awf
Well-Known Member
Hi fellow valley residents. Any thoughts on the recent attention surrounding the noise from Flight Students training at Falcon Field?
****
Neighborhoods flanking Mesa's Falcon Field Airport are all abuzz.
It's about the student-operated planes flying overhead at what residents claim is an alarmingly frequent and raucous level.
Falcon Field businesses rally to Sabena
Standing in the entryway of his home near McKellips Road and Val Vista Drive, retired fighter and airline pilot David Wayne grimaced.
Lost behind overhanging trees a small plane climbed with such timbre, the sleepy residential street lined by large homes and manicured lawns was transformed from a Wednesday afternoon into a Friday night rock concert.
"You hear that?" Wayne shouted over the solo plane, holding open the large wooden door to the grand foyer of his sprawling home. "That's nothing."
ISSUES TAKE OFF
A member of the newly created Falcon Field Ad Hoc Task Force, created by Mayor Scott Smith to look into ways to assuage the rising noise and safety concerns of the airport's neighbors, Wayne also recently created a Web site to garner support for changes at the airport.
Wayne pointed to the Web site, www.keepfalconfieldsafe.com, as an avenue for neighbors of the airport to visit to learn about and share their noise and safety concerns.
Mesa spokesman Steve Wright said the city created the committee, among other initiatives on Falcon Field, to help bridge a widening, and deepening rift between the airport and many of its neighbors.
"That involves making sure we are balancing the needs of the city, the community and the airport," Wright said.
A furor recently arose among business leaders after the city proposed submitting a formal resolution granting City Manager Chris Brady sweeping powers over the airport, which city officials say he already has.
Businesses contended that the city planned to curtail the flight operations of Sabena Airline Training Center, the largest international pilot training school in the U.S., following noise complaints and safety concerns generated by the community.
City officials reacted by stating they had no such intentions, and by removing the resolution from a May 4 City Council agenda.
At least one city official says that's the end of it.
"I don't see the resolution coming back," said Councilwoman Dina Higgins, who represents District 5, including a cropping of high-dollar communities surrounding the airport. "In reality, that resolution was only designed to clarify the chain of command at the airport."
Higgins cited that airport director Corinne Nystrom already reports to Brady.
BUSINESS OR BUST
On the topic of noise and safety, Higgins said residents have approached her with growing concerns, while businesses look to Sabena in part to buoy the economy in northeast Mesa.
Nystrom has stated in earlier reports that the flight school has contributed an economic benefit to the tune of more than $9 million.
Wayne questioned those numbers stating no independent study was done and that the flight school simply provided the estimates to the city based on its own figures.
But his biggest contention had nothing to do with money, and less to do with noise than safety issues.
"They have 12 planes in the air at one time over there," Wayne said, citing congestion and nascent pilots as a bad combination. He said with that sort of frequency, and given that it's mostly students, he thought it was a recipe for disaster.
Sabena Safety Manager Jack David said the company does fly up to six planes at one time, per runway, but characterized the operations as far from saturated.
"This is allowed by the FAA, and we take steps to reduce the probability of incidents," David said Friday, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees air traffic at the airport. "We're in the process of expanding our safety program, as well."
Higgins said she recently met with area residents who expressed concern that there are no control-tower operations at night. Despite that, there are nighttime training flights out of Falcon Field.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the airport's tower is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. But night flights free from FAA control tower assistance are no cause for alarm - it's the norm.
"Some pretty busy airports shut down their tower at night," Gregor said, acknowledging that Falcon Field is the third-busiest general aviation airport in the U.S.
Gregor said there are safety measures in place, such as requiring pilots to listen to instructions involving the weather and surface conditions and directing them where and how to land, without the aid of a controller.
"This is a perfectly routine practice at airports all over the country," he said, adding that the norm excluded larger operations such as Phoenix' Sky Harbor International Airport and similarly large facilities.
Falcon Field pilot and former U.S. Air Force Top Gun instructor Al Gardner said residents like him would sleep a lot better if only Sabena students listened to those FAA instructions, requiring them to reach higher altitudes faster, and avoid residential areas.
"What these guys do is they teach all of their students to fly a buzz job," Gardner said of Sabena, which is tasked with readying students to fly jets and larger aircraft. "A regular pilot uses less power, flies higher, tries to avoid areas where there are homes."
FRIENDLIER SKIES
Sabena General Manager Jean-Pierre Van den Berghe said Friday he respected the opinions of residents, but was concerned over the accuracy of their angst.
"We average only 10 flights at night, and you can't always see the plane," he said, pointing to the numerous other flights out of the busy general aviation airport. "Sabena, Sabena, Sabena. Each noise they hear - it's Sabena - that's not fair."
