[TonyV]

How many of you living in central Toronto awoke to outrageously loud helicopter noise at 5:00 a.m. today?

We couldn't believe it -- the damned 'copter circled the area for the better part of an hour. I can't imagine what purpose would be aided by the thing.

Since we were well awakened, we went outside and cranked our heads to observe its route -- it circled widely over east-central downtown. I imagine it woke up the McGuinties, the Smithermans, and the McConnells, as well as (ahem) my friends on the other side of the big valley in Riverdale (we are in Cabbagetown near Carlton / Sumach).

The authorities in this town have their heads too far up their own asses to care about increasingly distrubing 'copter noise over downtown. It's time for some activism. Heaven knows I've got some activism in me...from way back.

So, anyone here up to challenging the authorities on this issue? I have written the mayor's office twice and have received no response (surprise, surprise). I work with people who are increasingly concerned about frequent sleep interruptions due to very loud helicopters ... if anyone cares to join forces with me, please respond to this post and I'll gladly provide contact information.

You certainly haven't heard the last from me on this topic. Just think -- people used to brag about Toronto's "livability".

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Ok, so what are the explanations? It's not Toronto Police, they don't have a chopper. Could be OPP, could be Air Ambulance. My guess? News helicopters, as most stations in this town are moving towards the Breaking-news-live-from-chopper-one type of approach to "news" gathering. So the blame would lie with them, and aside from filing formal complaints, do what I do and don't support these stations. I haven't watched local TV news in at least four years as I got tired of feeling *less* informed after I saw their newscasts than before I tuned in.

 

[Whoaccio]

I used to live in an approach path for the airambulances going to the UHN. I would be lying if I said I was never disturbed by it, but my minor disturbance every now and then always seemed pretty trivial compared to the poor bloak being rushed to the E.R.

I could be wrong, but there isn't much (any?) serious private helicopter flight in the city. Charter's wouldn't be allowed up that early from YTZ. I don't think many news stations have choppers, as most just use Cessna's for things like traffic reporting, and wouldn't be reporting on anything at that hour anyways. The OPP's Eurocopters are based out of Sudbury and Orillia, so I doubt that is what you heard. York Region has a Eurocopter which I think they lend the TPS every now and then, they could have been carrying out thermal imaging reconnaissance early in the morning when a grow house's heat signature would be more visible. Either that or air ambulance is the most likely. In both cases, complaining seems to be a little bit lame considering the circumstances. Might as well complain fire trucks are too loud.

 

[Automation Gallery]

Ok, so what are the explanations? It's not Toronto Police, they don't have a chopper. Could be OPP, could be Air Ambulance. My guess? News helicopters, as most stations in this town are moving towards the Breaking-news-live-from-chopper-one type of approach to "news" gathering. So the blame would lie with them, and aside from filing formal complaints, do what I do and don't support these stations. I haven't watched local TV news in at least four years as I got tired of feeling *less* informed after I saw their newscasts than before I tuned in.

Watched BT this morning and i believe it was a York Regional Police chopper on a police chase.

York Region robbery suspects flee to downtown T.O.
Updated: Mon Jul. 20 2009 8:31:34 AM

ctvtoronto.ca

York Regional Police are looking for two suspects after a car chase that started in Richmond Hill but ended in downtown Toronto.

Police were called to a retail plaza in the Yonge Street and Weldrick Avenue area at 4:40 a.m. after witnesses reported a robbery in progress.

The front window of a business in the plaza was shattered as two suspects got into a vehicle and fled the scene.

Uniformed officers who were patrolling the area located the vehicle and began following the car into the city. Authorities say the vehicle was reported stolen earlier from the Toronto area.

Police say the car was abandoned in the area of Wellesley and Parliament Streets but that the suspects managed to escape.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...ery_chase_090720/20090720/?hub=TorontoNewHome

 

[PukeGreen]

Whenever I hear a helicopter and manage to get a glimpse it seems to be an orange medical evacuation helicopter. I'm okay with that. I assume they are flying it for the purposes of saving a life, not taking it on 5 AM joyrides. Same goes for police helicopters. Unless the same helicopter is hovering outside your condo window every day for no reason, I think we just need to chalk this one up to big city life. There are lots of issues worth protesting against or advocating for in this city but I'm not sure helicopter noise is one of them.

