Much as Mr. Riedel applauded the City of Auburn (“Taking issue with all the buzz,” Auburn Reporter, June 25 letter to the editor), I applaud him. I, too, have wondered about the intelligence of a helicopter training flight plan that regularly goes over residential areas (like my apartment on the east side), over business areas (like my workplace – north side), the high school (Auburn), and seems to follow the valley highways.

My friends at work (who don’t live here) now joke about it because of the errant moves in the air that we’ve seen. With all of the farmland in this area, why do they have to fly over us? Must we always have to wait for the hindsight that causes change after someone on the ground pays the ultimate price from falling mistakes? These are training flights, which means unexperienced people are learning how to fly.

Last I heard, helicopters can’t glide like a plane to a safer area when they lose power. They tend to drop like a brick. Perhaps someone at City Hall could look into this, but if I were to guess, the one place they don’t fly over is that building.

– Rob Swartz