Lazy Executives Need Helicopter To Get to Airport. woooooo

[on-ramp]

I guess when you become so important , driving to the airport just aint good enough.



-----

Helipad limits divide Natick firm, neighbors

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff | April 8, 2007

NATICK -- Boston Scientific Corp. executives want to be able to lift off from a helipad on the shores of Lake Cochituate when meetings run late, but neighbors of its Natick headquarters say the flights disrupt the area's serenity.


The medical devices firm has asked the town's Planning Board to loosen restrictions on the use of the helipad.

Company officials have abided by the restrictions, in place since 2000, which include limiting the helipad's use to weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and no more than two round trips per day, according to company attorney Thomas C. Grassia.

But Grassia said the limitations don't mesh with the firm's business needs. "We wouldn't be asking for a little more flexibility if we haven't been butting up against the restrictions," he said.

The company, whose campus sits on the west side of Lake Cochituate, wants the town to expand the hours of use to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., lift the limitation on daily flights, and allow a helicopter to remain at the helipad with its engine off, rather than leave the site after each flight as current restrictions state.

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the request at 8 p.m. on Wednesday in Town Hall.

Boston Scientific uses its Sikorsky S-76 helicopter to ferry executives to and from Logan International Airport and other locations, Grassia said. The restrictions limit the company to 15 flights per month, a number that Grassia said the firm sometimes approaches, but not always. He said the number of flights would probably not increase dramatically if the restrictions were loosened.

But Dick Miller , a member of the Cochituate State Park Advisory Committee and a lakeside resident, said expanded use of the helipad would add to noise pollution on the lake and detract from plans for a rail trail in the area.

"A company like Boston Scientific should be working overtime to improve the lake, not put extra noise pollution in it," Miller said.

Grassia said the company has considered moving the helipad to the interior of its the company's campus, but decided it would be impractical.

[Dantilla]

I don't think it's a big deal, or the execs are lazy.

Just as it's more efficient to get across town in a 911 than to take the bus, the chopper is more efficient than driving.

They work hard, they make money, they want to maximize their time.

While a helicopter can seem as an extravigance to some, so do Porsches.

[stomachmonkey]

It comes down to a lack of respect for your neighbors in the name of your personal convenience. I say plan better. People should not need to suffer because you can't get your s**t together.

I worked for a co whose CEO commuted by Helicopter. The thing would land/takeoff 2-4 times a day. It was disruptive.

I also live on the N. Shore of Long Island. For the last couple of years there has been a steady increase in people from Manhatten using Helicopter shuttle services to get to and from the Hamptons.

The traffic from Friday to Monday is f'ng ridiculous. I can't enjoy my own backyard. There is one every 30 minutes and they are just flying over, not landing and taking off.

I call the FAA to complain and they move the flight path a couple miles further N. It lasts a week or so till someone further N complains then they move back my way.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by on-ramp
I guess when you become so important , driving to the airport just aint good enough.

You just do not seem to get it do you? Everything that anyone successful wants to do grates on you doesnt it?

Please ask the shareholders of BS how they feel about it? The top brass have the option of taking a car and spending HOURS stuck in traffic, or they can take the helo and move from the office to airport or another meeting and do it in minutes.

Stuck in a car in traffic means lost productivity, while making it to their next meeting or airport means that they get more work done. When they are making $28k like you are its not a big deal. When they are making $2-100 million a year, wasting an hour becomes some real money.

I used to fly several industry heads and all of them said that they actually prefer taking the car but every time they tried to do this their shareholders gave them trouble for wasting time and to get around by air.

This is of course when the company is profitable. When the company is losing money, the helo or jet is the first thing to be sold.

Someday OR you will open your Democratic eyes and look at the whole picture and not continue to view the world with blinders on...

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by Dantilla
I don't think it's a big deal, or the execs are lazy.

Just as it's more efficient to get across town in a 911 than to take the bus, the chopper is more efficient than driving.

They work hard, they make money, they want to maximize their time.

While a helicopter can seem as an extravigance to some, so do Porsches.

i'd like to think we can live together and have some common respect and courtesy for each other as citizens.
how would you like it if I flew my helicopter over your house 3X a day? The secret to success is to have the ability to view things from someone else's perspective. see what I mean?

Joe, it's called common courtesy, go look it up and learn something..nothing to do with "success" or all that BS. all you got is your "liberal democratic " bashing tactics.
you have the right to be successful, but you dont have a right to ANNOY me. have a good Easter.

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
The top brass have the option of taking a car and spending HOURS stuck in traffic, or they can take the helo and move from the office to airport or another meeting and do it in minutes.

Stuck in a car in traffic means lost productivity, while making it to their next meeting or airport means that they get more work done. When they are making $28k like you are its not a big deal. When they are making $2-100 million a year, wasting an hour becomes some real money.

boohooo... let me get my tissue. how will those poor poor executives ever manage without their helicopter..

[Joeaksa]

OR,

How many of those new "tree hugging" lakeside residents have moved there in the last few years? How long as BS been in that location? Since 1969 I believe?????

