Brooklyn Heights residents are mad as hell about the constant noise from sightseeing and other  helicopters flying over their picturesque neighborhood. Now the City is finally doing something about it.

The Stop the Chop campaing, a concerted effort by the community and State Senator Daniel Squadron’s office has brought results. A ban on sightseeing helicopers began on Friday, April 30th.

The new plan will:

–eliminate up to 30 percent of sightseeing flights.

–eliminate all birds-eye tours of the Brooklyn Bridge and other borough attractions.

–not allow helicopters to fly below 1,500 feet.

“This solution was a quick effort to deal with the problem,” said State Sen. Daniel Squadron told the Brooklyn Paper. “It is absolutely a good faith effort, but it’s now up to elected officials to keep a close watch on the progress and make sure the plan has the desired effect.”

Still, yesterday a reporter from the Brooklyn Heights Blog was disappointed to see (and hear) a low-flying chopper overhead. There’s even a video at their site:

As your correspondent prepared for his customary morning walk, a loud clattering sound came from the direction of the harbor. This, on the morning after the helicopter noise deal was announced? Reaching the Promenade, I saw a U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey twin tilt-rotor aircraft lifting off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. I looked up as a flight of northbound geese passed, and saw another Osprey circling Governors Island. The Osprey that had lifted off quickly returned to the Heliport and touched down again, its rotors drawing up a huge amount of spray. After about fifteen minutes of maneuvering, the Ospreys headed south and disappeared.