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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 10/13/2016 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY,OCTOBER 13,2016 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER HERITAGE ROOM I 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair, Keith Tschohl; Vice-Chair, Caryl Hansen; Bob Barker; Dan Kiely; Kurt Schendel; Joseph Sutila; Mike Wilson COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Joseph Sutila(resigned) STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT: Connor Pesheck; Ben Shepard STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES ABSENT: James Hilton STAFF: George Esbensen, Fire Chief;Jan Curielli, City Recorder VISITORS: Jennifer Lewis, MAC Representative; Gary Schmidt,MAC Director, Reliever Airports; Debbie Goettel,Mayor of Richfield, MN 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Tschohl called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. Schendel arrived late. For the benefit of the new student representatives, Tschohl explained the background of the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission and noted Eden Prairie has had a long relationship with the airport. The commission was set up to help with conflicts between the City and the airport that began in the 1970's. The two student representatives then introduced themselves, as did the rest of those present at the meeting. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Barker moved, seconded by Kiely, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 5-0. III. PUBLIC COMMENT None. Schendel arrived at 7:06 pm. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES October 13, 2016 Page 2 A. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY,JULY 14,2016 Schmidt said Sentence 4 of Item V.D.should be changed to LVN,not MSP as stated in the minutes. MOTION: Hansen moved,seconded by Kiely, to approve the minutes of the July 14, 2016, meeting as amended.Motion carried 6-0. V. STANDING DISCUSSION ITEMS A. NOISE REPORT/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS UPDATES—MAC i. Updates from MAC Staff on Recent Resident Noise Complaints Jennifer Lewis, MAC representative, reviewed the noise complaint reports for June, July, August and September, 2016. She said the June report was not complete at the last meeting so that report is included tonight. She said they changed the way complaints are received on the website so that complainants must set up a customer account. The customer must enter their address once when the account is set up rather than entering it for each complaint. The changes made enabled improved performance on mobile devices. They believe the new system has had the effect of making some of the data on noise complaints more reliable and verifiable. There are also plans to begin offering tools for customers to analyze the air traffic. She said the new process has caused delays in generating the reports, and there are no maps included with the four reports. They are working on generating the maps for future reports. Ms Lewis said three complainant households made up 80% of the complaints received in each of the monthly reports. Two of the three top complainants are the same as before the changes to the system. One of the top three dropped off,but one more has become a top complainant household. She reviewed each of the reports for the four months. She noted both total complaints and nighttime operation complaints in June were significantly less than in 2015. She said the"unknown"aircraft type are generally VFR operations. She said there was a small increase in the number of total complaints received in July 2016 versus July 2015, a decrease in August,and a fairly large decrease in September. Tschohl asked Ms Lewis if her office could prepare a demo of how the system works for the January commission meeting. Ms Lewis said they could do that. Kiely asked if letters were sent out to the same operators at FCM each month. Ms Lewis said some of the same operators generated complaint letters. Her office keeps track of which operators receive complaints and which ones obtain approval for the operations in advance. She said copies of letters sent to the operators are also forwarded to the City. Some of the FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES October 13, 2016 Page 3 operators generate more than one complaint. She noted North Central contacts them after every complaint they receive; whereas, most of the others generally respond only after the first complaint they receive. Tschohl asked if there is any sense as to the difference in the type of operator who receives complaints. Mr. Schmidt said the corporate operators tend to respond quickly. Wilson said some of the operators are concerned about procedures and ask what they should have done. Others will send letters to explain they are needing to operate at 5:30 am, for example. Tschohl asked if the operators know what the expectations are. Ms Lewis said the letters do open the door for some conversation with the operators, and they do get some responses that the operator was unaware of the expectations. Tschohl commented that much of this appears to relate to education.Ms Lewis responded that some of them just want to know where to find the information. Barker said he would like to see an example of one of the letters sent out to the operators. Ms Lewis said they could provide one. Schendel commented there seems to be significantly fewer letters sent to operators in each of the four months in 2016 versus 2015 and asked if that was related to the change made in the last year or so to the frequency of letters sent out to a specific operator. Ms Lewis replied they believe the decrease is related to the quality of the complaints that are coming in. They can more easily document the complaints and do a correlation at the end of the month. They can match it up more easily with an operation for FCM or for another airport. The change to the way internet complaints are processed makes it possible to put a point on the map with the address of the complaint. That helps to improve the correlation of the complaints to the correct flights, and thereby to reduce the number of erroneous correlations. Barker asked if the website was changed to allow the complainant to attribute the noise to a particular flight.Ms Lewis said they plan to make analysis available to complainants at some point,but it is not available now. Hansen asked if people have submitted complaints from several different addresses in the past. Ms Lewis said before the changes were made they had no way of knowing who was submitting the complaint. With the new system they don't know for sure who is living at the location specified for the account,but the system is more deliberate about the information the complainant is providing. She thought that is why we are seeing fewer letters sent out to operators now. