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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 04/08/2021APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2021 7:00 P.M. CITY CENTER 8080 MITCHELL RD COMMISSION MEMBERS: Chair: Daniel Dorson Vice Chair: Andy Kleinfehn Commissioners: Keith Tschohl Bob Barker Chilkunda Narendranath Michael Lawrence (Business Representative) Blaine Peterson (Airport Manager) STUDENT MEMBERS: Evelyn Hemler, Abshir Noor, Pranav Kartha, Yash Salunke, Jake Dorson COMMISSION STAFF: Scott Gerber, EP Fire Chief Kristin Harley, Recording Secretary MAC STAFF: Jennifer Lewis I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Dorson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Loren Jones, chief flight instructor at AV8 Flight School, joined the meeting. II. WELCOME TO NEW COMMISSION MEMBERS Dorson welcomed the new commission members. The new commission members and existing commission members introduced themselves. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Tschohl moved, seconded by Barker to approve the agenda. Motion carried 7-0. IV. PUBLIC COMMENTS None V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION April 8, 2021 Page 2 MOTION: Kleinfeld moved, seconded by Barker to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2021 meeting. Motion carried 7-0. VI. STANDING DISCUSSION ITEMS A. NOISE REPORT - MAC Jennifer Lewis, Community Relations Coordinator for MAC, gave the quarterly noise report for the first quarter of 2021. She explained the purpose of the report and location of the Flight Tracker app on MACNoise.com for the new commission members. All the data compiled was published via the interactive reports. For the first quarter of 2021 there was an increase in noise complaints, which was a trend since spring of last year. It was related to increased levels of flight activity, particularly training. 85 percent of the non-Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport complaints related to Flying Cloud Airport. There was a month-by-month increase as well. There were 4,707 complaints in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 771 complaints in the first quarter of 2020. These represented 39 versus 24 locations, respectively. In the first quarter of 2021 there were 626 nighttime complaints, compared to 189 nighttime complaints in the first quarter of 2020. These represented 24 versus 20 households, respectively. Lewis displayed the map that coincided with these first quarter of 2021 complaints. There were 14,993 total operations and 427 nighttime operations in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 12,661 operations and 518 nighttime operations in the first quarter of 2020. The aircraft types involved were: Jet (2,009 operations, 628 complaints) Helicopter (228 operations, 60 complaints) Not correlated (zero operations, 65 complaints) Piston (11,262 operations, 3,807 complaints) Turbo-prop (1,283 operations, 290 complaints) Unknown (213 operations, 57 complaints) Gerber noted that nighttime operations was an ongoing concern, yet these had gone down in 2021. Salunke stated his father had a concern with night flying, which would awaken him. Dorson asked if there were a specific set of locations that generated the complaints. Lewis replied it was a small number of households, and two households generated 75 percent of the complaints. Dorson noted the breakdown of complaints by operation type mirrored flights by operation type, giving the sense that the sight of an airplane generated a complaint from some individuals. Dorson asked Lewis what interaction she had with these households. Lewis FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION April 8, 2021 Page 3 replied the conversations generally went well but there was an insistence that because people are at home more during the pandemic, there should be some accommodation of homeowners such as varying the flight paths and even changes to regulations. One household which had high reporting of complaints was a new household. There were four new households in 2021, and Lewis had not yet contacted them. One of the high-reporting households was one of these four. Because there was a high level of concern regarding flight training, Lewis had extensive communication with the flight schools which also went well. B. ORDINANCE 97 MONITORING – MAC Peterson stated there was zero incidents this quarter. When asked for thoughts related to the ordinance from Chair Dorson, Jake Dorson explained his understanding of the reason for the ordinance. C. AIRPORT INCIDENTS AND OPERATIONAL UPDATES – MAC Peterson reported there were 104,405 operations in 2019, and 124,382 operations in 2020, and 27,729 year-to-date, an increase of 19 percent. There were six pilot deviations January through March 2021, and three vehicle/pedestrian incursions onto the runway. There