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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 11/04/2010 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2010 7:00 P.M. CITY CENTER Heritage Room I 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Rick King; Vice-Chair Jeff Larsen; Commissioners: Judy Gentry, Greg McKewan, Jeff Nawrocki and Kurt Schendel COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Mark Michelson VISITORS: Jennifer Lewis, MAC; Dana Swanson, MAC; Chad Leqve, 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. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Larsen asked to add to the agenda under VILA. a recap of the September 23 FCM Pilot meeting. Nawrocki asked to add under VILB. an update on the Helicopter Letter of Agreement between MAC and the FAA. MOTION: Gentry moved, seconded by McKewan, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried, 6-0. III. PUBLIC COMMENT Caryl Hansen, 16200 Hilltop Road, expressed concern with the number of early morning flights that have flown over her home. She does not believe they are following the flight path. On October 10 there were nine flights over her house in one and a half hours. She asked what could be done about this. Hansen said she reports these flights to MAC but there does not seem to be anything done about them. She is a citizen paying taxes and she feels she means nothing to MAC and she questioned why MAC doesn't have to be a good neighbor. King said the Commission appreciates her coming forward and this is something they will be talking about later in the agenda. They will review airport noise reports for the last two months. He asked Hansen to stay for this discussion. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 2 IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY,JULY 8, 2010 Larsen explained at the last meeting the Commission did not approve the July 8 minutes because there was a question on what King meant with the word "granular" in the first paragraph of V.B. King was not at that meeting to explain what he meant. King said there should be a certain level of detail which allows them to look at the flight information and to identify the flights. The Commission agreed to change the word "granular" to "detail". MOTION: King moved, seconded by Larsen, to approve the July 8, 2010 minutes as amended including the amendments recommended at the September 2, 2010 meeting. Motion carried, 6-0. B. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 MOTION: Gentry moved, seconded by Schendel, to approve the September 2, 2010 minutes as presented. Motion carried, 6-0. V. GUEST SPEAKERS VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. 2010 YEAR-END REPORT AND 2011 GOALS/WORK PLAN King explained a draft year-end report and work plan was included in the Commission's agenda material. He asked the Commission members to review the report to make sure they did not miss any major issues. On Page 6 there are two charts that will need to be updated and Page 8 will be updated after they present the MAC FCM Operator of the Year award. Other pictures in the document will also be updated. Gentry said there needs to be an explanation included on the map showing the safety zones the Joint Airport Zoning Board is concerned with. Also, Gentry said on Page 7 they talk about the residential sound level testing program and she suggested they include the results of that program. Kipp said the conclusion of the program was included in the last paragraph of that page. All homes tested exceeded the 20 decibel NLR goal. Larsen suggested they add to the end of that paragraph that no further action is warranted. Kipp said MAC's report did indicate that all homes involved met the test of the 20 decibel reduction and they could add something to that effect to the report. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 3 King asked that all edits to the report be sent to Kipp by December 1. The Commission will review the report at their January meeting and hopefully forward to the City Council sometime in February. Nawrocki said they would have the operations numbers the first week in January. Kipp said he would add some general information on Page 7 about what was required under the Final Agreement. King said they did not write much about next year's work plan but they will continue to focus on noise related issues and airport appearance. B. RELIEVER AIRPORTS MAINTENANCE STANDARDS ORDINANCE Nawrocki explained MAC drafted a maintenance standard for all reliever airports to work with tenants whose hangars are in poor condition. The ordinance should be finalized by the end of this year. MAC had two informational meetings regarding the ordinance and in October they held a public hearing. The report was presented on October 8 and requested to be approved and moved to the full Commission at the end of December and become effective the first part of 2011. MAC will work with the airport tenants and notify them of the ordinance. They want this initiative to be successful for all operators and tenants. It is their plan to begin the improvements in the spring and summer. Larsen asked what types of comments were presented at the public hearing. Nawrocki responded there was a lot of support and they have been bringing issues to the tenant groups for some time. There are just a few bad hangars and this ordinance will motivate those owners to make improvements. C. PRELIMINARY 2011-2017 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP) Nawrocki briefly reviewed MAC's Preliminary Capital Improvement Program explaining they are proposing a sewer and water project in 2011 for the south building area. This is contingent on getting the owners to develop hangars and to be willing to pay an assessment for these utilities. MAC will not fund the cost of this project. Nawrocki further explained there is currently a project in 2012 to make improvements to Runway 18/36 and to add a perimeter road between Elliott Aviation and Thunderbird Aviation. The environmental work has not been started and they may push these projects out to another year. Kipp said they will need to review the language in their annual report regarding Runway 18/36 so that