Cubreporter (Cubreporter)
Moderator
Username: Cubreporter
Post Number: 112
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 6:32 pm: | |
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Methods detailed for curbing John Wayne Airport noise
New report recommends different flight paths, state-of-the-art planes, to bring relief to Costa Mesa and Newport Beach residents.
By JEFF OVERLEY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Slight changes to the paths that departing planes travel are among several options a new report says could spare residents from the roar of jets at John Wayne Airport.
The study by a Newport Beach-commissioned consultant suggests that neighborhoods in and around Costa Mesa's Eastside and Newport Beach's Eastbluff neighborhood would be quieter if airplanes followed a narrower path along the Back Bay.
Oceanfront areas would benefit if planes avoided turning until traveling past the shoreline – which they already do most of the time – according to the report by ASRC Research and Technology Solutions.
Other options include having planes use a more gradual approach method or convincing airport officials to offer rebates to airlines that use quieter planes. The latter move probably offers only marginal room for improvement because "John Wayne is pretty much at the leading edge of quieter aircraft," said Thomas Cole Edwards, a former Newport Beach councilman who consults for the city on airport issues.
"You're probably not going to be able to offer much in the way of money" to get them to add additional quiet planes, he said.
On the upside, skyrocketing fuel costs will make airlines more likely to replace old airplanes, which are less fuel efficient and also noisier, Edwards said.
Airport noise is contained by a legal settlement that caps flights and imposes curfews. Noise-monitoring stations in surrounding areas ensure that planes don't violate decibel limits.
In the six-month reporting period from July 2007 through December 2007, there were 129 noise violations by small, general aviation planes. Two of those violations triggered the airport's three-strikes policy, banning pilots from the airport for three years. No commercial jets recorded noise violations.
Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said the aviation hub would work toward improvements, but that many of the report's suggestions are either already in place or offer only modest room for improvement.
Any changes are a ways off, Edwards said, because the Federal Aviation Administration typically must sign off on the type of changes being suggested.
"It's not going to happen overnight, because the federal government, which is ultimately going to have to bless anything, is going to take an inordinate amount of time," he said.
And that's all right, given the matter's sensitivity, Edwards said, because "you don't want to make any changes willy nilly."
Contact the writer: 714-445-6683 or
joverley@ocregister.com
Copyright 2008 Orange County Register © 2001-2008 Skweezer |