PLANE AND FANCY

Vanities

Up, up, and away—it's hedgehopping time in the Hamptons again. Each Friday in summer, Manhattan's big shots, who have neither the time nor the inclination to creep along in expressway traffic, take to the air. Flocks of corporate whirlybirds can be spotted migrating eastward to drop the likes of Revlon's Ronald Perelman and Time Warner's Steve Ross in East Hampton. Others, such as Ralph Lauren and Barry Diller, often charter their choppers. Jet Aviation's top-of-the-line Sikorsky 76 is booked every day in the summer and makes the twenty-eight-minute trip to Southampton for $3,000. Billionaire Alfred Taubman has been known to shuttle to the beach towns in his private Gulfstream III jet. Designer Adrienne Vittadini's decollage is exciting, but the landing of her chartered seaplane on Mecox Bay is really impressive. She is deposited right at her back door.