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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 09/10/2009 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 7:00 P.M. CITY CENTER Heritage Room I 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Rick King; Vice-Chair Jeff Larsen; Commissioners: Greg McKewan, Mark Michelson, Jeff Nawrocki and Kurt Schendel COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Judy Gentry STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Sam Clark and Tanay Mehta VISITORS: Scott Skramstad, MAC Jennifer Lewis, MAC Jason Giesen, MAC STAFF: Scott Kipp, Senior Planner Carol Pelzel, City Recorder I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair King called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. SWEARING IN OF REAPPOINTED COMMISSION MEMBERS A. KURT SCHENDEL Kipp administered the oath of office to Kurt Schendel who was reappointed to the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Kipp said he had distributed a letter from the Club Jet Charter, LLC informing the Commission of their air ambulance operations out of Flying Cloud Airport. King said this item should be included under Other Business. MOTION: Larsen moved, seconded by Nawrocki, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried, 6-0. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 2 IV. PUBLIC COMMENT King reported Scott Skramstad from the Environment Department of MAC will be moving to the Humphrey Terminal as their Manager of Airline Operations and will no longer be attending these meetings. King introduced Jennifer Lewis who will be replacing Skramstad. V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. COMMISSION TOUR OF AIRPORT HELD THURSDAY,JULY 9, 2009 MOTION: Nawrocki moved, seconded by McKewan, to approve the July 9, 2009, tour minutes as published. Motion carried, 6-0. B. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY,JULY 9, 2009 Schendel corrected the word Jepson on Page 6 to Jeppesen. Larsen asked that Number 4 under XI. Other Business on Page 7 be clarified. The Commission agreed the first sentence under Item Number 4 be a separate paragraph and the first sentence of the new second paragraph begin"In related areas, Kipp reported some of the points brought up at that meeting ........ MOTION: Michelson moved, seconded by Schendel, to approve the July 9, 2009, meeting minutes as corrected. Motion carried, 6-0. VI. GUEST SPEAKERS VII. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. UPDATE ON MAC'S LONG-TERM COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Larsen explained he had contacted MAC Commissioner Molly Sigel and asked her what the results were of the MAC Finance Development and Environment Committee that met yesterday with regard to MAC's Long-Term Comprehensive Plan for Flying Cloud Airport. He was questioning whether or not they had approved a revised recommendation to the Plan and what the timeline was for the approval. He was informed the Committee did adopt a staff recommendation to modify the original recommendation regarding the cross wind runway. Staff proposed a revised preferred alternative to include a 167 foot extension to runwayl8/36 to the north for a net increase of 109 feet. Larsen also asked Sigel for clarification as to when the 30-day review period starts and he had not yet heard back from her. Larsen said he would be happy to investigate this further if the Commission feels it is appropriate to do so. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 3 Nawrocki reported there were a few options considered by the Committee and one was to shorten the runway by 58 feet or evaluate moving it further to the north. He said he was not sure why they decided to extend the runway. King said the modification would basically shorten the south end of the runway and add to the north. Michelson said it appears all of this is within the confines of the airport property. King said he feels they should investigate this modification further. They need to understand if this revision will change any patterns and if it will push arrivals and departures closer to more homes. He said they should also determine when the public comment period is so they can let the residents of the City know to give them an opportunity to comment on the revision. Michelson said he is concerned with how close this is getting to Pioneer Trail. This was discussed and determined the end of the runway would be about 300 feet away from Pioneer Trail. Larsen asked if the Commission would like to have Gary Warren, Director of Airport Development for MAC, meet with them. King said it is important for them to determine when the comment period starts and stops. If the comment period is open during their November meeting time they could invite Warren to attend that meeting to give them a better understanding of what is occurring. Once they determine when the comment period is they should also inform City staff and the City Council. Michelson said the Commission could draft a comment right now if they have concerns. He said he personally is not too concerned about the revision. King said he would like a little more information about this. Larsen said he would look into this matter further and report back to the Commission. Nawrocki presented a brief overview of the construction that is currently taking place at Flying Cloud reporting the south building area is paved, graded and seeded. Landscaping should be completed by the end of the month. The remaining construction is ahead of schedule with everything paved. At the end of this month and the first week of October ten hangars on Mustang Lane will be demolished and this will change the face of the airport. The project is going very well with the installation of security gates starting next week. This will be an eight to ten-week process. Once the gates are in place they will be locked and coded. In response to a question from Larsen, Nawrocki explained how the gates will operate. Schendel mentioned Runway 18/36 will be closed on September 14 and they will have one runway operating for ten days. Nawrocki said the runway will be closed from September 14 to September 24 and there will be a change in aircraft operations and distribution. King asked Kipp to send a memo to the City Council informing them of the runway closure because there may be an alteration in flight paths. Nawrocki said he would forward to Kipp a copy of a notice he sent out to the operators informing them of the closure and Kipp could use that as a reference. