For the week of June 24 thru June 30, 1998  

Noisy Hailey airport promotes quiet flying


By AMY SPINDLER
Express Staff Writer

Aiming to become a better neighbor, a committee has been reviewing and updating Friedman Memorial Airport’s noise abatement rules.

Last year, Friedman logged 155 noise complaints from 70,000 takeoffs and landings.

"What it comes down to is quiet flying is good business," said Friedman Memorial Airport Authority chair Tom Blanchard. "We live in a community that prides itself on quality of life, and we’re an important function of that quality."

Authority members, pilots, Bellevue and Hailey city council members and residents make up the committee, said Friedman manager Rick Baird.

The committee met for more than three months and authored two newsletters: one for the community and one for aircraft owners and pilots.

"We’re trying to identify ways to communicate," Blanchard said. "The program has worked for the past eight or nine years, but like any program it gets stale after awhile."

The pilot’s newsletter outlines strategies and regulations for pilots flying into or out of Friedman. The committee’s goal is to contact hard-to-reach plane owners and pilots to make them aware of the noise sensitivity of the area.

"We’re working very aggressively to solicit support from the flight community," said Baird.

A principal difference in the new policy is the voluntary curfew, which requires all aircraft to operate between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. The current voluntary curfew applies only to aircraft with engines of high decibel levels

"The presumption was that the curfew applied to all airplanes. But if you’re under a certain decibel, you can fly all night long," said Blanchard. "We were asking pilots to do what’s not in the regulations."

The program designates certain flight paths from the south to decrease takeoff and landing noise. It also asks that pilots delay flights, when possible, if the air is warm--and therefore less dense--making aircraft operation louder if they planned a flight path from the north.

The newsletter to the community, which will be mailed to every post office box, translates the pilot's newsletter from "pilot language" to explanations of what Friedman is doing to decrease noise in the area.

The newsletter also outlines the procedure to effectively lodge a complaint about noise. Baird said airport staff contacts the flight crew of every aircraft involved in a complaint.

"We’re excited about the participation and agreement of the community to work on this," said Baird. "This committee will stay together to continue to assist us to promote awareness and find ways to brief the community of what’s going on."

 

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