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES October 13, 2016 Page 4 Barker asked if they have received responses from operators that they had no operation in a particular location at that time. Ms Lewis said in those cases it was usually an identification error. Tschohl noted it could be a problem with the time identified for the flight. At this point Chair Tschohl asked Ms Goettel to introduce herself and explain why she asked to attend the meeting tonight. Ms Goettel said she serves as the Mayor of Richfield and lives near MSP. As Mayor, she receives many complaints about operations at MSP. After talking with Mr. Tschohl, she wanted to see what FCM operations were like and what some of the residents' concerns are. She would like to help make things better for residents around the Hennepin County airports. ii. Ryder Cup Operations Review Ms Lewis reported there were 44 complaints during the time of the Ryder Cup, and 42 were from some people who have submitted complaints in the past. One of the top three complainant households submitted 18 of the complaints. She said they do not yet have the October data with which to correlate the complaints. She noted there was some unusual activity anticipated with the Ryder Cup event, and the event was well publicized. Sometimes they do not pick up a flight's data right away or it may drop off,but the data is improving and they hope to tie both ends of a flight to FCM. There are a lot of short tracks during the day because of training flights that occur then, so it is more difficult to identify those day-time flights. They are doing a better job of identifying a track for night flights. Wilson said a lot of the normal traffic dropped off during the Ryder Cup event. There were 270 additional aircraft at FCM for the event, and at one point there were 37 aircraft parked on the north parallel runway. He said they still had plenty of space and had additional room in the south area. The operators seemed to be happy, and some of them said they would come back to Flying Cloud rather than dealing with MSP. Wilson noted there were two runway incursions during the time of the Ryder Cup event,the only two such occurrences since the July Commission meeting. Barker asked if they have any sense of the economic impact of the event. Wilson said they haven't received the fuel data yet. Tschohl commented it sounds like it was a successfully run event. B. AIRCRAFT INCIDENTS AND RUNWAY INCURSIONS—MAC (See Item V.A.ii.) C. AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT UPDATES—MAC FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES October 13, 2016 Page 5 i. Public Viewin,2 Area Wilson said they are coordinating with Magellan Pipeline for an access agreement for the viewing area. He did not think they will be able to get it started this fall. Wilson reported there will be a ground breaking on a new hangar on Monday.They are starting to work on the airport maintenance building to be built on the far east end.They plan to go out for bids later this year with construction to start next spring and completion scheduled for next fall. There was to be a large hangar going up on the south side,but there are problems with the state fire code so it is on hold for now. Esbensen noted it is the international fire code. Tschohl asked if the tower got the second radar display. Wilson said they did get the second display. ii. Crystal Airport LTCP Mr. Schmidt said there will be a public meeting to generate input and feedback.Wilson noted the public comment period ends on October 26. Tschohl asked if they have received feedback on the LTCP. Mr. Schmidt said so far it has been positive, and the City of Crystal was very supportive. Wilson said they have had comments on the closure of the runways and are continuing to work on adding stop ways. Tschohl asked if the plan will result in savings on operations. Wilson said they will eliminate all but one of the eight or nine hot spots that exist. He reviewed some of the changes that will be made and noted the Federal government is willing to fund things that mitigate runway incursions. Tschohl commented it sounds like they are being responsive to the needs of the airport customers. Wilson replied they have received some comments from pilots, and they want to make it clear to them there will continue to be investment in the Crystal airport. D. UAS REGULATORY AND INTEGRATION UPDATES—MAC Tschohl showed a copy of the drone license he obtained.He said it is a fairly easy process that includes a training course and an online quiz. After completing the requirements, he printed the certificate, and the flight instructor verified it. He said a non-pilot has to go to a certified training course and then complete other requirements, including a test on rules regarding drones and other aircraft. Wilson said there are a lot of drones operating in this area, which is reportedly the area of heaviest use for drones. He has not seen any more requests for operations here than in other areas. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES October 13, 2016 Page 6 Kiely asked about commercial UAS operations. Tschohl said they need to be certified and have a statement of commercial certification. The operator would then call the tower and inform them of the proposed flight over the City of Eden Prairie. Tschohl suggested asking MnDOT Aeronautics to come back sometime next year to see how things are developing in the state. Wilson noted they get a lot of calls about the state regulations. E. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS None. VI. OTHER OLD BUSINESS A. JULY 2016 MAC PRESENTATION Tschohl asked if there were any follow-up questions about the July presentation. There were none. B. JOSEPH SUTILA RESIGNATION FROM THE FCAAC Esbensen said Joe Sutila has resigned from the commission due to health concerns. VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. UPCOMING EVENTS AND TOPICS FOR FUTURE FCAAC MEETINGS i. Fall 2016: Noise Abatement Seminar—Date? Tschohl said the next noise abatement seminar will be held on Saturday, November 19, 2016. Ms Lewis added it will start at 9:00 am. ii. January 2017: City Council Workshop Preparation Tschohl said at the January meeting the Commission will discuss the presentation to the Mayor and City Council about what the Commission has done this year. The presentation is to be seven minutes long. iii. 2017: MnDOT Aeronautics Update on UAS Integration Tschohl said we should schedule this for some time in 2017. iv. 2017: (Tentative): Review 2035 Flying Cloud LTCP Draft FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES October 13, 2016 Page 7 Tschohl said we are waiting for the LTCP for FCM to work its way through the process. Wilson said they are working on forecasting now. IX. ADJOURNMENT A. Next Commission Meeting—January 12, 2017 MOTION: Kiely moved, seconded by Barker, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. Chair Tschohl adjourned the meeting at 8:20 PM.