Musings: Ryder Cup has a noisy weekend
F-18s fly over the 1st hole during Round 2 of the Ryder Cup 2025 at Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course on Friday in Farmingdale. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Years ago, there was an ordinance that required aircraft to fly over the water instead of directly over central Nassau County. When it expired, suburbia changed for the worse. Every day, helicopters and airplanes fly so low over my house that the windows rattle — and I’m at least 15 miles from Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.
The weekend Hampton helicopter flights have been horrendous each summer, but the flights starting on Friday have topped those. One helicopter was so low, I could see the pilot.
In the first four hours starting at 7 a.m. Friday, no fewer than 20 helicopters flew to and from the Ryder Cup, and all were extremely low and noisy. And on Saturday — at least 50 copters, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
People on the Nextdoor app started reporting these flights at 3:30 a.m. Friday! And helicopters would start up again later as the day’s play winded down.
And finally on Sunday, a bit fewer, when the tournament mercifully ended. There must be a way to stop this.
— Christine Gietschier, Westbury
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