copy query results to file

Hi, a very basic question here: I am using an older version of Postgresql
(8.1.11 running on Redhat Fedora 5.3) on a remote server that times me out
fairly quickly, and I need to run some queries that take a long time to
complete. Therefore I would like to story the query results in a file in a
.csv format. I see from the documentation that there are two basic
approaches:

1. Write a query using "COPY table TO 'file' CSV".

2. Use psql to output the data, as in:

a. \o

b. Query here..

c. \o

Neither approach is working for me. 1) The COPY query doesn't work on
views, and gives me an error when I try to run it as "COPY (select .). 2)
The psql produces output in an inconvenient format with pipe symbols and
headers and underlines.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks,

GK