Now hear it from below.
On a flying day about 297 helicopter flights use the heliports and airports around New York, at least 125 of them sightseeing tours. Millions of people live under their routes. Pick a package, choose any street, and experience the flight the way they do: from the ground, with sound.
Every helicopter flight from 11 New York and New Jersey heliports and airports, replayed over New York City, Long Island and the New Jersey side, with the modeled noise on the ground. Click any spot on the map, press Listen from here, then press play.
Replay and noise-map design: created by Allen Shaibani (publicworks.nyc) as Chopper Noise, whose published method and per-type loudness table this tab uses (original code BSD 3-Clause licensed). This version was written independently for this dashboard from the original's documented behavior; any mistakes in it are not the original's.
Helicopters are aircraft the operations data classes as rotorcraft. A flight is a run of airborne pings (every 5 seconds, replayed from a 10-second sample) that has a takeoff or landing at one of the airports above in the operations data. The level at a block is L(r) = L150 − 20 log10(r / 150) − 2 (r − 150) / 1000 dBA, r being the straight-line distance in metres (never under 30) and L150 the aircraft type's peak level at 150 m; height is pressure altitude corrected with the hourly Newark altimeter setting. Rings show how far each helicopter's level reaches the ground. A block lights when 60+ dBA reaches it and fades to a third in 60 seconds of the day.
Groups: tour operators are FlyNYON, Zip Aviation, New York Helicopters and HeliNY; public service is police, military and government owners; every other operator is "other". These rest on operator and owner names and are a first cut.
Sources: aircraft positions and takeoffs/landings from ADS-B data (ADS-B Exchange); loudness per aircraft type from the UK Civil Aviation Authority helicopter noise database via Chopper Noise by Allen Shaibani; residents from the 2020 Census redistricting data; altimeter from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet (station EWR); airport locations from OurAirports.
These are the routes the tour and charter helicopters really fly. Every package comes with the view from above, and with the neighbors below. "Book" opens the replay of that route's busiest day with sound.
Midtown, the Empire State Building and the Hudson piers, low and slow along the river.
Circle Lady Liberty, Ellis Island and the tip of Manhattan.
Central Park, the Plaza and Billionaires' Row, seen from the Hudson and the East River.
A tour lasts 15 to 30 minutes. For the people below, it repeats all day. On an average flying day in Hoboken:
Every helicopter from the 11 heliports and airports covered. "Loud flybys" are flights that reach 60 dBA or more at homes somewhere in the neighborhood, about as loud as a conversation close up; "overhead" means the flight path crosses it. Modeled, not measured; neighborhood outlines are approximate. Averages are per flying day: 116 days from Thursday, April 30, 2026 to Sunday, September 6, 2026, leaving out 11 days when bad weather grounded most tours and 2 days with incomplete data.
15 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 127 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 138.
25 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 29 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 121.
3 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 11 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 93.
27 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 19 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 121.
27 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 20 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 116.
4 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 52 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 111.
24 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 27 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 109.
2 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 9 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 97.
22 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 16 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 79.
63 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 1 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 49.
50 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 1 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 49.
2 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 10 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 49.
41 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 21 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 40.
26 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 19 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 29.
23 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 17 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 19.
3 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 5 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 12.
8 fly directly overhead. A typical street hears 6 loud flybys a day, the loudest street 8.
Any of 129 days of real flights. Busy summer weekends are the most popular.
Anywhere in New York City, Long Island or the New Jersey side. You get how often a helicopter is heard there, how loud, and how much of the day is quiet.
Every helicopter moves along its recorded path, and you hear it from where you clicked. Choose Real time to hear each pass at its natural length.
On an average flying day (116 days from Thursday, April 30, 2026 to Sunday, September 6, 2026, leaving out 11 bad-weather days and 2 days with incomplete data), 297 helicopter flights used the 11 heliports and airports covered, at least 125 of them by the four big sightseeing tour operators. The busiest day, Monday, July 20, 2026, had 527.
Of the neighborhoods checked, Battery Park City, Hoboken and Hell's Kitchen get the most loud flybys (60 dBA or more somewhere in the neighborhood, about as loud as a conversation close up): 150, 139 and 130 on an average flying day. They sit under the Hudson River and harbor tour routes.
Mostly from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (Wall Street), the West 30th Street Heliport and the HHI heliport in Kearny, New Jersey. Charter and private flights also use the East 34th Street Heliport, Linden, Teterboro and Newark.
It depends on the helicopter type, its height and how far away it is. This site estimates the peak level on the ground for every flight with the method used by Chopper Noise. Click any spot on the map to hear a synthesized version, louder and quieter as each helicopter passes.
No. Nothing is sold here. The "packages" are the routes tour and charter helicopters actually fly, shown from the point of view of the people who live underneath.
Aircraft positions are ADS-B broadcasts (collected by ADS-B Exchange), every 5 seconds. Noise levels are modeled from each aircraft's type, distance and height. Residents are from the 2020 Census. Levels are estimates, not measurements.