Complaints about the roar overhead
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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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