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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 04/09/2026Approved Minutes Eden Prairie Flying Cloud Airport Commission Meeting 7 p.m. Thursday, April 9, 2026 City Center Heritage Room 8080 Mitchell Road Eden Prairie, MN 55344 ATTENDEES Commission Members: Chair Marc Morhack, Vice Chair Nick Rogers, Stephen Bohlig, Warren Loken, Alan Matson, Laura Herrmann (Business Representative), Robert Dockry (Airport Manager) Student Representatives: Jiya Nair, Avery Robinson, Om Roshan, Liam Kremer, Ava Mahan- Cleveland, Kaavaya Checka, Ava Willette, Kira McDowell, Zyva Iqbal MAC Staff: Ryan Anderson, Jennifer Lewis City Staff: Scott Gerber, Staff Liaison, Kristin Harley, Recording Secretary MEETING AGENDA I. Call the Meeting to Order Chair Morhack called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Student representatives Robinson, Kremer, Mahan-Cleveland, McDowell were absent. Eden Prairie resident Mike Newhart joined the meeting. II. Approval of Agenda MOTION: Loken moved, seconded by Rogers, to approve the agenda. Motion carried 6- 0. III. Minutes A. Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission meeting held Thursday, January 8, 2026 MOTION: Herrmann moved, seconded by Loken, to approve the minutes of the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission meeting Thursday, January 8, 2025. Motion carried 6-0. IV. Public Comment V. Focus Topics for the Meeting FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 9, 2026 Page 2 A. Introduction of new Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission Members 1. Stephen Bohlig 2. Alan Matson Matson and Bohlig introduced themselves. The present commission members introduced themselves. VI. Standing Discussion Items A. Noise Report – MAC Lewis gave the first quarter 2026 noise report. In the first quarter of 2026, there were 497 complaints from 37 locations, a 90 percent reduction from the first quarter of 2025 (3,642 complaints from 42 locations). There were 101 nighttime complaints from 21 locations in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 273 nighttime complaints from 25 households in the first quarter of 2025. Most complaints were received through the online portal. The top three households submitted complaints through that portal, one household of which was a longstanding household, having complained for many years, whereas the other two were new complainants with high levels of complaints. The reduction in complaints was a result of previously high-complaining households not submitting complaints in 2026. Lewis did not have evidence the top complainants moved. Bohlig noted the spike in complaints in 2025. Lewis replied that was when one of the top households began submitting complaints. That household had not submitted any complaints in 2026. Rogers asked what could account for the reduction since there seemed to be no correlation across airports. Lewis replied weather had at times grounded aircraft; most of the reliever airports had procedures for pilots to use in low visibility conditions, but that would be non-VFR aircraft, whereas other airports might not be used at all under those conditions. There was a reduction in operations in all three months of the first quarter of 2026, which were down 23 percent. Nighttime operations during this quarter were fairly stable compared to comparable quarters. Flying Cloud Airport would generally continue operations while other reliever airports would not given the tools Flying Cloud Airport has. Dockry added weather was the most critical factor: snow events, cross-wind components and overcast conditions cut down on VFR training. Lewis added last year’s two top households stopped complaining altogether. Loken stated he knew one household had a family health event which changed their priorities. Morhack summarized the process of responding to complaints for the new commission FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 9, 2026 Page 3 members. MAC and the commission could not limit operations, but only attempt to provide education. The spike represented a frustration level increasing, leading to more complaints. These occurred not necessarily at busiest times, but when residents were enjoying the outdoors (the time of day). Therefore, the MAC and the commission tended to see more complaints in the summer than in the winter. MAC staff and commission members would meet with different airport operators to promote and discuss the Fly Neighborly procedures and promote the greater use of the southern runway to mitigate noise. Mike Newhart, resident at 9610 Eden Prairie Road, stated he lived on the west side of airport, and the use of southern runway goes over his house, creating a disproportionate impact on him. He asked why pilots could not instead fly over the river, or even alternate flights between runways. He also asked if all pilots causing complaints received letters in response. Lewis replied MAC staff send letters to aircraft operators that are correlated to complaints, but there could be more than one complaint for one operation. In addition there were operations exempt from getting those letters, such as medical operations. These were documented and the number of letters sent out was publicly available. Dockry stated the data showed roughly a 55-46 percent north versus south runway used, so the use was relatively even. He offered to pull the data for past breakdown between the use of runways. He also noted training flights were causing more stress in Eden Prairie. There were 25,019 operations in Q1 2026, 699 of which were nighttime operations, compared to 32,334 operations in Q1 2025, 704 of which were nighttime operations. Lewis stated regarding the nighttime complaints in the first quarter there was one letter that went out in January, three letters in February, and seven letters in March. One letter could list multiple complaints. B. Ordinance 97 Monitoring – MAC Dockry explained for the benefit of the new commission members this was the monitoring of aircraft over the 60,000 pound weight restriction. So far in 2026 there were six violations from six different operators. All were sent letters. (In the first quarter of 2025 there had been five violations from two operators, both of which had been sent letters.) Anderson asked for and received confirmation that if the violation involved an owner of multiple aircraft, that owner would get one letter listing all operations in violation. Morhack stated his joining the commission made me understand how many flights were FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 9, 2026 Page 4 medical flights. One repetitive, circling flight had actually been a federal operation. Loken asked what weight the letters carried, and Dockry replied the letters typically worked, though the offender could be issued a misdemeanor or a fine. Neither the City nor the MAC had taken that action yet. These violators comprised less than one percent of operations. Morhack added these violators were typically not the noisier violators. Matson stated he was teaching his son respectful flying and urged pilots to get quickly away from Flying Cloud Airport and go down to Air Lake or Glencoe or other areas to practice