Seeking tranquil skies
The opinion piece (“Save HVNP from air tours,” Tribune-Herald, March 31) by U.S. Rep. Ed Case speaks eloquently to the opposition many in the community feel toward commercial air tours.
Mr. Case correctly states that air tour helicopter traffic is annoying and inappropriate. He expresses a bold and completely appropriate resolution that would ban air tours, which is one of the alternatives proposed in the draft Air Tour Management Plan.
In addition to the recommendation expressed by Mr. Case, I suggest the draft plan needs to recognize that tour helicopters are as aggravating to those who live in communities near the national park as they are to park visitors. Furthermore, the draft plan needs to be directed especially toward the tour owners and operators, who are ultimately obliged to concede the reality that they are the cause of the problem and are the primary source of resistance to solving the problem.
For the two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, we lived under mostly quiet skies because there were few customers for tours. This was a profound blessing for those of us who live under flight corridors and who venture into wild places. Absent the annoying sounds of aircraft motors and the presence of overhead machines, we were reminded how pleasant it is to walk a forest trail, to hear the calls of birds, to wander peacefully into quiet places of our parks and wildlands, and to lounge quietly in our homes.
With the relaxation of COVID restrictions and the return of visitors, we are again subjected to intrusive helicopter overflights. The helicopters arrive around 8 a.m. every morning and are visible or audible until 4 p.m. in the afternoon most days. Rainy days occasionally provide the times when we get relief from these flights.
Flight operators are nominally restricted by rules from the Federal Aviation Administration, a federal agency whose primary purpose is to promote aircraft safety, but which appears in addition to promote the full utilization of air space, under an illusion that the pilots have a prior claim to air space that supersedes that of the National Park Service.
The FAA and the NPS are sister agencies of the federal government whose purposes are to serve the people. Sadly, we notice the inability of either agency to agree on sensible restrictions that would bring relief to most of us below.
We who seek tranquil skies have no quarrel with pilots. They are neighbors and friends. Nor do we wish ill of the clerks and site managers, who need jobs and do good work. What is needed from air tour managers and operators is compassion and the will to engage meaningfully with regulatory administrators and demonstrate that they have the desire and ability to make changes in their operations. We pray they will show the communities below that they care about the noise they bring to our neighborhoods and that they sincerely respect the value of silence in our wild spaces.
We encourage the sister agencies of government to have the will and capacity to cooperate and agree on terms that will serve their mutual purposes. If the FAA and the NPS can do this, we will be eternally grateful.
Dan Taylor
Volcano
‘We had our fun’
Thank God the Will Smith slap was between the same race and gender! It led to millions of people laughing at the subsequent jokes and memes!
If it had occurred between different races and/or genders, we would still be raging about it with all the hate we could muster.
Simply, it was a comedian telling a joke in poor taste under pressure to shock, and a man making a poor, quick, violent judgement under pressure from his wife’s glare. Both not a good sign for our society.
But while we were laughing and Googling for more slap jokes and memes (I know I did!), people were still dying in Ukraine, and devastating, real suffering still engulfed so much of the world.
Here’s an idea: Instead of looking for laughs on the internet, use it to donate to the Red Cross or something. We had our fun. Help someone have life.
Leighton Loo
Mililani, Oahu