Regarding that CTV news story: how frustrating that the copter followed the crooks from Richmond Hill to downtown Toronto and then after all that let them get away. Seems like a bit of system failure there.

 

[cgguy]

Let's be thankful T.O. is nothing like Los Angeles. Helicopters everywhere, all the time.

 

[Urban Shocker]

TonyV - I've been woken up by them a couple of times lately. It seems to be a summer thing, though I can't imagine what's so attractive about hovering over sleepy Riverdale in the dead of night.

 

[gabe]

Maybe the police should chase the bad guys with cars, instead of waking up the neighbourhood with the chopper. how embarrassing for them the crooks out ran their Police chopper

 

[Dilla]

There were lots of cop cars circling the block, with partial sirens for about an hour, with the chopper right above my house, and loud enough to wake me up. What a pain. I was a bit nervous, too. I figured someone was out there, and they wanted them pretty bad. Worse still, my apartment is accessible from a fire escape that leads to an alley which is exactly the kind of place people would run to hide.

In other news I saw the car that was used in the incident eariler in the day. I took note of it, due to the crappy condition of the ragtop, and that you don't see many cars from that era anymore (early 80s, i would guess). The man who owned it was vacuuming the interior yesterday afternoon in a driveway on the east side of Sackville, just north of Spruce.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_36043.aspx

 

[confusion]

I was woken up by the chopper noise this morning too. They must have been flying really low and the sound just echoed through the core.

I guess all we can do is hope it doesn't happen tomorrow or the day after.

 

[slowtyper]

In other news I saw the car that was used in the incident eariler in the day. I took note of it, due to the crappy condition of the ragtop, and that you don't see many cars from that era anymore (early 80s, i would guess). The man who owned it was vacuuming the interior yesterday afternoon in a driveway on the east side of Sackville, just north of Spruce.

Wow that is pretty cool (to me, anyways)!

 

[Paleo]

If it bothers you that much, close your windows. Personally I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

 

[kEiThZ]

TonyV

While I agree that repeated occurrences may be disturbing, if it's an occassional occurence (and your post seems to indicate that it's out of the ordinary) then Why get worked up over it. The GTA has fairly strict conditions for aviation operations (and its not just the Island airport). I would assume that any flight outside of normal servicing hours (0600-2300) is either an aircraft conducting night flying training (only in the vicinity of an airport though), or emergency services undertaking an operational flight (medevac, police surveillance support), or its an aircraft in distress, etc. And in the absolute rarest of occasions it might be the military conducting training (special forces might occassionally rent an office tower to assault at night). But, with the exception of night flying training (which in the GTA does not happen anywhere near the 416) I would assume that the rest of the incidents are pretty rare and should be tolerated by any city dwellers...they are after all being undertaken for your well-being.

If Montrealers could handled a JTF 2 exercise with helicopters and loud explosions in the run up to the referendum, I am sure that Torontonians can handle the odd medevac or police helicopter buzzing around in their neighbourhood a few times a year.

 

[kEiThZ]

Ok, so what are the explanations? It's not Toronto Police, they don't have a chopper.

Just a note. Just because they don't have one, does not mean that they can't access one. 400 Squadron in Borden routinely assist police forces in the region with air cover if they have the resources and the situation is deemed worthy enough to require military assistance. You can bet that if the criminals on the loose were dangerous enough, there would be military helicopters flying around.

 

[TonyV]

Thanks to all of you supportive ones.

I would not "get worked up over it" if this was not a frequent occurrence. It seems that we get disturbed more overnights than not, generally from the air ambulances. We think there is a shift change happening around 4:00 a.m. The noise is enough to wake any light sleeper, windows closed or open. Many of my associates at the office are commenting about the increase in 'copter noise over the last couple of years. I am not alone.

As for this morning's disburbance, it was just the icing on the cake. If it was out of the ordinary, then it was only slightly so. It was not an air ambulance, we know what they look like -- this was bigger, plus, the timing was off, it was 5 a.m. instead of around 4 a.m. And the thing was louder than others -- I think they ought to tie the cop's ass to the rotors in this instance.

By the way, this may be ironic -- I feel that the more common "air ambulances", while potentially saving lives, are a health hazard in themselves. They may be responsible for many poorly rested people getting behind the steering wheel of a car -- dangerous stuff. I do hope that the hospitals and residents in outlying also "feel the pain", not just we downtowners.