Buchanan Field Airport Master Plan

Buchanan Field Airport Master Plan Public Meeting March 22. 2006 Public Comments

Comment 1 – Lesson planes and hours are too many, from early morning to 10 p.m., 7 days a week. Comment 2 – Corporate jets depart at a hard right and steeply at high thrust starting at 6:30 a.m., sometimes four to six per hour, and are sometimes spaced three to four minutes apart. The noise for local classrooms is disruptive. Touch & go is less of a problem than in the past and prop noise control problems are fewer but both still exist. Comment 3 – I have lived under air traffic patterns for 39 years and have no problem with noise. Jets are a result of business and are good for the area as it creates jobs by making the area attractive to new businesses. Comment 4 – Most corporate jets are noisy taking off which is ok in daylight hours but 5:30 – 6:30 a.m. is too early. Same with late night take offs at full bore. Some light aircrafts take off and land at a decent altitude and make no more noise than a breeze in the trees. Some planes fly low, repeatedly, and sound as if they are going to cut out and crash. Monitor more thoroughly to identify pilots and maybe have the pilots association address the individual. Comment 5 – Airplane noise is not a bother even though sometimes low flying small planes are a little noisy in the summer. I appreciate having an airport nearby that small planes can use and am glad it has not developed into a large commercial jet using facility. Please keep the airport intact. Thank you for the meeting, I learned a lot. The presentation was very good and I especially enjoyed the comments. Comment 6 – I am opposed to more or larger jet aircraft operation over the Taylor/Morello neighborhoods. Comment 7 – I don’t want the airport to close because we need it for emergency services. Comment 8 – Easier access to noise monitoring equipment, location and data would be appreciated. A detailed description of the model used to determine the noise profile would also be appreciated. Helicopter training traffic is our biggest noise problem and it would be interesting to see if the data is relative to my own experiences. Comment 9 – Corporate jets/jets fly to close and low to my home during arrival. Propeller planes are not as much of an issue.

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc Comment 10 – I would like to see the field return to a commercial airport. I think it could be financially viable and give Concord needed revenue! Comment 11 – I am very concerned about the increase, over the last four to five years, in the number of jets, their frequency and the noise they causes at all hours – from early morning to late at night. Comment 12 – I would like to see commercial flights again. I use to take the flight to Los Angeles every week which was very convenient. On Fridays and Mondays it was a packed flight. Comment 13 – I live on Oak Glen Circle. There is a court that branches off Oak Glen and between the two streets there are 74 adults who reside there and their families. Most of the residents in this Hidden Lakes area have been living here between 12 and 24 years. Yes, there are planes, but there are also noisy, smoky lawn mowers everyday because of all the gardeners in the area, wonderful children just playing normally, noisy young people racing up and down the streets with loud mufflers, burglar alarms going off with nobody around to turn them off, and noisy motor scooters all over the neighborhood almost every day and evening in the summer. There are a million more noises that I can’t even think of now which are worse than any plane that flies overhead. On one Sunday afternoon I timed the noise that the loudest planes made over my house. The longest one lasted 15 seconds, but most were about 8 to 10 seconds. That’s not a long time at all and there is a marvelous invention available at all drug stores, they are called ear plugs. That airport was here from the time I was a small child and I believe the Supervisors were in error over the years to allow any kind of development to be built so close to the Airport. I believe we have to be more careful in selection of our Supervisors and keep in touch with what they are doing to this wonderful area. Most probably are in the pocket of the Developers. LONG LIVE BUCHANAN AIRPORT, RIGHT HERE WHERE IT STARTED. Comment 14 – (via e-mail) I love the sound of the airplanes overhead. The sound is sort of comforting; especially in the summer when we are outside and can hear the planes better. Comment 15 – (via e-mail) I live in the intersection of Cumberland Court and Cumberland Drive in Pleasant Hill, about a quarter mile from the intersection of Pleasant Hill Road and Oak Park Boulevard. I have not only experienced the noise of aircraft flying over my home, but have also experienced things in my home vibrating because of the sound waves. Comment 16 – (via e-mail) I live in Diablo View west of the airport. I do not fly, but enjoy going home and sitting in my backyard watching the planes fly in and out of the airport. My father sold real estate in California for over 30 years. I remember him saying when people purchased a home, it was important which city the home was in, the

