HAI members Urged to File Comments With FAA Before Friday June 25. On May 26, 2010, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) entitled the New York North Shore Helicopter Route. This proposal would establish the first ever mandatory VFR route not predicated on safety or the efficient management of airspace, but rather on noise abatement. Specifically, the proposed rule would require helicopters flying in the vicinity of the north shore of Long Island, New York to follow a specific visual flight route 1.5 miles off the northern shoreline.

Although this proposal is ostensibly focused only on helicopters, and only on helicopters operating in a very limited geographical area, this NPRM poses a very real threat of new restrictions on access to airspace for all general aviation aircraft owners, operators and pilots across the country – helicopter and fixed wing alike. If allowed to stand, this rulemaking would establish a very dangerous open-ended, REGULATORY PRECEDENT for the establishment of mandated noise abatement routes across the country.

This rulemaking proposal reverses years of FAA policy – not on the basis of facts or data – but rather on the basis of political requests from several New York politicians.

Political pressure applied on the FAA was illustrated dramatically last week, when the FAA rejected a request from HAI, ERHC, NBAA, NATA, GAMA, and AOPA for a sixty-day extension of the comment period on the New York North Shore Helicopter Route proposal.

The FAA routinely responds favorably to legitimate requests for additional time to respond to a rulemaking – but not this time. This was a clear sign that the political pressure placed on the FAA is intense.

If we hope to counter political pressure and prevent this dangerous precedent that could jeopardize general aviation access to the national airspace, we need to act quickly. The official comment period on the New York North Shore Helicopter Route NPRM officially closes at the end of business on Friday, June 25. PLEASE RESPOND THIS WEEK – by letting the FAA know you are opposed to this rulemaking proposal.

To learn more about this NPRM, and to read Talking Points developed by EHRC, click here.

To link to ERHC’s Web site and file electronic comments with the FAA, click here.