||| FROM KIM KIMPLE for PORT OF ORCAS |||
What’s all that noise? We want to hear from you! The Port of Orcas invites you to a community conversation as we update our noise abatement procedures.
Join us on Wednesday, September 13th, between 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. in the Orcas Island Airport terminal conference room, located at 147 Schoen Lane in Eastsound for a bite to eat and to share your concerns, thoughts, and ideas on ways to reduce the impact of airplane noise in our community. Hot dogs / Veggie dogs will be served for the first 100 participants.
A noise abatement procedure is a procedure used by aircraft to minimize the impact of noise on the communities surrounding an airport. For more information on the current noise abatement procedure, or to file a noise concern, email Kim, Port Manager, at manager@portoforcas.com
Kudos to the Port commissioners and manager for initiating this discussion. I am sharing part of an email dialogue with Kim Kimple, Port Manager. She took the time to answer some of my questions. Just because this is a voluntary program by pilots, doesn’t mean we can do nothing if we are impacted by noise. Please attend on Wednesday or submit comment before Wednesday. Unfortunately, Kim’s answers, which were in bold in my email, don’t show bolded here so I separated my questions and answers with Q and A before each one
Q: So before I share this far and wide, are you saying that we can update this noise abatement procedure and actually make it have some teeth?
A: While we are surrounded by uncontrolled airspace, and don’t actually have jurisdiction or enforcement authority of that airspace, many local and visiting pilots do their best to abide by our noise abatement requests. At this time, the noise abatement procedure doesn’t entirely align with the noise abatement aspect of …noise abatement… I am confident we will see a change to the ‘calm wind’ procedure, which currently requests pilots take off over Eastsound.
Q: Can part of that be that if wind is light and variable or calm, or less than a certain mph, the planes can be directed to take off to the North? I hope the community and pilots will have some creative ideas. More important, is this only voluntary – and will there be no consequences for repeat violators?
A: As stated above, It is a request for courtesy. The Port sends a letter to pilots who are not flying within the published abatement procedures (or we have a face-to-face with those pilots that can be tracked down here).
Q: Who or what entity can those be reported to? I’m very interested in what can be revised in some kind of meaningful way for those affected by the noise.
A: Once we have received and considered all feedback, we will update the noise abatement procedures, to include reporting information. In the meantime, please continue to submit all concerns directly to my email address.
Q: The noise is constant now; all day and into the night. There is no getting away from this noise. These seem like private planes mostly; ‘sightseeing’ or whatever they do. I’m also hearing more small jets. I am worried about this demographic … I’m concerned about the airport’s growth – it’s going really fast and seems to be accelerating.
A: Thank you for this feedback. As it is not within our scope to prohibit landings and takeoffs from the airport, we are doing our best to work with both the community and pilots to determine the best way to balance both.
Q: The noise in downtown stops conversations. Musicians playing on Stage at the Green are affected, as are audiences. Businesses are affected; especially those that conduct part or all of their business outdoors. You cannot have a conversation; everything stops when a plane flies over. Ir’s beyond distracting. Even tourists are noticing it and commenting on it.
A: This is one of the items our commissioners, and commissioner candidates, have spoken to. I’m interested to see what solutions the group is able to discuss.
Some other things I mentioned in my comments:
1) It is nearly impossible right under the flight path to do zoom meetings, tele-health, conference calls, or classes because if your microphone is unmuted, the sometimes deafening background noise of planes taking off one after another, often only minutes apart, is a disturbance for everyone on the zoom meeting.
2) I used to think there was a way that planes had to avoid flying DIRECTLY over clustered high density housing. The accidents have made me nervous – Fred’s being the latest. Thank the Universe for those trees. They may have saved his life., and they have saved lives in the past when pilots crashed into their tops.
3) 10 years ago we had much quieter skies and could sleep at night. It isn’t just the med-evac copters and airplanes at night. It is private planes and copters coming and going at all hours. Is this under purvue of the FAA? If not, then who?
What I am going to mention in further comments:
4) Some folks have suggested and requested that planes CAN take off to the north in low or calm variable winds. The noise would impact less people. I support this idea.
5) Please don’t sell jet fuel at the Port – primarily for the pollution factor , but also for the noise factor of attracting more and bigger jets, which will add not only more noise but also more risk to those on the ground and in cluster housing under and next to the flight path.
Please comment. Better yet, show up. Submit your questions and comments and requests.