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc neighborhood, schools and the traffic or they would NOT BUY. People bought homes in our neighborhoods didn’t know there wasn’t an airport? Maybe they should be the ones moving, not sure I want them in my neighborhood. Comment 17 – Most of the time the noise does not bother me. I have been here over 15 years and am sort of use to it. What bothers me are the leer jets at night and early morning. They are not only loud, but they smell and the lights at night shine right into my bedroom window. Even during the day these planes are loud and smelly. Making them fly “over the refineries” at night is not going to help people like me who live near the refineries. I am at the end of Solano, near the Dodge dealer. I have been outside when these planes take off and land and sometimes the after burn almost knocks me over. I have a lot of allergies to odors and the smell of what I would call lighter fluid is quite strong. I hope you will take this into account when deciding what to do about the airport. I, for one, do not care if the airport continues. I would just like the large, noisy planes to be restricted to daylight hours only. Comment 18 - (via e-mail) There are certain small aircrafts with piston- type engines that can be excessively loud when passing over my house on take-off. It’s absolutely amazing the loud buzzing sound they make relative to most of the small aircraft that leave the airport. I also am amazed at how loud some of the newer small jets that take-off from Buchanan field can be. This is a relatively new development (I’ve lived in this house since 1988). Comment 19 – (via e-mail) I appreciated the opportunity to attend the Public Meeting on March 22nd as it was useful and informative. I want to commend you. I live in Pleasant Hill and my home sits on top of a hill overlooking Hidden Lakes Park. I also have a beautiful view of the airport. We enjoy looking at the airport and in years gone by have enjoyed the Air Shows on Father’s Day weekend. We even frequently flew out of Buchanan when PSA/USAir was conducting commercial flights to Los Angeles. When we bought our home in 1988 we spent a lot of time on the lot (on many different days and times) before making an offer to assess the noise conditions of the airport. At that time there was little to no intrusive noise. Even when commercial flights were active at Buchanan we did not see any problems or issues. Much of that has changed. While overall traffic at Buchanan may be down the jet traffic has dramatically increased and your forecasts show that as the fastest growing type of traffic. I understand we all need to adapt but my main issue is with Jet take-offs. During the years that PSA/USair operated, departures were almost exclusively to the north over the industrial area. For some unknown reason those traffic patterns have shifted. Corporate jets seem to almost exclusively take off to the south and then turn right over the Hidden Lakes Area. The Noise Abatement Procedures you provided state the preferred