touch-and-goes. It also cut down on heavy traffic around the airport, which made collisions more likely. He added most of the time the noise comes from larger planes, especially jets. Rogers agreed, adding most flight students did not intend to cause disruption, so it was effective to make them aware of alternatives. He asked if the complaints were specifically correlated to registered flight trainings. Dockry replied the majority were registered to flight schools, and the rest rented aircraft to flight schools. Lewis stated one of the core elements of the Fly Neighborly program at all MAC airports was to spread out operations at these airports, but then flight schools from other airports would come to Flying Cloud Airport. Many trainings were necessary at Flying Cloud Airport, but flight schools were building into the requirement to use other airports as well. She added it required caution to determine how much of the activity was related to flight students. It was difficult to know if they were students, since they could only determine who that aircraft is registered to and where it came from. Morhack added MAC staff and commission members met with flight schools, and found them very agreeable. There was a need to do this on a recurring basis in order to catch new students. It was not necessarily the operations but the type of aircraft that caused the noise and the complaints. Hopefully this would be reduced in the future as electric aircraft continued to be developed. C. Airport Incidents and Operational Updates – MAC Dockry stated there were zero runway incursions in the first quarter of 2026. There were some emergency response required from the City of Eden Prairie due to gear-up indicators and flat tires. Dockry stated hopefully the prospect of snow was over, as there had been nuisance snows and mixed precipitation. The Airport purchased the new runway broom. There would not be much construction this summer. The Airport would be repaving the north service road from Thunderbird to Premier Jet Center and repaving the taxi lane connector from Brave to Charlie Lanes, and redevelopment at Thunderbird would close down that taxi lane. There would also be updates to the electrical vault. There would also be HVAC and infrastructure improvements to Executive Aviation. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 9, 2026 Page 5 The air traffic control tower was on strategic pause, but designed and ready to bid. Dockry was still waiting for the go-ahead and hoped to have an update next quarter. There would be seven hangars built this year, mostly redevelopments. The Thunderbird redevelopment would be brought to compliance for commercial operators (hours open, staff, ramp and parking space, hangar space, lounge space, etc.). Thunderbird must meet these standards by November (impossible in six months) and so has applied for a variance. Gerber stated at the last commission meeting the new FAA leader attended to provide updates. He commended the good relationship between the FAA, the City and MAC, considering City emergency services were not based at the airports. He commended Dockry’s training of Eden Prairie emergency response staff, especially the new staff members. Flying Cloud Airport was one of the lowest frequency but highest severity hazard locations for the Fire Department. D. Long Term Comprehensive Plan Update Dockry stated there was not much news. He explained this master plan for the airport to the new commission members, which was updated every 10-15 years. The Comprehensive Plan had been fully adopted by Commission and the Met Council last summer, and staff were still waiting for FAA comments before starting on the environmental assessment. E. Fly Neighborly Guide – MAC Anderson showed the updated content to improve outreach to the flight schools. He explained this would soon to go live, absolutely by summer, and could continue to be enhanced over time as need. He would notify the commission. He would also provide the link to disseminate. This guide was not mandatory, being at the discretion of the flight school, but the schools were planning to include this in their onboarding. Lewis stated it would be available on the website and would be promoted to a broader audience. Rogers stated this guide seemed to focus on tower-closed operations and urged more information about flying with the tower open. He also urged the guide do more to highlight other airports to reduce noise. Matson offered to present his ideas for flying neighborly in the future. Dockry stated MAC had very good collaboration and cooperation with the flight schools. They met twice a year, and the schools asked for more meetings. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 9, 2026 Page 6 VII. OLD BUSINESS A. Annual City Council Workshop Presentation Morhack stated the presentation was February 10 which highlighted the commission’s accomplishments, especially noise abatement, in 2025 and the commission’s goals for 2026. The commission conducted four airport tours, advocated for a MAC-produced video and held bi-annual noise abatement webinars. Lewis reminded the commission a webinar was scheduled for this Saturday. It could be found via FAASafety.gov and would be recorded. Herrmann reminded the commission of her Saturday Morning Coffee and Wings YouTube channel. Morhack stated he was pleasantly surprised with how proactive flight schools had been in participating. B. Future Airport Tour Consideration 1. MSP Morhack displayed images and summarized the tour held in March 2025. Another would be held in fall of 2026, and possibly before the end of the school year. Anderson stated the government shutdown did not affect the prospect of a tour. Gerber reminded the commission a driver’s license and registration was required. Security was essential. 2. St. Paul 3. Flying Cloud Another tour would also be held in fall. C. Visits with flight schools and other installations Dockry stated he had reached out to the new local director of ATP on March 2 and met with Avi8. In Flight was next. Dockry stated the air traffic control tower enacted VFR reporting points, which were visual rather than a vector. This did not disrupt noise mitigation at the airport. The procedure was fully vetted by the FAA and both Avi8 and ATP were using it. VIII. New Business FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 9, 2026 Page 7 Gerber announced this was the students’ last meeting. He thanked them for their attendance. The process would open up for nominating student commission members again in summer, followed by appointment, orientation in fall, and their first meeting in October. Dan Dorson and Vinod Pillai chose not to reapply to the commission. IX. Upcoming Events and Topics for Future FCAAC Meetings Wings of the North Air Fair, July 11, 2026, location TBD Annual Flying Cloud Barbeque August 26 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Girls in Aviation, September 19, 2026, Flying Cloud Airport, Cambria Hangar X. Adjournment The next FCAAC meeting will be held on Thursday, July 9, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. in Heritage Room I/II. MOTION: Loken moved, seconded by Matson to adjourn. Motion carried 6-0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.