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 4 B. FLYING CLOUD JOINT AIRPORT ZONING BOARD King presented a brief update of the Flying Cloud Joint Airport Zoning Board explaining the Board consists of members from communities that abut the airport and the community in which the airport is located. Membership on the Board includes two City Council members from Eden Prairie, Aho and Duckstad; two MAC Commissioners; two representatives each from Chanhassen, Bloomington and Shakopee. The main purpose of the Board is to determine if safety zones are appropriate. There are certain uses prohibited in certain zones. King said he has been named as the Chairperson of this Board and will keep this Commission informed as to what this Board is doing. VIII. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS A. MEETING WITH HENNEPIN VILLAGE ASSOCIATION Kipp reported the City will host a meeting between MAC staff and the Hennepin Village Associations' Board members to brief them on airport expansion issues. This will allow the Boards to receive information first hand from MAC to take back to the residents of these Associations. The meeting has been scheduled for Monday, September 28, at 5 p.m., in Heritage Rooms land 2 of the City Center. King said it would be helpful to inform them about the closure of Runway 18/36 even though it is not one of their questions. The questions raised by the Association have been about the new fence, landscaping and the lights. They may also have some discussion on noise. King explained this is not an Airport Commission meeting but members of this Commission are welcome to attend the meeting. IX. FINAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY AND MAC A. NOISE ATTENUATION TESTING AND SOUND INSULATION Skramstad explained as part of the Final Agreement between MAC and the City MAC agreed to do noise attenuation testing of the homes east of the airport within two years of completion of the runway extension. MAC is hoping to begin this testing this fall. There is a listing of 157 eligible houses in the agreement listed by address. The City has selected a sample of 35 homes to be tested and MAC concurs with that list and is now requesting concurrence from this Commission to begin this process using the 35 homes selected. Kipp asked what would happen if any of those 35 homes fail the test. Skramstad responded there are still some details that need to be coordinated between MAC and the City with regard to this. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 5 King questioned how long this testing would take. Jason Giesen, MAC Noise Monitoring Specialist, answered in a best case scenario, they could do two homes per day. There can be complicating issues in scheduling with homeowners and with the weather. Realistically, it could take a few months. Skramstad said even if they start this fall it could be spring before the process is completed. Kipp said he is not aware of any changes to the listing. The agreement also states houses constructed after December 4, 2001 are not eligible for the noise testing. King said this Commission should support the list and MAC should meet with City staff as to the interpretation of the Agreement as to what is to be done if any of the homes fail the test. Michelson said noise is the major issue of the airports and there are certain property owners that have complained about the noise and are not included because they are outside of the DNL. He asked if MAC is open to including any other properties for testing. Skramstad responded there are 157 addresses listed in the agreement and he is confident MAC will only test the houses included in that list. This list is overly inclusive and MAC is well within their parameters. King said if the houses listed fail this will become an issue. MOTION: Motion was made by King, seconded by Michelson, to endorse the housing list as written in the August 8, 2003, letter from the City to MAC regarding testing post construction of the runway. Motion carried, 6-0. B. NOISE COMPLAINTS/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS REPORT (JULY-AUGUST) Lewis reported for the months of July and August there were 658 total complaints filed from 56 households. Of those complaints, 235 were for operations during nighttime hours. There were 76 violation letters sent out with one operator receiving 19. Lewis reported there were no Stage 2 aircraft operations for July and August. There were 173 total helicopter complaints received in July and 83 in August. Skramstad explained there was a National Guard helicopter that did several touch and goes over a residential area and generated a number of complaints. MAC Staff followed up with the National Guard and talked to them about their flight plan and reminded them of the noise abatement. C. KFCM PILOT GUIDE Nawrocki explained at the last meeting of the Commission they discussed the development of a Pilot Guide for Flying Cloud Airport. Included with the Commission's agenda material was a copy of the KFCM Pilot Guide for the Commission's review. This guide will be distributed to the FBO's at the airport. Skramstad said in St. Paul they distributed a similar document to all of the tenants in the field. They also worked with the airport manager to have the document distributed FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 6 to the FBO's and asked them to place them in their flight plan areas. Skramstad said he would recommend the same distribution for Flying Cloud Airport. McKewan asked to be provided with a PDF copy of the guide to place it on the City's website. Larsen asked if they had any idea how many transient aircraft use Flying Cloud. Nawrocki responded there is no way to quantify the number. King said the graphics on the guide need to account for the new runway lengths. McKewan pointed out Eden Prairie is misspelled at the top of the document. Larsen suggested the document be distributed to the City Council and other appropriate parties. King asked Kipp to prepare a memo to the City Council and City Manager including the Pilot guide. McKewan pointed out the map identifies Highway 212 and that is now Flying Cloud Drive