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc runways for departures are 32L and 32R. I believe these runways would take traffic to the north over the industrial areas. It does not appear that the practice of takeoffs, to the south, is in accordance with your own procedures. Your guidelines also state that when 19L is used that planes should stay east of Contra Costa Blvd. yet the majority seem to turn right to the west of Contra Costa Blvd. This appears to be in direct opposition to the stated procedures. I am willing to work with each of you, but when jet pilots are not consistently abiding by the existing procedures then I am not sure how effective voluntary measures can be. Comment 20 – Increase fixed wing and helicopter traffic patterns an additional 200 feet. It would help to alleviate noise problems somewhat and aircraft nearness apprehension. It would be worth a test period. Comment 21 – I suggest that nighttime lighting be installed on the noise abatement runways so that when jets take off late at night they take off over Tosco rather than over Pleasant Hill or Concord. Another suggestion would be to have the county buy a fleet of quiet training aircraft, not necessarily new but that can be retrofitted with quiet engines and quiet props to be leased back to the training schools in order to reduce the impact of touch and goes. We have the community and pilots that need to try and work toward a common goal. The small plane pilot is now being edged out by the larger corporate jets, which is not good for us as a community. Comment 22 – I have lived at the north end runway for 40 years, before that on an aircraft carrier and before that I lived about two miles from Midway Airport in Chicago. What scares me most is that the first meetings I come to I hear one of your pilots say that Buchanan Field is too quiet and that what we need is more noise to get the people use to it. I’m probably a lot more acquainted with noise than that gentleman and that scares me because some of your pilots have been doing a good job coming off of 32R. They have been going over the railroad; they have been making the turn and coming back decent but not all of them. Some of them, after they leave the runway figure I’m going to do whatever I feel like, because you don’t have control of them. What they do is cut short and come right smack dab over the neighborhood and try on a summer evening having a barbeque in your backyard, it doesn’t work because every ten minutes you have these aircrafts, most of the time it’s the same airplane, coming over roaring. What bothers me is that you don’t have the regulations, it’s not the airports fault it’s the FAA. Once their in the air, the only thing the FAA cares about is if the guy crashes and then they come out and wonder why. Comment 23 – My wife and I have lived in Pleasant Hill for 18 years near Paso Miguel Park. We have noticed a significant change in mix of aircrafts over the last five to six years. We have had a period of time, over a period of the last two years, when there will be three, four,

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc five, or six jets in a steep climb over our house, the noise stops for only about 15 seconds between each. Sometimes it happens at 11:30 at night and it has happened at 3:30 in the morning. It has for some reason suddenly stopped over the last few weeks. This demonstrates to me that something is possible with abated noise over our area; it seems to have been reduced as we haven’t noticed it as much. I would invite any exploration of changes in patterns. Comment 24 – I live in the airport traffic pattern and have since 1972. I have just a couple of thoughts. Everyone knows that they moved near an airport. When I moved in I signed papers saying that I would hear and see airplanes and that it wasn’t going to be a surprise to me that I live near an airport. I believe those are on file with the county. One thing that comes to mind when I hear about a noise study is a question that in your noise evaluations there is a significant part of the noise zone that is around the freeway sections. The airport is blessed with a couple of giant freeways covering two or three sides and if we are to do a noise study is it possible to take a look at what the other noise factors are in those zones? You hear a lot about people complaining about the airport noise but I wonder about the freeway. The freeway has had a lot of growth impact as well because there is a lot more traffic. A good portion of the traffic in the morning is big trucks that the economy depends on it, but it is also a source of noise. There are many places around the city where you can be standing outside in the evenings and you can hear the freeways loud and clear. Some of the vehicles exceed the decibel level that the airport puts out. Can some of these areas be taken into consideration and have a comparison of what you have from the vehicles, trucks and general freeway noise along with what is being collected from the airport? Response: We will take this into consideration as part of our study. Also in terms of the mitigation program and new technology they’ll be able to fly planes more precisely in those areas that operate as well. Comment 25 – I live near the intersection of Treat Blvd. and Oak Grove Rd. in Concord near the Walnut Creek border. At 5:30 this evening a helicopter flew parallel to Treat Blvd. and over my house, going east to west. I was outside and it seemed awfully noisy and I am wondering if there is a low limit that helicopters have to abide by when they fly over residential. Response: The ordinance does have limits and one of the things we will look at in the future is how better to track the vehicle and to be able to know when they do fly lower than what is desired. Enforcement of the existing ordinance will be part of what is explored. Comment 26 - I have lived in Pleasant Hill for a long time. Normally I would complain bitterly about the lack of publicity of meetings such as this and tonight I can not make such a complaint. The publicity has been

