Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

Leaving on a Jet Plane Not a favorite tune for some Northsiders

Jan 13, 2001

Published in the Northside Recorder Jan 11, 2001
By James Coburn
Managing Editor

More noise testing is planned soon in neighborhoods around San Antonio International Airport after questions were raised by a controversial proposal to change takeoff patterns, officials say.
Critical comments regarding safety concerns - mostly from Northern Hills subdivision homeowners - are prompting the additional study, officials acknowledge.
Jerry Rankin, in charge of the Airport Noise Mitigation Office for the city of San Antonio, said Jan. 5 that a meeting is scheduled Tuesday between the airlines, city Aviation Department officials and the study consultant to discuss the testing.
Rankin said airline pilots would be asked to make steeper takeoff climbs during three testing periods - in several weeks, in the spring and in the summer - to see how much that takeoff profile reduces noise levels.
"If that departure profile gives us a significant reduction without the turn, then maybe we would do away with the turn," he said of the controversial proposal to divert a majority of the takeoff traffic to fly over a less-populated area east of Wetmore Road.
"But if we still had the turn and still had them climb quick and fast, that could show a reduction, too," he added. The testing, however, won't include a majority of planes taking off in a northeasterly direction because that proposal has not been submitted to or approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Aircraft using that proposal would overfly the Northern Hills subdivision northeast of Thousand Oaks Drive, but the average day-night noise level of less than 65 decibels for nearly all of those homeowners would not be loud enough to qualify them for government-subsidized, home-insulation money, Rankin acknowledged.
Currently, most of the airport's takeoffs - 54 percent - are into the prevailing southeast wind. That means most of the noise is affecting the
Oak Park-Northwood areas, where homes and schools have been insulated against noise.
Rankin said a member of the Technical Advisory Committee studying the noise issue suggested that if most of the planes took off in a northeasterly
direction and turned to fly over an area east of Wetmore Road, noise would be reduced in most neighborhoods. He said the committee - composed of
residents, pilots, aviation officials and the consultant, Ricondo & Associates Inc. - agreed.
That proposal had been scheduled for presentation to City Council last November, but was pulled from the agenda following adverse comments during a public hearing in October and to do the additional noise testing, Rankin said. Earlier noise testing involved standard takeoffs, he said.
Michael Gallagher, a Northern Hills homeowner, is among the most vocal critics of a proposal to lengthen Runway 3 by 1,500 feet for northeasterly
takeoffs. Under that plan, pilots would make a 15-degree right turn shortly after liftoff, followed by a 15-degree left turn after crossing Wetmore
Road.
"We just think that thing's unsafe," Gallagher said of that plan now being restudied. He added he has given District 10 Councilman David Carpenter "an amendment to change that, and I don't know what he's going to do."
Carpenter, whose district includes the airport, wrote about the airport noise issue in one of his regular columns in the Northside Recorder. He wrote that the council was scheduled to vote Nov. 9 on sending the updated Federal Aviation Regulation 150 study to the FAA for further study and approval.
However, Rankin said that item was pulled from the council agenda for the additional study. He said more than 150 comments were received in the public hearing, including 58 from Northern Hills homeowners expressing opposition and several from other neighborhoods saying they liked the plan because it was beneficial to them.
Gallagher, in a letter published Jan. 4 by the Northside Recorder, wrote:
"Asking a pilot to turn immediately after liftoff is dangerous." He also said it sends planes into Randolph AFB's flight pattern.
Rankin, however, said pilots make such turns at other airports, and it is up to air traffic controllers to keep the planes separated.
"We like the turn," he said. "Whether we drop it or not, we don't know at this point."
A reworked plan likely will be submitted to the council this summer, Rankin said. The plan then would be submitted to the FAA for consideration, which could take six months to a year.
If the plan calls for a preferential runway, he said the runway would not be extended until the FAA grants its approval. "So it could still be two or three years down the road," Rankin said, before a majority of the takeoffs could change to a northeasterly direction.