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Citizen complaint of the day: That stupid copter has doubled back to Roslindale, get it outaaa heah!
By adamg on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 2:17pm
It only seems like the copter's gotten tangled in the wires along Rowe Street.
A fed-up citizen filed a 311 complaint this morning about that helicopter Amtrak hired to survey the power lines along the Northeast Corridor, which had been slowly moving north, but which is now hovering low over Roslindale again, specifically, Rowe Street:
Noise pollution low flying helicopter violating many airspace’s disturbing the peace. Trying to have some peace in my house and can’t, get it outaa here.
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Comments
Airspace's
So our home's/backyard's are our "airspace's" now.
mmmkay's
The right to quiet enjoyment or some such other wording …
… has been granted by the city for a while now.
Noise pollution is a thing. Protection from it is for rich and poor alike.
Whoosh's
The's city's doesn't's control's the's FAA's or's the's airspace's.
(I know this because I live under one of those "can't hold a conversation" flight paths).
Logan is not Amtrak.
Not everyone is defeatist.
Whoosh away.
's
's's's's's's's's's's's's's's'
Lol's
The FAA controls all the airspace above 60'. That's why you can't just go out and fly a drone around.
Recent picture of Lee complaining about clouds in "their" personal "airspace's":
Good one, Chicken Little.
Cluck, cluck, goose.
Not to be that guy...
...but I'm pretty sure helicopters are regulated by the Mass Aeronautics Commission, not FAA. Same goes for banner planes and other small private aircraft. Helicopter's flight paths seem to be limited to some extent, to flying over highways, rail lines and waterbodies like the Charles. For this work I suspect they filed some sort of flight plan with MAC. Maybe there' s a UHUBber pilot that knows this stuff better, idk?
Uh oh!
You’re in trouble now…
The state may regulate where feds do not
The FAA regulates the airspace around the area in question: https://www.massport.com/logan-airport/about-logan/logan-airspace-map/
Vertical airspace is
Vertical airspace is considered part of a property up to a certain elevation. I forget what the ceiling is, but it's certainly higher that the 60 or so feet above street level I've seen that helo hovering at.
Yes, our back yards are airspace
Federal law allows aircraft, including drones, to fly over private property, even right up to our back windows. And if we interfere with them, we're breaking the law.
Drone
They should use a drone for a fraction of the cost and noise.r
Drone limitations
Consumer drones don't have the range, flight time, or payload capacity to do this kind of inspection. Amtrak could, and probably should, use the kind of commercial drones used for powerline inspection and similar tasks, but these cost tens of thousands of dollars, and are quite large and quite noisy. They would also excite the paranoids even more than helicopters do.
Accepted technology
It i a pain, I agree. The chopper was also down again by Blakemore Bridge today (Sunday) as well. We had it run from Forest Hills to Blakemore on Saturday, and a week ago it was between Blakemore and Cummins.
Press south of Boston has been running stories on this since September. The company under contract specializes in the aerial inspection and photography of power lines. Aside from Amtrak they also work for power companies.
This is a new and already proven technology. Similar such inspections by helicopter and less-often by drones is commonplace on remote tracks west of the Mississippi. Similar flights can also use SONAR, RADAR, and LIDAR to detect below-ground issues or locate things such as drainage conduits, utility lines passing under or alongside tracks, or capped passageways.
If this was done by a track crew at track level the railroads would have to slow or stop trains or change tracks resulting in delays. While annoying, this process assures a good inspection to identify potential problem areas that can be followed up by a human crew, while trains can continue at speed.
The high-voltage wires were installed about 30 years ago (give or take) so a timely inspection at this point in time is needed. The flights also identify areas where tree branches may be fouling the power lines, or will be soon, allowing for preventive maintenance.
The last time a tree branch fouled those lines near me (Blakemore Bridge area) it was spectacular, and the fire department could do nothing until it was verified that power had been cut.
The answer is simple
Get rid of the electric trains and no more helicopters.
/s
Okay
I hate traffic copters. Ban cars and no traffic copters. /s
they could do track inspection using...get ready...a train
and that train could run at night when the NE corridor isn't running.
Catenary/track inspection the world around is done by a special train car. Not flying a helicopter burning thousands of dollars of jet-a a day
Most railroads have "geometry cars"
They run as part of a train, and analyze the rails and what lies beneath them. They are no more obstructive to traffic than any other train. If you watch Virtual Railfan webcams, they are frequent sights.
This is very interesting
but according to the original story, the helicopter isn't inspecting the rails, it's inspecting the poles that carry the wires.
The catenary wires were installed in 1999-2000
It took Amtrak about three months to put up the catenary wires during the summer of 1999; trains did not run to Hyde Park so shuttle vans picked us up at Fairmount.
I remember the day the electric trains began service on January 31, 2000 - I was waiting at Hyde Park for the usual 6:30 train to Back Bay, and the first train with an electric engine roared past at speed (120mph?) on the middle track.
I know. I mean, I know this
I know. I mean, I know this the city, but really? Back and forth, back and forth, all day. The rumbling is crazy along with the noise and extra dose of air pollution. Why, exactly?
I’m torn on this
On the one hand, I can see how a helicopter suddenly hovering near one’s house would be disconcerting. On the other hand, it has been a known thing for several days, and it is a helicopter doing maintenance work that needs a view from above.
I’ve been running along the line several times in the past week. I may have just noticed it today, or it was somehow a different copter along the line. Not really a big deal. Hardly a nuisance.
This does bring up one gripe I have with my neighbors. A copter overhead is hardly “noise pollution.” If you don’t like copters, trains, and the like, move west of Worcester, where you can avoid city noises.
Noise pollution is measured in decibels.
No exemptions for helicopters or advance notice.
Of course you have “one gripe”. It’s practically your tag line.
Plenty of cheaper land in Northern New England
Sorry, but perhaps because I have spent my entire life in Boston, overwhelmingly in Roslindale, I've become a bit immune to the sounds of trains, planes, helicopters, and the like. Just like how I have barely noticed these helicopters. There are places where you won't hear such things.
You're probably one of those people who moved to the neighborhood then started complaining a year or 2 later how the "quality of life" has gone down.
Born in Boston.
Lived and worked within city boundaries most of my entire life all over town.
I don’t know which of us is older but you certainly have more gripes.
I never throw the “I’m a native and can tell people to leave” in anyone’s face. To me that’s a sure sign of insecurity about if you actually belong here. I doubt you have the insight to even understand that.
Boston itself belongs to the nation because of its history.
I'm not
Gonna say it's a blight on the neighborhood but it's odd to me how the copter stopped by Forest Hills again today for an hour maybe and had to get more data or do whatever surveying process they have been doing that couldn't have been already accomplished.
There is federal code about this!
14 CFR 91.119
Basically an airplane has to be operated at a height where it can safely land if it has an engine failure, and no lower than 1000' over the highest obstacle within 2 miles (so in Boston ~1500 amsl, give or take, but probably higher given a glide path to an airport).
But helicopters are exempt!
And when there's a derailment
And when there's a derailment, you'll whine that Amtrack didn't do enough to prevent it.
This never would have
This never would have happened in old Rozzi.