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc excellent. I would be hard pressed to find fault with it. Also I have complained numerous times about noise and will undoubtedly continue to. I could learn to live without the airport especially at 2:00 on selected mornings but I also recognize that I need to learn to live with the airport. I think it is easier to live with it now then it was a few years ago and I hope that will continue to be the case in the future. Hopefully the airports we have can prevent, what I see is a good direction from becoming a more negative direction. The last thing, I would like to preach a little to the county, is that we need to recognize that we have a better description of the difficulty of operating a level playing field when the FAA has anything to do with it. We should recognize and not be surprised; the FAA was established to promote aviation. If the noise doesn’t come out the way you want it on a single occurrence, you say what if it only happened once a week and we average it into seven days a week the decibels drop down to where they are not noticeable. We should recognize that, that is the game we are playing with and I hope the county will bare that in mind when they exercise what little control they do have over the operation of this airport. Comment 27 – My husband and I have lived in Pleasant Hill for eight years, two blocks from the airport and we rarely hear planes flying over. Truly the only times something wakes us up is when the college students across the way have a party. We enjoy the airport because it preserves some of the California valley floor ecosystem and it is well integrated in the environment. We also enjoy our neighbors that fly planes here and we hope to see them here for a long time. We particularly enjoy the natural area along Marsh Rd. on the west side of the airport. We would like a strip of land conserved along this channel that has become naturalized for the survival of the creatures living there. We like to watch the red-winged blackbirds, look out squirrels, snakes, muskrat, and so on. We would still like to see these creatures residing here in the future. We ask for the protection and preservation of this land for the neighborhood. We also believe that a natural area will help reduce air pollution and reduce noise. We hope that you will conserve some natural area and maybe expand the natural area around the airport. Instead of expansion we look for integration of the natural habitat. The valley floor ecosystem is disappearing at a fast pace and we hope you will be, as you have in the past, conscious of the environment. Comment 28 – I want to say that for the most part I have seen improvement; however, today it seemed we had an air show (everyone was included including the jets, helicopters, and all sorts of mixed venues of airplanes and aircraft). Generally speaking there seems to be an improvement. I would like to say there is a specific plane which seems to be a recurrent problem. He seems to be in my pattern quite a bit, flying too low and noisy and doing a lot of touch and goes. We still have the problem of the touch and goes. After talking to another

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc gentleman I would like to maybe see the touch and go aircrafts do touch and goes over the Naval Weapons Station as it has been decommissioned and we have an opportunity to use that airspace as we haven’t been able to in the past. I think it would eliminate a lot of the noise that is in my particular neighborhood; the area by Port Chicago Highway has the freeway on one side, B.A.R.T on another, the refineries on another side and then the airport traffic. So you are asking for a neighborhood to absorb a lot of noise all the time. As the gentleman said before, that needs to be taken into consideration when you are looking at the contour studies of these neighborhoods. We would also like to see a noise monitoring station out over the Port Chicago area because you are taking existing statistics from monitoring stations in Pleasant Hill. You don’t have one in my area and I think it would be advantageous to put one there. We experience night time touch and goes or nighttime traffic patterns in the Port Chicago area and would like to see that there would be somebody to make comments and query to what they are doing at that nighttime interval. I would also like to see something done about the after 10:00 p.m. usage. My biggest concern is with the touch and goes. I think it has to do with outside planes that are coming in from Oakland or Livermore and that I believe we possibly have some traffic from the lease back situation, so there isn’t as much control. Pilots that are trying to abide by the abatements are being negatively affected by people from the outside coming in here. I have had good progress with some of the pilots in asking them to cooperate. Comment 29 – Smaller planes are flying over, coming in very loud and the fact that we are at the top of the hill really exacerbates the situation. I would like to understand better how your contours are derived and how your contour maps will reflect the ecology of the area as well. Are there monitoring stations to collect the data and if so can information be requested from each of the different departure paths? Response – Terrain is one of the inputs into the noise model, so that if you are 100 feet higher than the airport you will be 100 feet closer to that noise source so it will be predicted as being louder. The model does take into account the relative altitude of the house relative to the plane or noise event. There are five to six stations around the area that we are using data from. From this data we are able to predict how loud certain planes are and how loud it was at any place around the airport. Comment 30 – I am a 30 year resident of Pleasant Hill. I rarely have any difficulty with the local prop plane pilots but I do have a problem with the Gulf- stream, leer jets and corporate jets. Just by the way they fly; they have attitudes that they’re better, they’re different and unique, and more important. You can talk about your

