4 ms·

Zero chance of helicopters in cities after 9/11. You can’t fly helicopters over SF or Manhattan anymore except for medical purposes.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> can’t fly helicopters over SF or Manhattan Both cities have plenty of potential even with overland banned. New York has a thriving helicopter business between boroughs, up and down both sides of Long Island and to and from the airports. The Bay Area isn’t similarly knitted together, but there is no good argument for not having an electric hop from e.g. Mountain View to SFO.
- CoastalCoder 4y ago
  Can someone comment on why the parent would be (as of this writing) downvoted? I'm wondering if there's some context I'm missing.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Best guess? Because the helicopter restrictions have nothing to do with 9/11.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  Worth noting that the "thriving" helicopter business is uniformly disliked by residents, due to noise pollution[1]. [1]: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-lawmakers-target-manhattan-helicopter-noise-complaints-20220515-uddcc42wsjctlmvoxg5cqr2ipe-story.html https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections...
mlyle 4y ago
Helicopters aren't banned over Manhattan, etc, despite repeated efforts to do so. In the late 1970's, all the building-top helipads stopped operation after repeated accidents. Still, there's the helipads along the river and a VFR corridor in and out of Manhattan. In 2009, the altitude rules for the corridor got a lot stricter because of repeated fatal accidents.
- merely-unlikely 4y ago
  I was under the impression you can only fly over the rivers. Is that not true?
  - mlyle 4y ago
    There's a VFR corridor over the rivers where you don't have to talk to air traffic control. Otherwise, you're going to need to talk to LaGuardia. If you're a tour operator and want to use a city heliport, you need to sign a very restrictive agreement about operations, too-- which allows only limited overland stuff (e.g. flying over Yankee's Stadium/the Bronx). Mostly because people were sick of tourist helicopters constantly hovering over Central Park. https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/rules-tightened-for-helicopter-tours/ https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/rules-tightene... None of this has anything directly to do with 9/11. Crashes of tourist helicopters and noise concerns has caused the city to clamp down on use of helipads. Crashes of air taxi operations in the 1970s caused the removal of the vast majority of helipads.
rklaehn 4y ago
There are also big cities outside America. Plenty of helicopters in Sao Paulo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiybWbyfQIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiybWbyfQIY
lastofthemojito 4y ago
How is Blade flying people between Manhattan and the Hamptons? https://www.blade.com https://www.blade.com
- merely-unlikely 4y ago
  The helipads are all on the rivers not inside Manhattan
ur-whale 4y ago
Zero chance in the US which - increasingly - is not the center of the world.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> can’t fly helicopters over SF or Manhattan Both cities have plenty of potential even with overland banned. New York has a thriving helicopter business between boroughs, up and down both sides of Long Island and to and from the airports. The Bay Area isn’t similarly knitted together, but there is no good argument for not having an electric hop from e.g. Mountain View to SFO.

CoastalCoder 4y ago
Can someone comment on why the parent would be (as of this writing) downvoted? I'm wondering if there's some context I'm missing.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Best guess? Because the helicopter restrictions have nothing to do with 9/11.
woodruffw 4y ago
Worth noting that the "thriving" helicopter business is uniformly disliked by residents, due to noise pollution[1]. [1]: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-lawmakers-target-manhattan-helicopter-noise-complaints-20220515-uddcc42wsjctlmvoxg5cqr2ipe-story.html https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections...

mlyle 4y ago

Helicopters aren't banned over Manhattan, etc, despite repeated efforts to do so. In the late 1970's, all the building-top helipads stopped operation after repeated accidents. Still, there's the helipads along the river and a VFR corridor in and out of Manhattan. In 2009, the altitude rules for the corridor got a lot stricter because of repeated fatal accidents.

merely-unlikely 4y ago
I was under the impression you can only fly over the rivers. Is that not true?
- mlyle 4y ago
  There's a VFR corridor over the rivers where you don't have to talk to air traffic control. Otherwise, you're going to need to talk to LaGuardia. If you're a tour operator and want to use a city heliport, you need to sign a very restrictive agreement about operations, too-- which allows only limited overland stuff (e.g. flying over Yankee's Stadium/the Bronx). Mostly because people were sick of tourist helicopters constantly hovering over Central Park. https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/rules-tightened-for-helicopter-tours/ https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/rules-tightene... None of this has anything directly to do with 9/11. Crashes of tourist helicopters and noise concerns has caused the city to clamp down on use of helipads. Crashes of air taxi operations in the 1970s caused the removal of the vast majority of helipads.

rklaehn 4y ago

There are also big cities outside America. Plenty of helicopters in Sao Paulo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiybWbyfQIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiybWbyfQIY

lastofthemojito 4y ago

How is Blade flying people between Manhattan and the Hamptons? https://www.blade.com https://www.blade.com

merely-unlikely 4y ago
The helipads are all on the rivers not inside Manhattan

ur-whale 4y ago

Zero chance in the US which - increasingly - is not the center of the world.