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Complaints about the roar overhead

I read with interest the Daily Pilot article about Laguna residents

complaining about new JWA airplane noise in their community (“Laguna

voices noise complaints about JWA,” Tuesday). My observation is that

the new airplane flight paths that result in this noise in Laguna

Beach are also increasing noise in the western portion of Corona del

Mar and along the coastline. This noise is increasing over time as

the planes turning east (the majority of the planes) “cut the corner”

closer and closer and fly nearer the coastline during their turn

onshore.

There are several reasons for the increased noise. First, there

are more flights, especially at peak departure times. Second, the

flight path for all planes from the airport to the coastline has been

changed such that the planes cross the coastline much closer to the

harbor entrance than before. This takes the planes closer to the

peninsula and areas such as Irvine Terrace and Corona del Mar. Third,

the flights turning east (toward Laguna) are increasingly affecting

the coastal community between the harbor entrance and Laguna because

the majority of the planes are not going as far out to sea to make

their turn as in the past.

There isn’t much that can be done about the number of flights.

However, it doesn’t seem right that thousands of residents are

subjected to unnecessary noise when the planes could fly the old

flight path that had a more direct route down the Back Bay and

straight out over the ocean for sufficient distance that the turn

could be made without noise to the coastal community and also allow

the planes to reach a higher altitude before coming back onshore. I

would urge readers to contact their county supervisor if they are

bothered by airplane noise. A pilot friend told me that an early turn

is a “big deal” in cost savings to the airlines. I would contend that

an early turn is a “bigger deal” to the thousands of people that have

to hear the unnecessary noise.

RALPH WARRINGTON

Corona del Mar

Isn’t it ironic!

Irony of ironies. The South County “NIMBYs” thought that killing

the proposed airport at El Toro would guarantee a peaceful retirement

free from annoying jets. Think again. Now they have to deal with the

overflights from John Wayne Airport’s departures. And despite the

NIMBY’s claim that there is no need for “another” airport in Orange

County, South County can be guaranteed even more overflights and

negative impacts not from El Toro but from John Wayne Airport as

future air travel demands will force more growth to all Southland

airports.

This gives the NIMBY’s two options: Since they feel that only

those privileged enough to live in South County should live in a

“no-fly zone” free from any and all pesky aircraft, they should then

take up a new fight: slaughter John Wayne Airport. They boasted that

their truth would prevail to kill El Toro, so then they should have

no problem using the same arsenal of anti-airport activists to kill

John Wayne Airport, as well. After all, how dare the pilots and FAA

send planes over their homes.

And if they can’t manage to stop John Wayne Airport with new

cunning, deceptive campaigns, then this leaves an alternative plan:

move south to the Camp Pendleton area. South County insists that one

day Camp Pendleton will close, and when it does, it would make the

perfect international airport site. And with their proven track

record of killing proposed airports, they will not have to worry

about an international airport at Camp Pendleton and being half way

between San Diego’s commercial airport and John Wayne Airport they

should be safe from all overflights.

The real irony is that with the V-Plan at El Toro, all of South

County would be guaranteed no overflights from John Wayne Airport and

departures into and out of El Toro would be over a three-mile-wide

permanent open space corridors. But instead, the same NIMBYs stating

they didn’t want to be like Los Angeles, referring to all the sleaze

and negative impacts that an airport at El Toro would supposedly

generate will now instead experience endless traffic congestion as

greedy Irvine council members rubber-stamp countless more business,

housing and high-rise residential projects through, all of which will

generate far more traffic and negative impacts to an already

overcrowded Orange County.

RUSSELL NIEWIAROWSKI

Santa Ana Heights

Your story regarding noise in Laguna Beach from flights departing

John Wayne Airport was so full of incorrect statements and

misrepresentations, I’m not sure where to start.

First, the airspace over El Toro was not “closed.” The John Wayne

Class C airspace was revised, largely with the support of the

airlines that were asking for more Class C protection from small GA

aircraft on their arrival and departures at John Wayne. The amount

non-regulatory airspace over El Toro has actually increased

dramatically.

Second, this revision of the John Wayne Class C airspace was

triggered and made possible by the closure of El Toro and did not

(repeat not) have anything to do with Measure W.

And finally, the departing flights in question from John Wayne

have always crossed the shoreline eastbound over some part of the

south Orange County coast, typically Laguna. Always.

These misrepresentations and incorrect portrayals of the facts by

die-hard pro-El Toro airport factions have got to stop. It’s just

part of a last ditch campaign to vilify Measure W and drum up support

to revisit the El Toro airport issue. Like the county’s dead aviation

plans for El Toro and the typical near-hysterical Newport Beach

rhetoric, it simply isn’t true.

DOUGLAS K. BLAUL

Trabuco Canyon

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