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc restrictions and controls but I remember in San Jose they had those type controls at their airport and one gentleman basically stated that I’m different and I don’t need to follow your rules. So I am concerned. We also have planes, in my neighborhood, that at one point took off about 1:30 every day to the south, banked right over Odin Dr. and headed north. Every single day. Of course you hear it’s all the wind, we have to go in the other direction. But I look out there and there’s no wind, I don’t think 2 M.P.H. or so counts. So they just do it, and of course height does make a difference but the FAA says well there is no restriction when they are landing or taking off. I realize you have to throttle to get up there but it does make a difference. You can say you don’t want to talk about moving the airport but I read in the paper where the Naval Weapons Station is being developed right now. It seems like an ideal time to do this and move the airport. Right now you have one of your runways taking off over D.V.C., College Park High School, a middle school and an elementary school. It seems silly to spend millions of dollars for education and then we send planes over these schools and make it so noisy that they can’t concentrate. I think we need to do a better job in our community. Comment 31 – We have lived near Pleasant Hill for about 12 years now, close to Pleasant Hill on the south part of Martinez. When we purchased our house twelve years ago we were aware that there was an airport because we drove by it when we went to Target, but we had no noise issues at all. An occasional propeller plane but it wasn’t an issue. So more in aligns with the gentleman who lives near Paso Miguel Park and was one of the first to address the panel and the problems; the Jets are our concern also. I don’t know if it is really taken into account or if it is an accumulative study that is averaged out, but it is several times a day starting early in the morning. We are awakened during the summer, because we have windows open, by very loud jet noise. It is becoming more and more frequent, early in the morning, late at night, during the day. Several times during the day to the point where it is becoming very disturbing. So I hope that would be taken into account because although it is that single noise event it is very disturbing. Even if there was only one of those a day when averaged out the decibel level goes way down but for that one event it is very disturbing. So whether it is private, corporate or commercial a limit on the number of those that can happen during a day or the times needs to somehow be addressed. Comment 32 – I live on one of the hills in Pleasant Hill where the airplanes come down fairly close. On arriving they are between my house and my neighbor’s house. We have to stop talking if we are having a party in the back yard or even in the house because the noise is so bad. I don’t have a problem with the propeller planes but the jet planes. I moved there seven years ago and it didn’t become an issue until the last five years. My concern is that when I’m at my kitchen

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc window I see the airplane lights coming straight at me at a fairly low level and the noise. I understand the study you are doing probably isn’t going to change anything. I hope it will be taken into consideration some ways of changing the arrivals and departures away from the residential areas and move those to commercial and industrial areas so that people aren’t impacted while they are at home. Comment 33 – I live near Morello and Taylor and over the last five to six years, we’ve lost track of the number of jets that fly over us. It’s the take offs in the morning that wake you up early, one right after another as well as the landings where they seem to switch direction and then go back in the other direction. People have to realize it’s amazing how low some of those planes are. We just sit there and think if you had a camera you could get the pilots face smiling at you. They are just so low and so noisy. It really is the corporate jets and not the propeller planes that are our concern. Comment 35 – I would like to thank the committee for organizing everything. The communication with the community and the coverage in the newspapers has been fantastic. I live in the Morello area near Paso Miguel Park and this is my first anniversary of being a part of the Pleasant Hill community. I owned a home in the flight path of San Jose and inevitably the curfews are gone now and they have a 24/7 operation there. So I thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening in regard to the noise concerns particularly because I was able to attend the last meeting where some considerations were around expanding future operations of the airport and accepting larger corporate aircraft. Although planes may be quieter because of technology advancements and although there are some dreams of development of the Naval Weapons Station, that is all in the future and it really comes down to me as a quality of life issue in having a choice of my decision of coming here and the expectations of being able to send my daughter and other kids to the neighborhood schools. Comment 36 – I am a resident of Pleasant Hill and a retired United Airlines pilot, retired military pilot and have about 16,000 flying hours under my belt at this point. However, I have attended all the meetings for Buchanan Field and am most interested in this meeting because of the noise abatement that exists in the area. What I have seen is jet departures on 19R make a hard right turn over Diablo Valley College, College Park High School and the middle school in that area and are in fact at a high thrust setting when they make that turn. That is probably the most offensive thing I have seen for a number of years. I mentioned at another meeting that I flew a 757 in and out of Orange County, John Wayne Airport, where we had the toughest noise abatement profile and standards in this whole country. I urge you at this point while conducting this study to look closely at noise abatement profiles and procedures in order to make proper recommendations now to avoid future problems for Pleasant Hill,

