Who says new takeoff pattern would be better?
Madison Eagle, Thursday, August 24, 2000
QUEST replied in a letter to the residents of Oak Court:
QUEST
QUieter
Environment
thru Sound
Thinking
P O Box 613
Madison, NJ
07940
973-822-2646
September 24, 2000
Dear Oak Court Neighbors,
We wanted to write a note in response to the August 24 letter to the Madison Eagle that some of you may have seen or even signed. We appreciate your reservations about the proposed modification to the Morristown Airport departure paths, and share your deep frustration at the dramatic increase in aircraft noise in recent years. We would like to better explain the new proposed take off path to you. Once you know the whole story we hope you will agree that our plan should help every neighborhood.
The proposed take off route endorsed by QUEST is very similar to the existing prescribed jet departure path. The angles in the new proposal are modified slightly (just a few degrees on the compass) in an attempt to route aircraft away from homes and over non-residential areas. And this is the point, to get the planes to not fly over our homes, yours or ours!
In the new proposal, pilots are asked to fly over the Exxon Campus, the eastern most portion of Fairleigh Dickinson University near Danforth Road, and down the center of the Giralda Farms office park. The attached map shows the route.
One of the biggest problems with noise from MMU is that fact that many of the jets do not follow the current prescribed departure path. Jets take off over your neighborhood, my neighborhood and even as far east as Borough Hall! Even those jets that do follow the current prescribed departure path are flying over residential areas. Thus the request to change the departure path to a non-residential corridor.
In addition to modifying the departure path, we are also asking the FAA to keep more of the planes on this new path. Too often the air traffic controllers are giving the planes instructions to break off of the normal prescribed departure path. If the air traffic controllers kept all the aircraft on this prescribed departure path, then not one jet would take off over your neighborhood!
Another noise issue with jets taking off is the roar of the engines at full throttle as they gain altitude. Because of this, we have also asked the FAA to amend the take off instructions so jets take off, climb quickly, then level off and throttle back by the time they cross Park Avenue. This procedure would reduce noise significantly. If you have ever flown out of John Wayne International Airport in Los Angeles you have experienced this type of noise sensitive take off.
We have also asked that the FAA consider this proposed departure path or corridor for landings. It just makes sense to have the jets take off and land over the corporate parks and non-residential areas instead of our homes! On a side note, we want to dispel the rumor that MMU has asked for a landing pattern that would take planes over your neighborhood. We know of no such plan. In fact, we would consider it totally unacceptable and would fight it any way we can. We would also like to dispel the notion that QUEST is somehow responsible for the departures over Oak Court. This is totally inaccurate. We suspect that there may be other rumors or misinformation being erroneously spread and would welcome the opportunity to discuss any concerns you may have and ‘clear the air’.
We all certainly agree that the noise from MMU is a big problem. In our 18 months of existence QUEST has found out some disturbing facts about MMU. Did you know that using services on the internet (e.g., skyjet.com) you could book a seat on a regularly scheduled charter plane out of MMU? This sounds a lot like commercial service and is way beyond the scope of a general aviation airport.
Another scary fact is the planned massive expansion of MMU’s fuel capacity. We certainly do not want MMU to become the favored gas station for transient jets! There are other real concerns too including the use of deicing chemicals, a planned major hanger expansion, ‘pro-airport’ legislation and formation of pro-aviation lobbies. These are all big problems and honestly we need all the help we can get. Would you be willing to help us in our efforts to reduce aircraft noise? Please give it some serious thought. The issues we face with Morristown Airport are something we have in common as Madison residents and working together we can achieve success.
If you have any questions or would like to join QUEST, please do not hesitate to call. We would eagerly welcome an opportunity to discuss this departure and landing proposal in depth with you and enthusiastically seek your participation in crafting this, and any future noise-mitigation plans. We also encourage you to visit our website www.rosenet.org/quest.
I am available and can be reached at home at ***-****.
Sincerely,
William List
President
QUEST