As a resident in the same area of Dick Scobee Elementary school, low-flying helicopters would be way down the list of “nuisances” that I’d complain about.

How about people who let their dogs bark at all times of the day and night, or young people who want to share their boom box “sounds” with you at 10 p.m. (now, there is something that “… literally (shakes) the windows … “) when you are trying to sleep.

I suggest that the principal and teachers of Dick Scobee Elementary school use the helicopter sounds overhead to teach something about the technology that makes their flight possible. (Even the Wright brothers doubted the viability of helicopters when Sikorsky first experimented with them.) How do their rotors lift the thing off the ground? Why is the tail rotor necessary? Why are wheels not on most helicopters? Why do they tilt down to move forward? What does auto-rotate mean, and when might it be used? Kids can become enthralled by such questions.

Then, in honor of the namesake of the school, they can move on to rockets: How does one move in space when the blast has nothing to push against? What is the La Grange point? Which is easier, to push a rocket from earth out the solar system or to cause it to go directly into the sun? Ignorance is the ultimate nuisance.

– Jim Gear