Helicopter pilots association agrees to a Q&A session on helicopter noise in Riverhead

Riverhead Town has scheduled a public forum on helicopter noise with the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith announced Tuesday night.

The forum — in a question-and-answer format — will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at Riverhead Town Hall.

The New Jersey-based Eastern Region Helicopter Council represents helicopter pilots and charter operators.

The FAA has told local officials the organization has been instrumental in determining flight paths of helicopters flying over the East End. The council worked with the FAA and communities on Long Island in 2008 to devise the North Shore helicopter route, which aimed to provide relief from helicopter noise to communities on the western reaches of the island. The route requires helicopters to remain offshore and to maintain minimum altitudes of 2,500 feet. It allows helicopters to cross from the north shore to the south shore — where they typically land at the Easthampton Town airport — over the North Fork.

Noise from he helicopter traffic has been the subject of numerous complaints by North Fork residents for years, who say noise from low-flying helicopters disrupts their quality of life. Many say the noise makes it impossible to have a conversation outdoors. Helicopters tend to fly repeatedly over the same areas, creating a parade of overhead flights, Jens-Smith said. Many of these aircraft fly so low that they rattle homes, even causing objects on walls to fall off, she said.

Residents have sought changes to the established route to require pilots to either follow an all-south shore route or to stay off shore east to Plum Gut, off Orient Point, and fly over water to East Hampton.

The FAA has declined to make any changes to the route, which was first established as a voluntary route in 2008. It was made mandatory by the FAA in 2012 and put in place for two years. The agency in 2014 extended it for two years and then in 2016, extended it for four more years without providing the customary 30-day notice or public comment period. The FAA said in its rule making notice at the time that it was conducting research into “modeling of helicopter performance and noise, helicopter noise-abatement procedures, and community response to helicopter noise.” The agency said it expected to have the research concluded in time to consider its results in “determining appropriate future actions on the rule.” The rule is scheduled to next expire in August 2020.

Last year, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) got an amendment to the FAA funding reauthorization bill passed that required the FAA to hold public hearings on the North Shore route in the communities impacted by helicopter flights and to open a public comment period on the route.

The FAA instead held informational forums on the route last November and did not take public testimony, further angering residents and elected officials.

“I encourage all residents who have been affected by helicopter noise to attend this meeting, and let your voice be heard,” Jens-Smith said. “For too long the residents of Riverhead and the East End have had their quality of life damaged by the constant helicopter fly-overs. This is an opportunity for residents to express just how much these policies have harmed them.”

Councilwoman Catherine Kent, who serves as the town board liaison to the town’s helicopter noise task force renewed the call for helicopters to remain off-shore rather than transition over the North Fork.

“Since they are heading to the South Shore the best solution is to require an all-water route over the Atlantic Ocean,” Kent said.

The Oct. 1 forum is slated to take place in the town hall meeting room.

Editor’s note: The time of the meeting was changed by the supervisor’s office from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.