were three “saves” due to wrong runway deviating aircraft at Flying Cloud. Peterson could not discern any patterns, but one was due to a student pilot. Conversations were ongoing. Gerber added there was an incident in which a pilot experienced an emergency – he had unknown locked landing gear. The pilot declared the incident early and allowed more effective coordination between the tower and ground staff. The incident resolved in a successful landing. There is no fire truck stationed at Flying Cloud Airport. Overall response time in the City is approximately six-to-eight minutes. D. PRIMARY RELIEVER AIRPORTS VISIONARY STUDY - MAC Peterson reported there was still no planner for this position; interviews would be held the next week. VII. OLD BUSINESS A. AIRPORT TOUR Discussion followed on a possible tour on a May afternoon of the Flying Cloud Airport. May 14, 2021 at 3:30 p.m. at the Executive Building on Flying Cloud Road was decided upon. An email notification would go out. The tour would last one and one-half hours. B. MAC FLIGHT TRACKER TUTORIAL FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION April 8, 2021 Page 4 This item was tabled and will be removed from the agenda for future. C. CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP PRESENTATION Barker recapped the presentation. It went very well, and there was no instruction from the City Council or the Mayor to change the FCAAC’s goals. They thanked the members of this commission for what it does. The uptick in complaints and members of the public contacting the Mayor and City Council brought this issue to the fore. VII. NEW BUSINESS A. Recent outreach to flight schools - February 11, 2021 Barker stated there was a good reception from the people from Inflight, AV8, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport (MAC), and he requested this commission have more input into future meetings to minimize impact on the Eden Prairie community. Sharing reference material provided by Inflight Training Loren Jones, chief flight instructor at AV8 Flight School, displayed a PowerPoint and explained the joint practice areas. Inflight pilot training has been a staple business at Flying Cloud Airport since 2008 and had developed new practice areas to be shared by Eden Prairie flight schools. The goals were to increase aircraft safety and decrease noise effects. There were built-in incentives for this. Most of the training activity took place in planes with a consistent noise footprint, as most training is done in Cessna 172s or similar single engine propeller planes. Chilkunda Narendranath asked why some planes made more noise than others conducting similar landings. Loren explained that most variation in noise arose between different aircraft types. No matter where the practice areas were, the takeoffs and landings still occurred at Flying Cloud Airport. There is an effort to shift these practice take off and landings from Flying Cloud, but the aircraft would have to return to Flying Cloud at some point. Demand in the airline industry increased 300 percent. Most flight hours were spent away from Eden Prairie. B. Overview of airport development projects – MAC Peterson reported AV8 was renovating. Jones stated the final electrical needed to be done, hopefully by the end of April. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION April 8, 2021 Page 5 Peterson added Wings Insurance construction was proceeding more slowly than anticipated. RJL was proceeding with interior work and would be complete by mid- to late May. Jet Linx had temporary occupancy in its new building, and the hangar was available for plane storage. Office space construction was ongoing. There were several hangars planned. The cost of construction materials had skyrocketed due to increased demand and lack of supply. Delta and Echo taxiways had 2021 taxiways projects at Flying Cloud, and improvements to runway 18-36 were scheduled for mid- to late August. Peterson was working with a security company to secure gate access. Negotiations were underway to build in the free space on the south side of the field to bring the airport to its physical maximum size. IX. UPCOMING EVENTS AND TOPICS FOR FUTURE FCAAC MEETINGS May 14, 2021 Flying Cloud Airport Tour. Discussion followed on future topics of meetings to include a meeting dedicated to night flying operations and which airport users fly more at night, and an additional proposed meeting topic about economic/workforce development opportunities at the airport, not just including pilot training, but airplane mechanic classes set to be offered soon. XI. ADJOURNMENT The next FCAAC meeting will be held on Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. in the Heritage Rooms. MOTION: Kleinfehn moved, seconded by Barker to adjourn. Motion carried 7-0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:19 p.m.