READERS RESPOND

AT ISSUE: Should Newport Beach and Costa Mesa residents “relax” when it comes to John Wayne Airport expansion issues?You can be sure that Trabuco Canyon resident Douglas K. Blaul doesn’t live in Newport Beach (“Relax about John Wayne Airport expansion,” Mailbag, Feb. 10). His long-term carping against the planned El Toro airport is an old saw, but his call for clobbering the residents of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa with millions of annual passengers is new.

It may be time for pilots departing John Wayne Airport to learn how to take off toward Trabuco Canyon. Welcome to John Wayne expansion, Blaul.

DONALD NYRE

Newport Beach

I guess that we Costa Mesa and Newport Beach residents should have expected to be chastised for suggesting that burgeoning South Orange County might benefit from having a new and larger airport closer to their homes. Our local airport, John Wayne, a nice little airport, is over capacity and heavily burdened. How dare we suggest that we wouldn’t be delighted at the idea of increasing its passenger load even more?

It takes a real leap of genius -- as demonstrated by Douglas K. Blaul -- to insult the cities that were previously, and still are, bearing the brunt of the only airport in the entire area. I also believe that Blaul is the only expert to announce that the new generation of jets will “never be heard” over our homes. His snide quip at the end of this highly scientific analysis suggests we may have a NIMBY attitude.

How, exactly, can the very people who are carrying the entire burden have a NIMBY attitude? Consider that we daily bear all of the auditory misery for the very community that would benefit most by having a second airport in South Orange County. Go figure.

CHRISTIAN ERIC

Costa Mesa

Douglas K. Blaul of Trabuco Canyon wrote in the Pilot’s Forum pages about John Wayne Airport, in effect saying, “Nah, nah, nah -- you guys in Newport and Costa Mesa are going to have 14 million passengers, and you deserve it because you wanted to stick it to us in South County with twice that number.”

Cute thought, but put in real terms, John Wayne, with 14 million passengers, would not be nearly the same as El Toro with that amount -- or even 10 times that amount. That’s because Blaul seems not to have learned much math. Or, if he did, he must have forgotten it all.

John Wayne Airport exists within only 500 acres -- smack dab in the middle of a group of fully built-up cities -- with no buffer zone.

El Toro is 4,700 Acres with a 14,000-acre no-home, no-school buffer zone.

In fact, Blaul’s letter brings to mind the old hobo recipe for rabbit and donkey stew.

The recipe is as follows:

Take equal amounts of ingredients: One rabbit and one donkey.

That is the comparison between John Wayne and El Toro.

Get it?

GEORGE MARGOLIN

Newport Beach

Why doesn’t Douglas K. Blaul of Trabuco Canyon just relax and go sit in his “great” park? Oops! Wait a minute. There is no park.

FLORENCE STASCH

Newport Beach20060217icea33kfDAILY PILOT FILE (LA)Planes line up for takeoff on the John Wayne Airport runway.