it matches MAC's CIP. D. MULTILATERATION PROJECT UPDATE Leqve reported MAC has completed the installation of the Multilateration system at MSP. The main benefit of this system is the availability of data. The information is now acquired in a more timely fashion with increased coverage. They are now able to acquire the data with a 12-minute lag. Flight tracker is available on MACnoise.com. Leqve said their plan is to go from Beta to Version FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 4 1.0 by November 18 and this will enhance the accessibility and functionality available as part of the application. Their highest priority is to make this site fully Internet Explorer functional. Leqve described the application and its capabilities for tracking flights. They will be adding options for the end user to customize information they will be extracting. Their goal is to have a system that can be used as a monitoring system for the public and to provide a resource for the public to get the information they want. When they are in Version 1.0 Leqve will do a demonstration for the Commission on how the system works. He asked that this item be placed on the Commission's next meeting agenda. Leqve said there are system parameters as it relates to Flying Cloud. The system is at the very minimum required performance standard and MAC staff is looking at how to enhance it and make it a better system. Gentry asked Leqve to address how this system will be helpful to the general public. Leqve responded this system will identify early morning operations and what is occurring with those operations. This system will enable them to make sure people are informed as to what is going on at the airport and why. Their mission is to disclose as much as they can. VII. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS A. RECAP OF SEPTEMBER 23 FCM PILOT MEETING Larsen reported the FAA conducted an Airport Control Tower Informational meeting and handed out some good information. Their discussion focused on runway safety including runway incursions. Larsen briefly reviewed the information distributed at that meeting. He indicated it was an interesting meeting and there was so much information available. He found it helpful and interesting to hear the pilot's concerns. Nawrocki explained the meeting with the airport users is held on a quarterly basis and a hot topic right now is runway incursions. Over the last 18 months Flying Cloud is one of the top 5 airports in the nation with runway incursions. FAA is in the process of trying to determine what Flying Cloud can do to reduce incursions and are doing an initiative for the signalization of the air traffic tower. Larsen said he would prepare a paragraph to be included in the Commission's work plan on addressing runway incursions. B. UPDATE ON HELICOPTER LETTER OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN MAC AND FAA Nawrocki reported the FAA Air Traffic Control Tower and MAC have finalized an agreement for helicopter operations at the airport. This agreement will FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 5 coordinate the efforts of the helicopters and the tower with air traffic arriving and departing. King asked what the noise impact of this agreement is. Leqve responded the benefit of the agreement is to focus the helicopter operations south of the parallel toward the river valley and away from residential areas. What the agreement does for MAC is to let the FAA know this is an issue. King said he would like the Commission to get a copy of the Letter of Agreement. Also, this information should be included in their report explaining what this agreement is and the benefits to the community. Schendel asked if there was any resistance from the helicopter operators. Nawrocki explained they were engaged with the process and those discussions were started well before this agreement was signed. The operators are not objecting to it. VIII. FINAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY AND MAC A. NOISE COMPLAINTS/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS REPORT (SEPTEMBER- OCTOBER) Swanson distributed the complaint maps for August and September. Swanson reviewed the summary showing the number of total complaints explaining there were 698 complaints with 271 of those being nighttime complaints compared to 706 total complaints and 288 nighttime complaints in 2009 for this same time period. Swanson also reviewed the specific operations that caused complaints. She explained they were able to tie together certain operations by looking at the time of the complaint and if there was a Flying Cloud flight within the vicinity and within the time of the complaint. Swanson also explained there were five run-up complaints received but they did not find any run-ups that correlated to the complaints. She said they include in the reports the aircraft types where that information is available. Swanson distributed maps showing correlated flight tracks and aircraft noise complaints and reviewed those maps with the Commission. There were over 11,000 operations for October and September. King said with regard to nighttime touch and go flights, they should be easily identified and he asked they investigate those types of flights to determine why they are doing this during nighttime hours. Leqve said he agreed and this is something they should look into. He said they may be flight instructors and this would not be too unusual during the summer months. Gentry asked how they gather this information. Swanson explained they do it through the flight track system. This system does not give them information on every single flight, however, they do receive information on the majority of them and when they identify the flight they send a letter. If they are not able to identify FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 6 the operator they do listen to the radio transmission to try and determine who they are. Larsen pointed out over past years they have been undercounting the number of flights and with the new flight tracking system they will be able to gather more information. They need to make a stronger statement about that in the report they are sending to the City Council. The