I just love it when a business moves out in the stix to get a descent property price and get away from the public, then 50-60 years later the public housing grows around the facility and all of a sudden they "demand" that the business stop doing what they have been doing, legally I might add, for years.

Excuse me, the residents knew about the company and the helo when they bought their house (unless they have lived there before 1969) but now want the company to change their habbits?

The report above stated "He said the number of flights would probably not increase dramatically if the restrictions were loosened" but the tree huggers are not interested in this. They are not even using their 15 "allowed" flights most of the time, yet the locals are mad.

From where I stand the courtesy has been shown by BS. The new locals are now wanting the company to modify their activity and thats not right.

ANNOY you? That makes my day. I am having a very good Easter!

PS boohooo... let me get my tissue. how will those poor poor executives ever manage without their helicopter.. Just wait until you become a stockholder and bet your ideas and views will change. His wasting money costs YOU money and attitudes change.

[on-ramp]

Joe, you would make a very good lawyer. yes, a very good one at that.

btw, the cost of running the helicopter 3X a day probably outweighs any savings to the shareholders. so that's a BS argument..
it comes down to lazy SOB execs. with their heads in the clounds, thinking they are more important than the avg. guy in the trenches.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by on-ramp
boohooo... let me get my tissue. how will those poor poor executives ever manage without their helicopter..

With an attitude and outlook like that, you will probably stay making $28k a very long time in your life. Hope you enjoy it...

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
With an attitude and outlook like that, you will probably stay making $28k a very long time in your life. Hope you enjoy it...

Joe, have a very good Easter. Don't spend too much time arguing over the internet. it's not worth it today.

[stomachmonkey]

Wow Joe,

You sure got a lot of info out of that. I don't see where it says the residents are new. And BS is not in the sticks. They are in a densly populated area.

BS are right off the Mass Pike and it's a 22.6 mile run to Logan. Half hour. Pretty much as the crow flys so the helicopter is really no less direct.

If there is traffic on the Pike they can run up route 9.

IMHO allowing flights as late as 9 pm is ridiculous. Rush hour is long gone by that time.

What are they saving? 15 minutes? Big deal.

They must be pretty unorganized if 15 minutes wil jeopordize their business.

[Joeaksa]

Just telling you what the execs are told. I have flown execs for years and know the bean counters and have sat in on many stockholders meetings.

Flew the CEO of Intel a few years ago when his private airplane broke. We talked for a while and he said that he actually preferred to fly commercial but after 9/11 his security AND bean counters would not allow it. The time he wastes trying to get to the airport, then security lines and so on cost him time that he really needed to be working on BUSINESS... ya know, the stuff that pays the bills??

Thats what one of the highest paid CEO's in the US says, and what my past bosses have said, but ya know, they do not know anything of any import, so why listen to them?

15 minutes when their time is so structured is a descent savings. BTW, I did not get my info off of that. I researched the company years ago looking at investing into it. Then today found their history on the internet. Would bet that in 1969 when they opened the facility there on the lake that the population was no where near like it is now.

[on-ramp]

who gives a $hit about your wealthy CEO friends or what they say about convenience and bean-counters, blah blah blah...

this is about the avg. citizen tax-payer in the neighboorhood who are ANNOYED by helicopters every day.
again, go learn about common courtesy , and get your head out of your A$$. people like you are screwing up this country with their elitist "i'm better than everyone else, so therefore i have special rights" attitude.

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by Joeaksa


15 minutes when their time is so structured is a descent savings.

HA HA. . they spend HOURS each week socializing with their young pretty blonde secretaries, over coffee breaks, 2 hr lunches, etc etc ... and you wanna talk about saving 15 minutes!? woooooo

HA HA - you're very funny, my friend. YOU spend your whole life in the air, I spent it on the ground IN companies and I've seen it all.

it's time for more wine I'm getting too worked up over this...

[jyl]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
Flew the CEO of Intel a few years ago when his private airplane broke. We talked for a while and he said that he actually preferred to fly commercial but after 9/11 his security AND bean counters would not allow it.

Is there a special reason why the CEO of INTC would tell some random pilot the truth?

(As opposed to the half-truths, spin, and sometimes untruths any CEO tells just about anyone else they encounter?)

[the]

Originally posted by on-ramp
thinking they are more important than the avg. guy in the trenches.

They are.

[Zeke]

Time is money. The former chairman of Fluor Corporation had a helipad at his office. He was less than 10 minutes from John Wayne airport in OC. Not saying that was his only destination. Last I knew, there was a wealthy real estate baron from OC's Coto de Caza that had a heliport at his house in a residential neighborhood. For the life of mem I can't think of his name. I believe he owned one of the six ever made Bugatti Type 41 Royales, too.

[widebody911]

15 minutes when their time is so structured is a descent savings.

So, people can do whatever they want, if it sames them money? Taking a shortcut through your backyard in my new Unimog is OK because it saves me a few minutes?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
Would bet that in 1969 when they opened the facility there on the lake that the population was no where near like it is now.

I'd take that bet and I'd win.

Population of Natick MA in 1970: 31,057

Poulation from 2000 census: 32,170

Now that's what I call a population explosion.

[Moneyguy1]

A lot of B.S. about B.S.