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek, etc. and all areas. That is the bottom line, the noise abatement problem. Comment 37 – I am a resident and directly in take-off pattern. This is a pretty recent problem and has not been in the past, but in the last couple of years it is getting more and more intense and we know who and why, it is a business decision. I talked to jet pilots and tower personnel about the reason in the westerly take-off and then bearing up north, and I was told that as propeller driven planes generate their own airflow for lift jet engines have to swallow the encountered air for combustion. Due to sporadic wind patterns, the fear is hitting a small air vacuum pocket in the existing plane route. That is why they head westward and into prevailing oncoming Pacific Ocean breezes so that they get the air they need. I am all for safety but I am not happy about the flight path and it’s usage. It doesn’t make sense to build an intensive business commercial airport surrounded by intensive business, homes, and schools. Have you forgotten the Sun Valley Mall landing, the recent propeller plane landing on Contra Costa Blvd., stuff happens. Longer term, I like the idea that was expressed before why don’t we move or move one of the runways over to the Naval Weapons Station. Byron Airport is commutable by B.A.R.T., e- B.A.R.T. and it is in a rural area. Travis Airbase is suppose to be the fourth commercial airport in this area to take relief off the other three. When the President is finished with Travis maybe that would be available and a better shot. In anticipation of this, B.A.R.T. has been co-managing the rails commuter train service from Martinez all the way to Sacramento. Comment 38 – I also live in Pleasant Hill, very high on a hill off of Morello, right on top of the hill with the planes. I’m here today for the opposite reason, I thoroughly enjoy them. I see them from my window. I am out in my backyard when they come over and I’ll wave. It’s no problem. I have been out there with a watch timing to see how bad the noise is and the noise is 10 seconds from the time it is really quiet to when they are coming out of their zone. It doesn’t bother me one bit. I think it is all in your perception and how you perceive noise, what you can handle and what you can’t. We really enjoy watching the planes and seeing what is coming in and out. When we moved here nine years ago we knew the airport was right there and you do have a choice before you sign the papers. Comment 39 – I have been involved with thousands of touch and go airports, touch and go landings and have been a flight instructor for 10 years right here. When I learned to fly the traffic patterns were 500 feet. When I came here to live in Pleasant Hill 12 to 15 years ago the pattern was 800 feet and in a course of a year or two it was move up to 1,000 feet. I highly recommend that it be moved up 200 to 250 feet higher than it is now to alleviate a lot of problems with noise and being over people’s houses. From the view point of a jet air pilot, I have