Van den Berghe denied that his students simulate jet flight paths, and he said the company was working on ways of implementing "noise abatement procedures," or requiring pilots to reach higher altitudes faster at night when taking off.
"But they have to do that in a safe way," he said. "You can keep up your nose and lose speed and stall, otherwise."
Gardner, whose home is at nearby McLellan Road and Val Vista Drive, said some nights the flights would go well after midnight and start up again after 4 a.m.
"They don't like flying in the heat," he said of Sabena student pilots.
Van den Berghe agreed that cooler flight times are sought during the summer, but held fast to averaging only 10 flights after dark.
"We do start early, closer to 5 a.m, in the summer," he said. "But we are looking for ways to be good neighbors, figure out quieter flight patterns, and implement those changes in a safe way."
TRAINING AS TRADITION
As a former Air Force and airline pilot, Wayne said he thoroughly respects the airport's history, steeped in the World War II initiative of training pilots for battle.
Long gone is that honorable legacy; gone too, Wayne said, are the lazy days of the airport's more recent incarnation as a general aviation site, or where primarily private pilots took off on recreational pursuits.
"When I first moved here 20 years ago, I was the fourth house in the development," Wayne said standing like a general strategizing over an aerial map of the airport, with a patchwork quilt of residences ranging from mobile homes to mansions.
One resident in the area voiced a lack of concern over noise.
Kay Shively, who said she lives in the "double-wide community" on the northeast corner of Higley and McKellips roads, had a different experience than Wayne and others. "The noise doesn't bother me at all," she wrote in an e-mail after The Tribune published a story about noise complaints at the airport earlier this month.
In 2008, Falcon Field received 64 noise complaints, down by 6 complaints compared to 2007, according to airport spokeswoman Melissa Randazzo.
The noise complaint numbers for 2009 from January to March 31 show a marked jump, but Wright said 34 of the 55 complaints are from two residences. Compared to just the year before for the same quarter, there were only nine complaints, Wright said.
"The city knows that there is an issue out there," he said.
Flights have jumped by about 70,000 annually since the school arrived at the airport - there were about 249,000 in 2006, compared with more than 320,000 in 2008 - and Gardner said he and his wife haven't had a good night's rest since.
"My wife suffers from fibromyalgia," said Gardner, who was considered for the same committee as Wayne. "I requested not to be on the ad hoc committee because I try to get out of town as much as I can for my wife's sake."
Airport Noise complaint line
Falcon Field: (480) 644-6647
Falcon Field noise complaints
****
Neighborhoods flanking Mesa's Falcon Field Airport are all abuzz.
It's about the student-operated planes flying overhead at what residents claim is an alarmingly frequent and raucous level.
Falcon Field businesses rally to Sabena
Standing in the entryway of his home near McKellips Road and Val Vista Drive, retired fighter and airline pilot David Wayne grimaced.
"You hear that?" Wayne shouted over the solo plane, holding open the large wooden door to the grand foyer of his sprawling home. "That's nothing."
ISSUES TAKE OFF
A member of the newly created Falcon Field Ad Hoc Task Force, created by Mayor Scott Smith to look into ways to assuage the rising noise and safety concerns of the airport's neighbors, Wayne also recently created a Web site to garner support for changes at the airport.
Wayne pointed to the Web site, www.keepfalconfieldsafe.com, as an avenue for neighbors of the airport to visit to learn about and share their noise and safety concerns.
Mesa spokesman Steve Wright said the city created the committee, among other initiatives on Falcon Field, to help bridge a widening, and deepening rift between the airport and many of its neighbors.
"That involves making sure we are balancing the needs of the city, the community and the airport," Wright said.
A furor recently arose among business leaders after the city proposed submitting a formal resolution granting City Manager Chris Brady sweeping powers over the airport, which city officials say he already has.
Businesses contended that the city planned to curtail the flight operations of Sabena Airline Training Center, the largest international pilot training school in the U.S., following noise complaints and safety concerns generated by the community.
City officials reacted by stating they had no such intentions, and by removing the resolution from a May 4 City Council agenda.
At least one city official says that's the end of it.
"I don't see the resolution coming back," said Councilwoman Dina Higgins, who represents District 5, including a cropping of high-dollar communities surrounding the airport. "In reality, that resolution was only designed to clarify the chain of command at the airport."
Higgins cited that airport director Corinne Nystrom already reports to Brady.
BUSINESS OR BUST
On the topic of noise and safety, Higgins said residents have approached her with growing concerns, while businesses look to Sabena in part to buoy the economy in northeast Mesa.
Nystrom has stated in earlier reports that the flight school has contributed an economic benefit to the tune of more than $9 million.
Wayne questioned those numbers stating no independent study was done and that the flight school simply provided the estimates to the city based on its own figures.
