Hassled By Limo Driver

Discussing all the old copters with Tom on the New and Aircraft Visitors Forum had me rtecalling an incident at the now closed East 60 street Heliport in Manhattan. If you know the heliport there was an access road the went down to the heliport and you could look over the wall of this road and have an unbelievable view of the heliport. So close you thought the tail rotor might hit ya!! LOL!! Well one day I was videotaping an arriving corporate Dauphin helicopter when all of a sudden I hear someone calling out to get down and stop taping. I look to see it was the limo driver of the passengers from the helicopter. Big black guy and he was pretty adamant that I stop and threatened to take my camera. Of course I backed away as i told him how wrong he was and it wouldnt happen. LOL!! Well luckily (for him or me?) his passengers were waiting now by the car so he had to hurry back to them. I went back to my spotting and when they drove past he gave me a nasty look. Thankfully I never had a run in again with him or anyone else. In fact the heliport workers were very cool and never hassled me about taking pictures or just watching. Great location and was sad when it was closed.

sounds like the pax he had riding might have been more threathened by being video taped than anything else.

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sounds like the pax he had riding might have been more threathened by being video taped than anything else.

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I wondered about that. It was an older couple. I believe the ship was owned by the Gannett Newspaper chain.

The current East Side Heliport has generally been pretty friendly towards me, in ways they don't even have to be, although I usually don't have a need for any direct interaction.

But a *few* of the Liberty Helicopter guys running out of all three NYC Heliports these days can be (at times) difficult or overly agressive - almost as if they believe they own the heliports, surrounding property and who knows what else. Pilots are fine though...

Tom

Another great place to spot the old 60th street heliport was from Roosevelt Island, If you had a decent lens.

>Another great place to spot the old 60th street heliport was from Roosevelt Island, If you had a decent lens.<

Working in Manhattan and at the time living in LIC I used to take the tramway to Roosevelt Island, the free bus to the bridge then hiked over the bridge home. When the weather was really nice I used to sit by the water under the tram tower with a few brews and watch the action at 60st.
The best was the take-offs as they gained altitude and speed and zoomed past you.
Good times!!!