Mayors on the northern tip of the peninsula have been receiving irate phone calls from residents aggrieved by the cavalcade of helicopters that start zooming overhead in earnest on Fridays and continue zipping back and forth in a steady stream all weekend ending with a late Sunday afternoon and evening crescendo of racket. Concert-goers at Steppingstone Park have also complained about the disruptive noise from above.

The Great Neck Village Officials Association recruited Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick and Saddle Rock Mayor Leonard Samansky to look into the matter as they had had successful results with the Federal Aviation Administration several years ago when peninsula residents complained about some of the flight patterns coming out of LaGuardia. Both mayors reported that the two and a half hour meeting with Paul Lande and Stephanie Branta from the FAA and Heinz Graumann, the spokesperson from the Eastern Regional Helicopter Council was cordial and that all present understood the concerns of residents and want to cooperate in alleviating the concentration of copter flights over some neighborhoods.

Helicopters travel a northern route, a central route and a southern route over Long Island and are required to maintain a height of 1500 feet. Pilots use visual landmarks in their orientation, even though many helicopters have instrumentation panels similar to commercial fixed wing planes. According to Mr. Graumann, each pilot is "handed off" from one control tower to another, starting with LaGuardia, and moving to Farmingdale and Islip before ending at West Hampton.

Mayor Samansky said he was surprised to learn that for helicopter pilots on the northern route over Long Island, their first reporting point back to the tower at LaGuardia is their sighting of Udalls Mill Pond, located adjacent to the Great Neck Library. With Udalls Mill Pond as a visual point of reference for both out-going and incoming flights, it is no wonder that people on the north end of Great Neck are complaining.

Residents have been buzzing themselves, wondering why these flights do not go over Long Island Sound instead of residential areas. The representatives from the FAA stated that copters are not allowed to fly over the Sound because they might get in the way of planes departing and arriving at LaGuardia.

Residents further south are also affected since the reporting point on the central route is a tall office building in Lake Success.

Mayor Kalnick said, "It seems that everyone we met with wants to cooperate, but they do have legitimate limitations in working out a solution because they have a rather narrow corridor. We want to continue to work cooperatively with them because filing a petition to move a route could take years and perhaps accomplish nothing."

"The three things we stressed," said Mayor Samansky, "are noise, safety and security...We think they heard us and we will keep you posted on any progress."

The helicopter industry has a "Fly Neighborly" program under the auspices of the Helicopter Association International and has been promoting noise abatement through pilot and operator awareness, flight operations planning and promotion of technology that will muffle the noise of the rotors.

According to sound engineer Jerome Goodman, P.E. the noise from low frequency emissions is more than a nuisance; he stated that studies have shown that regular exposure to such noise actually promotes physiological changes in the body, specifically, a rise in blood pressure. Resident Laura Auerbach believes him. As she clocks up to 20 pass-overs an hour, she says she can "feel her blood boil."

Usually, the friendly skies get quieter after the Labor Day weekend and if the current Wall Street jitters and fall-out continue, some of the "Masters of the Universe" may feel the Ouch! factor in taking flights from Manhattan to out East that cost $1,600 a pop.

Meanwhile, if you want to add your voice to the chorus of residents who are fed up with the constant crisscrossing of helicopters overhead, you may visit a blogsite, created by Laura Auerbach at www.buzzoffli.blogspot.com.