I’ve been trying to work from home today and this helicopter has been hovering over my house for about an hour and a half now. It’s loud, obnoxious, and driving me crazy.
Is this something you can call the local police for? If so, do they have any way of resolving the situation proactively, or do they just talk to the pilot after he’s landed? Should I contact my local airport?
More generally, I know there are pilots who read this board, do you guys ever think about the noise your aircraft makes when planning routes/training exercises/sightseeing/whatever? Like, if I talked to a pilot, would he agree this helicopter pilot was being a jerk?
Maybe he got wind I was typing this post because it seems he’d moved off, at least for the moment. Thank God.
You cancontact the FAA. Helicopters don’t generally hover around one spot for no reason. Most likely a government operation of some kind (not the crazy kind, police looking for a fugitive, military or EMT airlift training) (unless it was a black helicopter).
Is it a military helicopter? If it is then you can call the base and they’ll let the pilots know not to do that. If it was civilian I’d try the airport.
I was never a pilot but I did use to fly in the military and we’d have certain height restrictions in the city as not to receive a complaint. So we’ve heard about them.
During the hour and a half this was going on I’m sure you had plenty of time to get the aircraft’s tail number, right? Rather than getting any authorities involved I’d probably just look up the aircraft owner first. Which may be a company renting it out, or a public agency, anything. What I found there would dictate my next step.
Honestly if I was at the controls I wouldn’t spend an hour and a half of my time and fuel just to annoy someone or see the sites in a residential neighborhood. Half hour, maybe. If I knew the guy and he was a total jerk. 1.5 hours, no way.
Are you sure there wasn’t something important going down close to your home?
Thanks, I’ll keep that link bookmarked if/when it ever comes up again.
And I know helicopters don’t “generally” hover in one place for no reason. It wasn’t obviously a Government-owned helicopter, but it was too high to read the tail number.
Did you go outside and try and get a tail number off it? That will help when you file the complaint so they know who it was.
Helicopters are expensive to operate and it is highly unlikely someone would be burning their dollars just hovering randomly about town for an hour and a half. Far more likely was that the helicopter pilot was working eg, traffic, police, military, rescue, construction, fire fighting etc, in which case they’re not being a jerk, just doing their job.
Yeah noise abatement is a big thing in the airline world. You have to use specific climb procedures and the departure and arrival routes may be designed to minimise the noise footprint. How much this is done depends on just how many people have complained after moving next to an airport only to be surprised that it actually has aeroplanes operating out of it and is therefore noisy.
In private flying in uncontrolled airspace it generally comes down to the pilot though.
Edit: I see you’ve answered my questions while I was typing them.
Yeah, that’s what I was trying to do too. I work from home specifically so I can get some peace and quiet, so my office is full of people who confuse it for a locker room and throw footballs during work hours.
Well obviously I knew the airport was here before I moved in, but there’s a big difference between “light planes take off maybe once an hour or so” and “helicopter hovers motionless for an hour and a half”.
The latter’s never happened until today. Since I don’t have a tail number or anything, I’ll just let it drop unless it happens again. Time to invest in a pair of binoculars I guess.
Do not call the police. The FAA is the only authority that would be able to do anything. The only times I have seen one hovering like that for a long period of time its been news helicopters. It might not have been anything serious that you would have heard about. Maybe just heavy traffic. I agree with Pearse, hovering is just burning up gas. Most likely it was a helicopter doing a specific job not just being a jerk for no reason.
Yeah, that wasn’t aimed at you*. A helicopter hanging around for an hour and a half is definitely an unreasonable disturbance, and you are well within your rights to make sure it is not happening without good reason.
It was aimed at those who live in Sydney and whose political clout result in me and my colleagues landing with a 20 knot tail wind on a short wet runway when it would be a whole lot safer to be landing the other way.
Next time anonymously call the FAA and explain that you were working on a nearby roof and noticed a thin stream of black smoke leaking from the undercarriage- maybe mention “exposed wires”.
The only time I see/hear helicopters hovering around here is when they’re looking for people who have disappeared into the lake. Lots of rip currents that people ignore warnings about, and lots of non-swimmers who think it’s a great idea to run waist-deep into a giant lake, or go boating with no life jackets, or dangle off a pier where the waves are so high they’re going over the pier. Lots of helicopters this summer.
When I lived in L.A. I was under the traffic pattern for Santa Monica AIrport. (Yay! ) People buy houses near the airport and then complain that there’s airport noise. Go figure. :rolleyes: Many people complained about helicopter noise specifically, to the point where helicopter operations at SMO are quite restricted. And yet, I was often kept awake at night by helicopters spending an hour or more in the airspace near my apartment. I love ‘airplane noise’ but sometimes it annoyed even me.
The thing is, the helicopters in my case were not people out poking holes in the sky at night. As someone upthread mentioned, helicopters are expensive to fly and no one is going to just hover/orbit for the fun of it. Rather, these were the LAPD doing what the LAPD does. The FAA won’t do anything because they are operating reasonably as law enforcement. The police won’t do anything because they are operating in accordance with their mission. It is unfortunate that some areas have high crime rates. But if you live in such an area, then it’s just one of the downsides like traffic, emergency vehicles, earthquakes, adverse weather, or whatever. I live a minute’s walk from the beach, but 25 minutes from town. In the Mojave Desert I had beautiful vistas and plenty of room to ride my Enduro, but I had to put up with the heat. In L.A. I was 20 minutes from the beach, 20 minutes from Hollywood, 20 minutes from most things; but I had police helicopters orbiting nearby with some frequency. :shrug:
Now speaking as a helicopter pilot: I was aware of the noise. Normally, a helicopter really isn’t that much louder than a Cessna; but helicopters operate under different rules because of their capabilities, mission, and such, that allow them to fly lower than fixed-wing aircraft. So they often seem louder. But again, a recreational pilot is not going to hang out over a location at more than $200/hour. He’s either going somewhere, or else he’s going to someplace where he can practice or enjoy the capabilities of rotary-wing flight. The noise heard below will only last several seconds.
The people I felt for were the ones who lived in the Santa Susanna Pass between the Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley. When returning to Van Nuys, helicopter pilots would have to descend after crossing over the pass. Semi-rigid rotor systems in particular (as used on Robinson R22s, the Bell 206s as used by the LAPD and other operators, and others) are subject to ‘blade slap’ when in a shallow descent at speed. This is the sharp ‘popping’ or ‘cracking’ noise that people often hear. Blade slap also happens frequently when a helicopter is orbiting an area. When I flew over the pass I’d try to minimise blade slap, but it was unavoidable. I’d mentally apologise to the people below, and flew away from their home as quickly as possible.
We saw a really cool site last year. A helicopter with a hanging giant chainsaw type tool clearing the area around power lines. I think I posted a pic here.
) People buy houses near the airport and then complain that there’s airport noise. Go figure. :rolleyes: Many people complained about helicopter noise specifically, to the point where helicopter operations at SMO are quite restricted. And yet, I was often kept awake at night by helicopters spending an hour or more in the airspace near my apartment. I love ‘airplane noise’ but sometimes it annoyed even me.