Whirlybirds’ Romance Raises a Ruckus : Van Nuys Airport: Tourists see the lights of the city. Residents below only see red. The FAA has opposed other attempts to ban air activity.

The light show began almost immediately after the helicopter lifted from its pad at the Van Nuys Airport.

Through the plexiglass windshield of the Bell Jetranger, Japanese tourists Toshiaki and Toshiko Matsuda watched the lights of the homes, shops, cars and traffic signals below glitter like thousands of Fourth of July sparklers.

In the distance, a half-crescent moon glowed silver while the young honeymooners snapped photos.

Later, while enjoying a candle-lit dinner that came with the helicopter-sightseeing package, Toshiaki Matsuda said through an interpreter: “It was just wonderful. It was great.”

Last year, about 12,200 people took nighttime helicopter sightseeing flights from Van Nuys Airport. Most were foreign tourists who, like Toshiaki and Toshiko, wanted to celebrate a special occasion with a birds-eye view of the city.

Although such sightseeing tours constitute less than a tenth of the approximately 150 helicopter flights a day out of the airport, they come in for special criticism from homeowner groups in Encino, Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks.

Residents who complain that the din of helicopter rotors rattles their nerves and disrupts their sleep say that, unlike emergency police and fire flights out of the airport, the sightseeing tours provide no public service and are the equivalent of joy-riding.

Partly as a result of a citizen’s campaign against the flights, the number of helicopter noise complaints has shot up from an average of about 11 a month during the past year to 272 in June and 192 in July, according to Van Nuys Airport officials.

In response to the outcry from his constituents, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky wrote last month to the head of the city’s Department of Airports, asking that the department ban all nighttime helicopter flights from Van Nuys Airport except for emergency services.

The letter drew protests from helicopter operators who argued that such a ban would ruin their businesses and further erode the city’s tourism industry, which already has been dramatically weakened by the recession and the April-May riots. They charge that the noise complaints are coming from a handful of “chronic complainers” who exaggerate the noise problem.

“My point with the councilman is, does he want to back businesses or the complaints of a few constituents,” said Nigel Turner, president of HeliLA, which flies out of Van Nuys and is the largest helicopter sightseeing company in the state.

Turner sold about 12,000 dinner and sightseeing tours last year, mostly to tourists from Japan, Germany and England. Another 200 or so dinner tours were sold by HeliNet, a Van Nuys-based charter company that also makes two flights a night to transport checks from San Fernando Valley banks to a processing center in downtown Los Angeles.

Turner’s company employs 25 and averages eight flights a night between 7:30 and 10:30. HeliNet’s vice president, Kathy Deetz, said her company employs 70 and flies an average of four sightseeing trips a week. These are the only two companies offering regular sightseeing tours.

The tour operators said their tourism business dropped off as much as 40% since the riots.

“In this economy, when we are all struggling to keep people employed, I don’t understand why people are trying to get us out of work,” said Deetz.

But Yaroslavsky had little sympathy for the helicopter companies. “I think it is absurd for the helicopter tour owners to defend themselves behind the fig leaf of jobs when what they are doing is disrupting the lives of thousands of people,” he said.

The councilman’s proposal, however, is likely to run into opposition from the Federal Aviation Administration, which has in the past vehemently opposed attempts by local jurisdictions to ban a particular aircraft or specific aircraft activity.

Fred O’Donnell, an FAA spokesman, said local jurisdictions receive federal money for airport improvement projects on the condition that the airports remain accessible to all aircraft on an equal basis.

“We would look very, very closely at any type of ordinance that they would propose to see whether or not it would be discriminatory,” O’Donnell said.

The only way to ban nighttime helicopter tours, he said, would be for the city of Los Angeles to impose a curfew for all aircraft, as the city of Santa Monica has done.

Van Nuys Airport Manager Ron Kochevar said the city attorney’s office is reviewing Yaroslavsky’s proposal to determine if a nighttime helicopter ban would be legal. He said the review may take a few weeks.

Yaroslavsky said he wrote to the FAA last year to request that the agency adjust area flight patterns to allow helicopters from Van Nuys to safely fly higher over the Santa Monica Mountains. But the request was rejected, he said.

“The FAA has not been helpful to us at all,” he said. “I’m not surprised that the FAA would be the fly in the ointment.”

Still, neighborhood groups applaud Yaroslavsky’s efforts, saying the sightseeing tours are nuisance flights that provide no public service.

“I was very encouraged to see Mr. Yaroslavsky take a position on this,” said Don Schultz, president of Ban Airport Noise, a Valley-wide organization dedicated to placing noise restrictions on the airport. “I think it’s a frivolous type of operation.”

Doran Kauper, a member of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said he has helped circulate a petition that has been signed by “hundreds of people” who oppose the nighttime helicopter flights.

But Turner defended his company, saying his pilots fly at least 800 feet above residential areas and try to stay over freeways and undeveloped areas while in flight. Kevin Walton, one of Turner’s pilots, said Turner often has told him to adjust his route to avoid noise-sensitive neighborhoods.

Turner also suggests that many residents may be complaining about noise generated by emergency services helicopters.

An independent study commissioned last year by the Department of Airports found that an average of 147 helicopters land and take off from the airport every day and that 22% are police, fire and city services helicopters.

The report by Communiquest Marketing, a Manhattan Beach company specializing in airport noise issues, said the number of nighttime sightseeing tours “exacerbates noise sensitivity in this area.” But the report also said that over a three-night observation period, the sightseeing pilots “for the most part” maintained the proper altitudes and remained within designated departure routes.

Turner also questioned the increase in noise complaints, saying he believes the complaints were orchestrated by Gerald A. Silver, a longtime critic of the airport and president of Homeowners of Encino. “I mean, Gerry Silver is making a big deal out of this,” he said.

Silver acknowledged that he distributed literature and flyers in May to tell Encino residents how to file a helicopter noise complaint. He said he publicized the noise complaint process to bring attention to the helicopter problem at the airport and because airport officials were not making the information readily available.

Still, he said, all the complaints were based on bona fide noise concerns.

“It’s not fair for the helicopter people to blame the messenger,” he said. “We are not making the noise problem.”

But the flap over helicopter noise on the ground has so far had no effect on the nightly sightseeing flights above.

Raymond Biggerstaff and his new bride Karen, both from Scotland, took the HeliLA tour Wednesday as part of their honeymoon vacation in Southern California. They said the flight was recommended by their tour guide, and they both agreed that it was worth $99-per-person.

“It’s not often you get to see Los Angeles from the air,” Raymond Biggerstaff said.

The most popular package offered by HeliLA begins at the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant at the north end of the Van Nuys Airport runway. From there, the passengers are taken in a stretch limousine to a helicopter pad.

Normally, two couples share the ride, with one person sitting next to the pilot and three in the rear. They are strapped in and fitted with radio headphones that muffle the rotor noise but allow them to hear the pilot describe the scenery below.

During a recent trip, the helicopter departed south over the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, turned east over Burbank Boulevard and then south over the Santa Monica Mountains near Van Nuys Boulevard. After winging past such notable tourist sites as Sunset Boulevard, Mann’s Chinese Theater, the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood sign, the helicopter returned by flying west over the Ventura Freeway then north over the San Diego Freeway.

Once back on the ground 15 minutes later, the passengers were then returned via limousine to the restaurant for a meal of either filet mignon or a catch-of-the-day entree with a glass of wine, all part of the package.

Steve and Annette Walker, a couple from England also honeymooning in Southern California, said they would have liked to stay airborne at least 20 minutes longer. “You couldn’t get a better view from a 747” jet, Steve Walker said. “It’s like the lights go on forever.”