new equipment will have a more accurate count. Resident Hansen said she is very familiar with operation and knows aviation and has kept some detailed records as to when nighttime flights are occurring. Leqve asked Hansen to share that information with MAC so they can review it. Hansen said she feels MAC needs to be considerate of the residents and they have to be a good neighbor. McKewan asked if Hansen feels the noise is worse now than in the past. Hansen said she has noticed an increase in nighttime noise over the last eight years. She said MAC, FAA and the Met Council are not accountable and she questioned who she can go to for help. King said they have held meetings with the FAA about this very thing. King said they have made suggestions to MAC and they generally are very cooperative. He said this Commission is open to anything they can pursue and he pointed out there are two member's terms on this Board that will be up at the end of March. He said the City likes to have people who represent different aspects of the community and if Hansen would like to serve on this Commission he suggested she apply for a position. King said he appreciates Hansen being diligent about tracking the flights and for coming in to talk to this Commission. Larsen asked if MAC had responded to concerns by the Neuharths regarding helicopter noise. King said MAC had provided him with the information and MAC did send them a letter. King asked MAC staff to forward a copy of that letter to the Commission. Larsen said he feels it is important that they respond to any letters they receive. Kipp said he would include a copy of the letter to the Neuharths in the Commission's next agenda material. B. MAC NOISE LETTERS TO FCM AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS King explained at the last Commission meeting there were some questions about the revised noise letters format for FCM aircraft operations. The City Attorney did review the letter. Once this Commission says okay to the letter, MAC can begin the process of using it on a regular basis. Larsen asked if they send this letter as written, would there be any confusion on the part of the recipient as to which of their flights created the noise situation or is the information specific enough. He asked if there are incidents at the airport where there would be more than one aircraft creating this noise and if so would it make sense to give a general description of the aircraft to help them understand FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 7 which of their planes was creating the problem. Nawrocki explained for public purposes all operators keep track of their flights, their purpose and which aircraft they are using. MOTION: King moved, seconded by Schendel, to approve the letter included in the Commission's September 2 agenda material dated July 26 to aircraft operators authorizing MAC to begin use of that letter for replacement of the previous letter and that staff send the letter to the Acting City Manager notifying him of this action. The motion carried, 6-0. C. RESIDENTIAL SOUND LEVEL TESTING REPORT Lewis presented a summary of the results of the residential sound level testing conducted in accordance with the Final Agreement between the City and MAC. The sound level testing program was initiated in April, 2010. The purpose of the testing was to establish exterior to interior noise level reduction of homes in the 64-60 dB DNL noise contours around Flying Cloud. Lewis explained they contacted 51 homeowners and tested 21 homes. All of those homes achieved a greater than 20 db noise level reduction. Lewis displayed a map showing the locations of the homes tested and the results. The homeowners were informed of the results of the tests. She indicated there is no further action required and MAC has fulfilled its requirements related to this stipulation of the Agreement and no home mitigation is required. MOTION: King moved, seconded by Gentry, to accept the Metropolitan Airport Commission Residential Sound Level Testing Report dated October, 2010. Based on the information contained within the report and the Final Agreement the Commission is satisfied that MAC has completed its duties under the Final Agreement and to refer the report to the City Manager for Further action. The motion carried, 6-0. IX. NOISE ABATEMENT/AIRCRAFT INCIDENTS X. NEW BUSINESS XI. OTHER BUSINESS Leqve explained earlier in the evening they had talked about stop and go operations. Two of those occurred between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. It was agreed if those operations use the southbound track in that time period a letter would not be sent. They did not send a letter to the other operator because they did not have the information on that operation. Larsen said at the Commission's last meeting there was discussion on the Flying Cloud ball fields and the rezoning and development near those fields. He asked for an update on development that might occur near that area. Nawrocki responded with regard to the ball FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 4, 2010 Page 8 fields and development, the City and MAC are still working through the process. The ball field lease is agreed to and they are still working on the language. This should all be resolved by December. The Zoning Board is no longer meeting because there was an issue with it during the negotiation process and the Board will start meeting again once this is all resolved. Larsen indicated at the last meeting Gentry asked about the airport security guides from MAC. Nawrocki said he would provide the Commission with a copy of that guide. Kipp explained the Long-Term Comprehensive Plan approved by MAC was sent on to the Met Council for their review. A. VARIOUS FYI ITEMS 1. Approved Airport Tour Notes—July 8, 2010 2. Thank you letter to FAA Minneapolis ARTCC 3. AOPA Pilot Article on Santa Monica Jet Ban 4. Elliott Aviation Open House— October 28, 2010 5. Next Commission meeting—January 13, 2011 XII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Motion was made by King, seconded by McKewan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried, 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.