Landmark Plaza Heliport, Whitestone, NY

Hoping some of your rotorheads here might be able to offer a little insight or info beyond what I've just taught myself.

I realized that very close to my house is a heliport, which I'm a little annoyed for not knowing, even though I don't think it's been used in quite a while.

http://www.airportlanding.com/view-2NK8 ... IPORT.html

According to http://skyvector.com/airport/2NK8/Landm ... a-Heliport, the pad is on the roof, explaining the 80MSL altitude (this building is actually the EZ-Pass center for the area). But I wonder why there'd be a heliport here. Are there gov offices in the buildings I don't know of? Maybe something pertaining to the USPS center accross the street? Hmmm

I don't know much about helicopter stuffs. Also, what's the newest revision on heli charts? The one on SkyVector still has Shea Stadium. :evil:

I'm sure not many of you remember or even know that is close to the site of what used to be Flushing airport. It was a working General aviation facility until about the late 1970's. I remeber being able to see it from the Whitestone Expy, and what always stood out to me was that there always seemed to be a puddle (make that a lake) in the middle of the very short runway.

I'm very very familiar with Flushing Airport, but I don't think this is related to it, as even when FLU was functional, it was across the street from where this helipad is. In addition, documents clearly state that the pad is on top of the building, and therefore unrelated to the defunct airport.

A coworkers actually told me that she saw a chopper VERY low in that area last week, and she's pretty insistent that it was not a police chopper and was too low even for news choppers standards. Maybe just a freak chance that she saw this, but oh well.

I am pretty sure rooftop landings were abolished after the Pan-Am incident in 1977. The EZ-Pass building might just still have the pad

Good point, that sounds very probable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NYCMedic

I am pretty sure rooftop landings were abolished after the Pan-Am incident in 1977. The EZ-Pass building might just still have the pad

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Not positive, but I think that building was built in the 80s.

Actually, according to Airnav, it was activated in 1987.

Anyone can put a helipad on their roof. What was the building before it was used for EZPass? Could have been built by someone who had too much money on his hands at the time. I'll look into what we have.

It's an office building with several tenants. It is now owned by Pistilli Landmark Plaza LLC, was formerly owned by Landmark Associates, which in 1986 took out a mortgage on the property in the name of one Michael J. Russo...the same guy listed as the heliport manager FAA records. :)

Michael J. Russo
Director
Flushing Financial Corporation
Lake Success , NY

74 Years Old
Michael J. Russo is self-employed as a consulting engineer and serves as Chairman of the Board and Corporate Secretary of Fresh Meadow Mechanical Corp., a mechanical contracting firm. Mr. Russo is President and Director of Operations of Northeastern Aviation Corp., an aircraft charter and management firm, and is a partner in AMF Associates, a commercial real estate company. Mr. Russo also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Flushing Hospital Medical Center. Prior to retiring in 2004, Mr. Russo served as Chairman of the Board of Anthony Russo, Inc., a general contracting firm, for over 40 years.

[quote="emshighway"]Michael J. Russo
Director
Flushing Financial Corporation
Lake Success , NY

Interesting that years ago I remember a corporate copter, I believe it was an Agusta 109, landed regularly in the Lake Success
area. Heard them on LGA Class B freq.