By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — There's a new kind of bird watching happening on the Upper West Side.
People who've been driven batty by helicopters whirring overhead can now use a "cheat sheet" from the city's Economic Development Corporation to spot choppers that are breaking the law by not following proper flight paths.
The city started fining helicopters $100 in February if they violate route rules. Those fines ratchet up to $1,000 per violation in May.
The new regulations follow years of complaints about the noisy whirly-birds. City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's office received "dozens and dozens" of angry phone calls about droning choppers back in 2009, said Jesse Bodine, Brewer's director of constituent services.
Since then, new laws have gone into effect for sightseeing helicopters. They're no longer allowed to zip around Manhattan and buzz over Central Park. Instead tour helicopters have to follow two specific flight paths.
But the city depends on the public to call in complaints about the rogue helicopters, and the cheat sheet is supposed to make that easier. The full-color flier has pictures of helicopters that fly over the city and explanations of what each type of helicopter does.
For example, the Bell Helicopter B-206 is used for aerial cinematography, air tours, corporate charters, and news gathering, while the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, also known as Marine One, is used for transporting the president.
The cheat sheet also shows a map of the two legal flight paths for tour helicopters.
People who spot a tour helicopter they suspect of breaking the new rules can call 311 and tell the operator the type and location of the alleged misbehaving chopper. Then EDC can compare that information with its own tracking system, which shows where and when tour helicopters are operating, Bodine said.
"If you're walking in Central Park or you're walking on West End Avenue and there's a black and gold helicopter, that shouldn't be there (if) it's a tour helicopter, and you can call that in," Bodine said.
But some called the cheat sheet too little, too late.
Upper West Sider Rhonda Waggoner, who lives on the 16th floor of a building at West 86th Street near Riverside Drive, said the noise from helicopters has gotten so bad that she wears ear plugs to shut out the racket.
"It's one after another, a grinding roar," Waggoner said. "It's like living on a subway platform. It's a feeling of dread from the time you get up until darkness."
Waggoner doesn't like the cheat sheet idea because she think it's the city's responsibility to track errant helicopters. Waggoner wants the city to use video camera to monitor helicopters, the way cameras at traffic intersections nab red-light running cars.
"The onus shouldn't be on citizens who are about to kill themselves from the noise and vibration to identify the helicopters," Waggoner said. "Get a camera to monitor the offenders."
The helicopter "cheat sheet" is available on the Economic Development Corporation's website, or at City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's district office at 563 Columbus Ave. and West 87th Street.
