One impetus of the National Park Air Tour Management Act is protecting gateway communities.

Towns bordering national parks are vulnerable to exploitation by commercial enterprises that capitalize on the tourist traffic that funnels through the gateway communities on the way into the park.

“We have come to realize national parks do not operate in a vacuum. We are part of communities,” said Karen Trevino, with the park service’s Natural Sounds Program.

Cherokee Helicopters has invoked the ire of neighbors and residents in the flight path who complain of both noise and fumes. The chopper is popular for its cheap short flights — $15 per person for a three- to four-minute ride. Residents have formed a coalition called Save Our Skies hoping to drive the chopper out of business by plastering negative fliers around town and picketing in front of the business on Saturday’s to discourage tourists from taking rides.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians kicked the helicopter off the reservation due to complaints from residents, but it took up residency just outside the reservation boundary and still flies over the reservation as well as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

There are conflicting reports of how low the chopper flies. The manager of the company, Jim Garst, claims the chopper flies 2,000 feet above ground. But residents say its more like 200 feet.

Bob Wightman, Smokies aviation coordinator, said the FAA issued an advisory circular that recommends that pilots fly 2,000 feet above the highest point within a 2,000-foot radius when flying over a national park, wilderness area or wildlife refuge. But it is a recommendation only. Legally, sightseeing planes can fly 500 feet above the ground and helicopters “can fly at any altitude the pilot feels is safe,” Wightman said.

It turns out the National Park Air Management Tour Act could provide relief for the tribe. The act applies not only to national parks, but any Indian Reservation that borders a national park. The requirement is problematic, however, as it calls for the park service and FAA to develop the flightseeing rules for the reservation, even through Indian tribes are sovereign nations.

Jackson County passed an ordinance hoping to rid the community of the nuisance three years ago, but the company defeated the ordinance in court. The ordinance attempted to regulate flight, which only the FAA can control.

On the Tennessee side of the park, a state law was passed in the 1990s prohibiting flightseeing operations from locating within nine miles of the Smokies’ park border. The parent company of Cherokee Helicopters, which also owns Great Smoky Mountain Helicopters outside Pigeon Forge, challenged the law all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court but lost. Tennessee’s law did not attempt to regulate flight, but rather took a land-use approach, similar to banning asphalt plants or shooting ranges.