Chopper traffic draws ire from some Torrance residents

Dec. 20, 2009 | KPCC Wire Services

TORRANCE — Some residents are demanding that hundreds of helicopter flights coming out of Torrance Municipal Airport fly higher, reducing the amount of clattering noise that reaches the beach.

Richard Root told the Daily Breeze that he plans to present the Torrance City Council on Tuesday with an online petition regarding the noise caused by the Robinson Helicopters factory at Torrance Municipal Airport.

An estimated 8,000 overflights occur yearly from the airport, where the small choppers are built. Robinson Helicopters is Torrance's fifth-largest employer, and people from around the world travel to the airport to learn to fly, which retail for $243,000 and up.

"It reached the tipping point for me a couple of years ago because the volume (of helicopters) seemed so high,'' Root told the newspaper.

The Hollywood Beach resident added that the worst of the problem is confined to an area some longtime locals have dubbed the Lower Hollywood Riviera, a triangle-shaped area bounded by Pacific Coast Highway, Palos Verdes Boulevard and Calle Mayor.

Root told the Daily Breeze that helicopters that are supposed to follow Pacific Coast Highway as they head out to the ocean often take a shortcut directly over the residential neighborhood.

"I sat in his yard with him,'' Roberta Blowers, co-president of the Hollywood Riviera Homeowners Association, told the newspaper. "You couldn't keep a conversation going. You had to stop every time a helicopter went over.''

Kurt Robinson, vice president of the Robinson Helicopter Co., told the Daily Breeze that flying at a higher altitude would increase the risk of helicopters colliding with aircraft.

"We're not an arrogant company; we try to work with the neighbors,'' said Robinson, adding that his company's flights exceed the altitudes recommended by an industry trade group.

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