But his biggest contention had nothing to do with money, and less to do with noise than safety issues.
"They have 12 planes in the air at one time over there," Wayne said, citing congestion and nascent pilots as a bad combination. He said with that sort of frequency, and given that it's mostly students, he thought it was a recipe for disaster.
Sabena Safety Manager Jack David said the company does fly up to six planes at one time, per runway, but characterized the operations as far from saturated.
"This is allowed by the FAA, and we take steps to reduce the probability of incidents," David said Friday, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees air traffic at the airport. "We're in the process of expanding our safety program, as well."
Higgins said she recently met with area residents who expressed concern that there are no control-tower operations at night. Despite that, there are nighttime training flights out of Falcon Field.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the airport's tower is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. But night flights free from FAA control tower assistance are no cause for alarm - it's the norm.
"Some pretty busy airports shut down their tower at night," Gregor said, acknowledging that Falcon Field is the third-busiest general aviation airport in the U.S.
Gregor said there are safety measures in place, such as requiring pilots to listen to instructions involving the weather and surface conditions and directing them where and how to land, without the aid of a controller.
"This is a perfectly routine practice at airports all over the country," he said, adding that the norm excluded larger operations such as Phoenix' Sky Harbor International Airport and similarly large facilities.
Falcon Field pilot and former U.S. Air Force Top Gun instructor Al Gardner said residents like him would sleep a lot better if only Sabena students listened to those FAA instructions, requiring them to reach higher altitudes faster, and avoid residential areas.
"What these guys do is they teach all of their students to fly a buzz job," Gardner said of Sabena, which is tasked with readying students to fly jets and larger aircraft. "A regular pilot uses less power, flies higher, tries to avoid areas where there are homes."
FRIENDLIER SKIES
Sabena General Manager Jean-Pierre Van den Berghe said Friday he respected the opinions of residents, but was concerned over the accuracy of their angst.
"We average only 10 flights at night, and you can't always see the plane," he said, pointing to the numerous other flights out of the busy general aviation airport. "Sabena, Sabena, Sabena. Each noise they hear - it's Sabena - that's not fair."
Van den Berghe denied that his students simulate jet flight paths, and he said the company was working on ways of implementing "noise abatement procedures," or requiring pilots to reach higher altitudes faster at night when taking off.
"But they have to do that in a safe way," he said. "You can keep up your nose and lose speed and stall, otherwise."
Gardner, whose home is at nearby McLellan Road and Val Vista Drive, said some nights the flights would go well after midnight and start up again after 4 a.m.
"They don't like flying in the heat," he said of Sabena student pilots.
Van den Berghe agreed that cooler flight times are sought during the summer, but held fast to averaging only 10 flights after dark.
"We do start early, closer to 5 a.m, in the summer," he said. "But we are looking for ways to be good neighbors, figure out quieter flight patterns, and implement those changes in a safe way."
TRAINING AS TRADITION
As a former Air Force and airline pilot, Wayne said he thoroughly respects the airport's history, steeped in the World War II initiative of training pilots for battle.
Long gone is that honorable legacy; gone too, Wayne said, are the lazy days of the airport's more recent incarnation as a general aviation site, or where primarily private pilots took off on recreational pursuits.
"When I first moved here 20 years ago, I was the fourth house in the development," Wayne said standing like a general strategizing over an aerial map of the airport, with a patchwork quilt of residences ranging from mobile homes to mansions.
One resident in the area voiced a lack of concern over noise.
Kay Shively, who said she lives in the "double-wide community" on the northeast corner of Higley and McKellips roads, had a different experience than Wayne and others. "The noise doesn't bother me at all," she wrote in an e-mail after The Tribune published a story about noise complaints at the airport earlier this month.
In 2008, Falcon Field received 64 noise complaints, down by 6 complaints compared to 2007, according to airport spokeswoman Melissa Randazzo.
The noise complaint numbers for 2009 from January to March 31 show a marked jump, but Wright said 34 of the 55 complaints are from two residences. Compared to just the year before for the same quarter, there were only nine complaints, Wright said.
"The city knows that there is an issue out there," he said.
Flights have jumped by about 70,000 annually since the school arrived at the airport - there were about 249,000 in 2006, compared with more than 320,000 in 2008 - and Gardner said he and his wife haven't had a good night's rest since.
"My wife suffers from fibromyalgia," said Gardner, who was considered for the same committee as Wayne. "I requested not to be on the ad hoc committee because I try to get out of town as much as I can for my wife's sake."
Airport Noise complaint line
Falcon Field: (480) 644-6647
Falcon Field noise complaints
- 2007 - 70 noise complaints out of 314,129 flight operations
- 2008 - 64 noise complaints out of 320,606 flight operations
