L.A. Helo Operators Appeal For Noise Complaint Funding

On June 30, the FAA terminated funding for the Automated Noise Complaint System (ACS) put in place to measure helicopter noise in the Los Angeles Basin. The ACS had been operating since 2015. The FAA maintains that it has captured all the data it needs from the system, originally intended to be in place for only one year but later extended for two more years. The Los Angeles Area Helicopter Operators Association and the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association want funding for the $30,000-a-year system continued. They claim data from the system proves that helicopter noise complaints emanate from relatively few areas in the basin and are disproportionately initiated by a handful of disgruntled citizens. 

Much of California’s congressional delegation, including historical helicopter noise critics such as U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, have also appealed to the FAA to restore funding for the ACS. However, the Los Angeles Area Helicopter Noise Coalition (LAAHNC), an umbrella group of homeowner and community groups, opposes continued funding, claiming the ACS has limited utility because it fails to identify overflying helicopters by tail number. 

The disagreement over the ACS is just the latest flashpoint in the continuing contentious relationship between the local helicopter community, elected officials, and various community groups that have consistently advocated for fixed helicopter routings at higher altitudes throughout the Los Angeles Basin, suggestions repeatedly rejected by the FAA on safety grounds. 

The helicopter operators and pilots believe that the ACS is valuable because the program reminds pilots to “fly neighborly” and provides quantifiable data on the time, location, and origin of noise complaints. “The existence of the program reminds local helicopter pilots that they are accountable for the way they operate their aircraft in the region,” Chuck Street, executive director of the Los Angeles Area Helicopter Operators Association, told AIN. 

That said, Street points out that relatively few individuals drive most of the complaints, especially near one of L.A.’s biggest air tour attractions, the famed “Hollywood” sign. Street says the same 400 to 500 people are responsible for filing the 5,500 complaints registered with the ACS  every month and that near the Hollywood sign, in the 90068 zip code, the situation is even more skewed; of the 1,737 complaints filed there in April 2018, a single person filed 1,484;and another person filed 148. Together they accounted for 93.9 percent of all complaints in the zip code for the month. 

Requests for Solutions

However, the LAAHNC points out that the ACS has logged more than 250,000 complaints in its three years of operation and that the FAA has not used the data to provide or facilitate any noise relief. In an e-mail to AIN, LAAHNC board member Gerry Hans noted, “We feel that the FAA should be doing much more to facilitate helicopter noise reductions in LA County. The ACS has a major failing in that it does not identify helicopters by tail number or any other means. So, in practicality, having a good camera with a zoom lens works better. Without identification, follow-up actions to correct any offending pilot behavior is difficult and unlikely. We well know where the significant problem areas exist! What is more at issue here is establishing long-term, workable guidelines or measures for pilots, in terms of routes, AGLs, etc. That's hard to do without the FAA helping.”  

In a July 24 letter to acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell, Schiff and other members of California’s congressional delegation said that, while the ACS “has not been perfect and could use improvement, it has helped the community work with helicopter pilots and the FAA to address some of the complaints filed through the system.” Schiff and his colleagues encouraged the FAA to incorporate ADS-B tracking into the system when it becomes available in 2020 and to make the system available in other languages, including Spanish.

Meanwhile, Street and Morrie Zager, president of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association, have appealed directly to the L.A. County Board for ACS funding. Street said that setting up the system again from scratch would cost at least $250,000. Zager told AIN that thus far the County has been “non-responsive” to requests to fund the ACS. "I am not prepared to say that they are unwilling to do it. The County may simply be slow to respond,” Zager said.  

Failing county funding, Zager said, it is not the place of the helicopter community to underwrite the ACS. “Although we recognize the benefits of having real complaint data as opposed to the homeowners simply stating there’s a noise problem without data to back up their claims, I cannot envision helicopter operators or pilots taking on this financial burden. After all, we are not the ones lodging noise complaints,” he said.  

Zager said that the ACS and the accompanying monthly ACS committee meetings with the FAA, the helicopter community, and the LAAHNC, have been of value and produced results. “Armed with that [noise complaint] hot spot information, it has allowed Chuck [Street] and me to seek out the tour operators and engage them in dialog, including inviting many of them to our monthly meetings and having intimate meetings with the operators and select ‘high ranking’ noise coalition members, enabling the parties to meet face-to-face to discuss the issues. We believe empirical data is the best way to facilitate solutions. I also firmly believe we have made great progress over the past several years in working toward mitigating helicopter noise,” he said.