It has been a challenging year for helicopter operators flying in and out of the East Hampton Airport (KHTO) in eastern New York. In April the town board past a trio of restrictions limiting operations. The first is a weekly limit on flights of any aircraft with an approach noise signature louder than 91 EPNdB (effective perceived noise level in decibels), a restriction that covered most rotorcraft, but this was thrown out by the district court. However, two “shoulder curfews” covering those aircraft were adopted and upheld, effectively forbidding access after 8 p.m. or before 9 a.m.
The broader curfew’s impact was to shift much of the East Hampton helicopter traffic to seaplanes to beat the noise restrictions; seaplane traffic to the airport was up 76 percent this season, driven by the services tied to travel apps Uber and Blade. Meanwhile helicopter traffic, which should have grown due to association with those apps, remained flat, according to Jeff Smith of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council (ERHC).
Meanwhile the new curfews have done nothing to assuage the helicopter noise complainers, who continue to inveigh against traffic transitioning to East Hampton from the mandatory FAA-imposed North Shore route. Ironically, the North Shore route was established for voluntary compliance in 2008 as a response to residential noise complaints and political prodding from elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who pressed then transportation secretary Ray LaHood and the FAA to make it mandatory. The FAA did so in August 2012 (FAR 93.103 A&B), with a two- year sunset provision. The FAA chose to renew it for another two years in August 2014, and it has the option to renew it again this August.
The ERHC will begin in March to work with the impacted communities to disperse the transition routes, Smith said. “We’re going to continue our fly-neighborly program and work with the impacted communities,” Smith said. Meanwhile, the issue of helicopter noise continues to be prime political fodder. U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R) who represents the Hamptons in Congress, favors dispersing the transition routes, while his likely general election opponent, Southampton town supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, wants the heavy hand of Congress to make the FAA impose a solution. She told a citizens’ meeting last summer, “The FAA needs to be held accountable and needs to be brought to the table. It requires an act of Congress.”
Throne-Holst also wants a mandatory South Shore Route, a routing that would send more helicopter traffic bound for East Hampton and Gabreski (KFOK) over residential areas and that could dramatically increase the number of helicopter noise complaints.