FAA to impose copter rules for North Shore

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood Tuesday promised that stalled rules to regulate helicopter routes and reduce noise over populated North Shore areas would be in place within months.

The FAA requirements for helicopters to fly offshore and at a minimum altitude of 2,500 feet should be in effect by July 4, LaHood said in a statement Tuesday.

"To protect the public welfare, the Federal Aviation Administration is 100 percent committed to finalizing regulations on the use of the North Shore route by helicopters," he said.

The effort comes after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) learned that the FAA reauthorization bill would not include his amendment regulating helicopter routes. He went to LaHood for help.

"Secretary LaHood's strong and unequivocal statement should serve as a wake-up call to the helicopter industry," Schumer said. "Long Island will not continue to be the Wild West for low-flying, disruptive and noisy helicopters."

The FAA also will start the rule-making process to require over-water helicopter routes for the South Shore. The agency also will consider rules to reduce helicopter noise over land as copters arrive or depart their destinations.

Helicopter noise has long been an issue on the North Shore and the East End, particularly on summer weekends when commuters fly to their beach homes or vacation spots.

In 2008, the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, a trade organization, agreed to a voluntary North Shore route that took the aircraft over Long Island Sound at a suggested minimum altitude of 2,500 feet, safety and weather permitting. In 2010, the FAA started the process to make that voluntary route mandatory, but it was delayed by nearly 1,000 comments.

Schumer last year tried to get the effort restarted by attaching route rules to the reauthorization bill, which Congress is expected to vote on before Feb. 17.

"It sounds like we are getting what we want without the passage of the Schumer bill," said Port Washington resident Leonard Schaier, founder of Citizens for Quiet Skies over North Hempstead. "It's very good news."

Suffolk County Legis. Edward P. Romaine (R-Center Moriches) was cautious. "I'm going to monitor this very closely," he said. "We have been promised things in the past, and they have not transpired."

In 2008, Romaine sponsored legislation in Suffolk County that required helicopters to fly at 1,500 feet and one mile offshore, but the rule was never enforced, he said.

"The East End and particularly the North Fork are tired of waiting," Romaine said.

The helicopter council has opposed implementing specific routes, saying it forces pilots to crowd into one area and exacerbates the problem.

Council chairman Jeffery Smith said the group "continues to strongly recommend reinstating a diversified route structure that will distribute activity more evenly . . . and alleviate the increase of helicopter traffic over one area. We call on the FAA and Senator Schumer to come to their senses and reverse course before more residents are negatively affected."

Proposed noise-reduction rules for helicopter flights over Long Island's North Shore:

Fly offshore

Fly at an altitude of 2,500 feet

Expected to be in effect by July 4

SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION