Don’t Clip Wings of Public-Spirited Helicopter Industry : Through fires, floods, and riots, pilots have brought Angelenos relief, information and protection. Proposal to change rules is misguided, even dangerous.

The past three years in Los Angeles were filled with events that reshaped our city’s future, the people that live here and, when the earth shook on Jan. 17, 1994, the very earth upon which the city is built. During each of those defining events the local helicopter industry has been at the forefront of providing Angelenos relief, information and protection.

During the first 48 hours of the 1992 riots, the only accurate information came from news media and public service helicopters, airborne with cameras and microphones on a 24-hour schedule.

Reginald Denny owes his life in part to the helicopters that broadcast his savage beating and prompted good Samaritans to rush to his rescue.

What Southern Californian can forget the searing pictures of fires whipping through neighborhoods where heroic helicopter water drops saved home after home, pilots and machines were tossed around by the heat, and pilots landed amid fire and smoke to rescue terrified homeowners?

The floods saw rescue after rescue, not just by firefighters and police officers but by people in helicopters who were in the right place at the right time.

Every day, news people in helicopters broadcast road closures, rockslides and dangerous conditions, sometimes before authorities know about them. A few days ago a TV news pilot and cameraman were honored by the California Highway Patrol for spotting a trapped driver in bushes along a freeway.

Despite helicopters’ contributions, they are the object of criticism in some quarters and were denounced the week before last before a committee of the Los Angeles City Council. There, Councilman Marvin Braude instructed the city attorney’s office to inform the council--which has no authority over aviation--of what it can do to bring about regulation of helicopter flights over Los Angeles. The council probably is limited to making recommendations to federal authorities--but it should not do even that. The criticism of helicopters over Los Angeles is misguided and wrong.

One critic of helicopter flights recently referred to the Van Nuys Airport as a “once rural” airfield that has become the major source of noise in the San Fernando Valley. “Once rural” is exactly right. Forty years have passed since anyone could describe Van Nuys as rural.

Flights out of Van Nuys today include hundreds of general-aviation airplanes, from the smallest Cessna to large jets and, yes, helicopters. They belong to the Los Angeles fire, police and general services departments, and to commercial helicopter companies. This is, after all, an airport. All these aircraft fly along routes established after careful consideration and participation by the airport’s neighbors.

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For years the Van Nuys Citizens Advisory Council has worked with the Federal Aviation Administration, Van Nuys Airport officials and helicopter operators to establish routes. The airport and the companies that call it home form the nucleus of the largest single place of employment in the San Fernando Valley. The airport manager, Ron Kochivar, and the aviation operators are open to suggestions for improvements.

Regulations are already on the books that, if followed, would have probably prevented the recent Saturday night crash in the Cahuenga Pass that led to Braude’s hearing. That pilot had little helicopter pilot-in-command experience and apparently ignored critical regulations. His lack of experience and resulting poor judgment seem to have contributed to his hitting wires and crashing, although the final National Transportation Safety Board report is not completed.

Forcing helicopters to fly higher, as some have proposed, would ignore their longstanding and exemplary safety record gained flying at current standard altitudes. It would squeeze the helicopter and airplane traffic into less airspace. Rather than decreasing the chance of midair collisions, it would increase them dramatically, by crowding different types of aircraft together. When a similar regulation was put into effect over Hawaii, the NTSB recommended that it be immediately rescinded for safety reasons.

The Professional Helicopter Pilots Assn. was established almost 30 years ago to provide a forum for pilots to share experiences and to create a safer environment for flight in Southern California. Through the years the association has evolved further, and while safety is still our main concern, we have become an educational and informational focal point for both the helicopter community and the community served by helicopters.

The issue before us is how best to maintain a safe flying environment and respond to the legitimate concerns of the citizens over whom we fly. The airspace belongs to all of us. We are a community. The only way a community can grow together is to learn about the needs of its different parts. The Professional Helicopter Pilots Assn. believes that education and strong lines of communication between the helicopter community and concerned citizens have yielded tangible results in reducing noise and raising the awareness of homeowners to the important work that helicopters perform.

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The California association and the Helicopter Assn. International in Alexandria, Va., are educating pilots and agencies to the need to fly neighborly. Operational manuals of helicopter companies teach their pilots how to lessen the noise impact. Helicopter manufacturers such as McDonnell Douglas, Bell and Eurocopters are incorporating new technology to decrease the helicopter’s noise.

Educating helicopter pilots on community needs and educating the community on the value of a healthy and vibrant local helicopter industry--this is how Los Angeles will solve any compatibility problems. We must work together and ignore those who would discredit a part of the Los Angeles family that has served her citizens so well.