and should be listed as such. He also questioned the text for the maintenance run- up's. Some of the taxiways are changing names and he suggested they include the correct names for those taxiways. Skramstad said they would have someone from the tower clarify the text for the maintenance run-ups. He suggested Lewis make the recommended changes and submit a new draft to the Commission. McKewan suggested they include a reference date on the document so they know what version they are looking at. X. NOISE ABATEMENT/AIRCRAFT INCIDENTS A. TOP NOISE ABATEMENT/MITIGATION SUGGESTIONS FROM AIRPORT BUSINESS MEETINGS Larsen explained when they met with the airport businesses several ideas came up regarding how they can get information out to the airport users. One idea was to conduct noise abatement training during ground school and flight lessons. This would allow those people to receive the information up front. It was also suggested MAC send noise abatement procedures and training reminders out to area flight instructors and MAC put noise abatement flyers in airport hangar owner's lease billings every so often. They should provide extra copies for owners to pass along to their sublessors. It was suggested noise abatement signs be posted at the end of the approach and departure runways. Larsen said it was recommended the noise abatement message be included on ATIS/AWOS. The Commission did discuss this in the past and determined this would be one of the most involved items to get accomplished. It was also mentioned putting information like this in the Jeppesen binder. The KFCM Pilot Guide does accomplish this recommendation. King explained they did follow through on the ATIS/AWOS piece and were told it was not possible to include the message. They did get the information into the airport directory. Nawrocki indicated MAC does an annual billing and they could include some FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 7 information for Flying Cloud tenants. They have placed signage on the airfield run-up pads and approaches and they will make sure that signage follows through once the new runway configuration is finalized. King suggested when MAC does their annual billings they identify the sublessors under the master lease and send the appropriate number of information pieces. Larsen suggested they post the hours for transient pilots to view. Kipp suggested this be done in cooperation with the businesses that fuel the itinerant aircraft and recommended they leave some of the flyers to be distributed as part of fueling the aircraft. King asked if they talked to some of the charter companies asking them to include this information on their itineraries. Nawrocki said they did discuss putting the information on the back of the invoice or include it in the invoice. Some operators did not commit. They will continue looking into this. Larsen indicated the FBO's recommended MAC send out the information to the flight instructors and in the lease billings. Nawrocki said they would work with the FBO's to determine who the flight instructors are. B. LIFE LINK III HELICOPTER FLIGHT TRACKS (JULY-AUGUST) This item was discussed in Item IX. B. above. C. AUGUST 12, 2009 AIRPLANE CRASH Nawrocki reported the airplane crash at Flying Cloud Airport on August 12 was a rare event. It will be a matter of months before a final conclusion as to the cause of the accident is determined. Nawrocki stated the City of Eden Prairie Police and Fire did an excellent job with regard to their response. The tower responding to the event continued a safe operating environment while the situation was going on. It was very obvious all of the training conducted paid off. Nawrocki said there will be some training at the end of the month with the Fire and Police Departments. King asked if there is anything MAC saw in terms of how the City responded that needs to be addressed. Nawrocki responded after the event occurred they reviewed what happened and there was nothing that stood out as lacking. Communication is the biggest issue but there were no breakdowns and no red flags were raised. XI. NEW BUSINESS Larsen said as he was reading the Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan he realized this Commission has never toured the MAC building and suggested they do so to see where the fuel is stored. King suggested they do this at the May or July meeting next year. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 10, 2009 Page 8 XII. OTHER BUSINESS A. VARIOUS FYI ITEMS 1. Approved FCAAC Minutes of May 14 and May 28, 2009 2. August 12, 2009 Memo on FCAAC Review of Vicki Price's Concerns on Compliance with FAA/TSA Policies and Rules 3. MAC Memos on CIP adjustments for FMC Incursion Reduction Projects 4. Correspondence to and from MAC on Screening of South Building Area 5. New Hangar Plans for Lot 42C1 and Lot 42C3 6. Various Airport/Aviation Related News Articles 7. Updated Commission Roster showing new Student Reps 8. Next Commission meeting—November 12, 2009 9. Letter from Club Jet Charter Larsen asked if the City has gotten any response from MAC regarding Flying Cloud fields. Kipp responded the Parks Department and City Manager are working with MAC on the lease agreements and he does not know the status of those agreements. King said he plans to have a document listing some of the Commission's proposed goals for 2010 available at the November meeting. He also plans to have a draft of the 2009 report available at that meeting. He would like to take some time to discuss these documents to have them finalized in time for the January meeting. Nawrocki reported MAC had recently received an invitation from Grace Church to participate in their Family Fun Festival on Sunday, September 13, from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. MAC staff will be attending this event to hand out construction information and some noise information. King suggested between now and the November meeting they try to schedule a tour of the construction at the airport when the pavement and lighting are completed. Nawrocki said a good time would be the second or third week of October. XIII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Motion was made by Schendel, seconded by McKewan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried, 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.