC, to file complaints about increased sound from helicopter flights near their communities. Senators Schumer and Hillary Clinton plus Congressman Timothy Bishop, D-NY-1, all called for FAA studies of LI air traffic. ERHC contacted these representatives and working together with FAA and the airports, have responded to the national leaders' concerns. The apparent increase in traffic is likely the result of ERHC initiatives and airport efforts to reduce traffic near other communities that were complaining to us in 2006.
This agreement includes the pledge of "shared commitment to working with affected communities to identify specific concerns and implement safe, balanced, and practical solutions". This should be no surprise to ERHC members, who know ERHC has had this commitment to communication with communities for decades.
There will also be a new recommended north shore route and waypoints on a new Helicopter Route Chart due out next year. ERHC also agreed to establish this web site and work regularly with airport managements and communities in developing new routings to address community concerns, under the banner "Long Island Helicopter Working Group".
ERHC will contact operators who are not following the recommended procedures to determine the particulars of the flight and learn more about operator concerns. Airports and ERHC will continue to take complaints via web and phone calls and keep records of the contacts.
Back in Spring of 2007, ERHC initiated and hosted a meeting of community members, FAA, operators and airport officials to address complaints from summer 2006. Some routes were changed, and many operators volunteered to fly different and higher routes. While this reduced the sound near some communities, it naturally increased it near others. This site is part of our ongoing effort to help communities understand air traffic and help operators understand community concerns.
ERHC will continue its efforts to get the word out to more and more community leaders with the facts of air traffic and helicopter safety.
Long Island Meeting Dec. 19
Also as part of this process, ERHC suggested that Congressman Bishop host a meeting of regional leaders, FAA, airports and ERHC so that all parties could get to know each other and the issues better in one place at one time for efficiency. We're happy to report that this meeting took place Wednesday, December 19, and a wide variety of views were shared.