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc considerable experience with jet aircraft. Jet aircrafts are unique, compared to propeller aircraft, in the approaches and departures they make. Jets typically make long approaches and long low approaches because they don’t like to remove the power and drop down like a prop does. So prop jets require power on approaches and the same thing on departures. They take a lot of room and generally have a high angle climb unless they have to meet noise restrictions. The interesting thing is that light jet aircraft, the small aircraft jets are coming and you will be seeing them more in the air flight patterns. You are going to see the small air pilots learning to fly jets and shooting touch and go landings. Comment 40 – I have been in Pleasant Hill all of my life and am a student at Valley View Middle School. I can tell you that there are a couple planes that fly around the school disturbing the teachers and taking time away from our education. The teachers like to leave the doors open because the classrooms get hot in the afternoons and sometimes in the mornings. When these planes come flying by these teachers will have to stop what they are saying because of the noise. Airplanes will repeatedly fly in circles around the school disrupting our education. Comment 41 – I think a simple noise solution just boils down to linguistics. The noise seems to relate to the height of the aircraft and the type of the aircraft. There are a lot of dangerous flying patterns where planes barely make it over Target, D.V.C. and Golf Club Rd. yet alone Valley View Intermediate or College Park High Schools. I think if we had better patterns where the planes flew out over the water more often it would help minimize the noise. There is no accountability for planes flying too low, for too much noise or even for landing on the freeways. There needs to be some kind of reinforcement or some sort of laws to stop that sort of thing. Somebody a couple meetings back also said it would be nice for some of the planes to be equipped so that they don’t make so much noise, if possible. As residence we should be able to photograph planes because sometimes when we call in to complain about the aircraft being too low or too much noise you can’t really identify the aircraft or we don’t know how to describe it or what the plane’s license is. It seems to me a picture should be enough for us to send in to help identify the plane in order to have some kind of action done when there is a complaint. I think it is a good idea to adopt standards to have the aircraft fly above federal minimal levels or higher than the minimum altitude. I think some of the planes have the technology to be able to do that and be quiet at the same time. Quiet planes would be a good idea and perhaps the county can give rebates for quiet planes on the premises. Also, maybe there could be a preferred pilots program for people who don’t disturb residents, like where they could get in line for hangars and other rewards. I think planes should have enough power to fly higher than what the current

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc levels are so that wind wouldn’t be an issue. The model doesn’t take into account a lot of the outliers where someone is constantly flying over somebody’s home, doing touch and goes and things like that. There should be some kind of enforcement like a three-strike and you’re out program to get them out of Buchanan Airport. Comment 42 – I am a pilot and a member of the Aviation Advisory Committee for Contra Costa County. We set aside five or ten minutes out of every meeting to discuss noise and the noise complaints. We are the only body I know of that actually gets a report every single month about every single noise complaint in Contra Costa County. I would like to invite you all to attend. Meetings are on the third Tuesday of every month. Next month’s meeting will be held at the Byron airport and the following month it will be here in Concord. We are going to have them upgrade an update from staff about how our noise monitors are used during the noise abatement procedures for Buchanan Field. I would also like to commend Hal Yeager for his comments; we have learned over the last couple of years that it is much easier to work together than fighting each other. Comment 43 – I am the Executive Director of the Friends of Concord Airport Association and I wanted to let folks know that when it comes to ground based noise there maybe relief in sight, at least for some of the neighbors particularly the mobile home park. There is a project being planned for 9-acreas of vacant property along the airport for a hangar development that would include some office space and office components as well. There are three proposals that have been submitted to the airport for consideration. I would encourage all of you to go to the airport office and view those proposals for yourselves to determine which one you feel is the most suitable and the best for the county and the airport. The staff has recommended a company called Aviation Development Group out of Colorado. They have a very comprehensive proposal and I suggest you look at theirs as well as the other two and come to your own conclusion. There are a lot of rumors flying around and I think if you see for yourself that’s the best. Then let your elected officials know how you feel about the development and whether you want it to go through or not. Comment 44 – I have lived in Pacheco and Martinez since 1986 and have had a business in Pacheco since 1990. I am glad you are doing a study on noise abatement. I think that is important and I agree with a lot of the comments about increasing noise over the last five years and so forth. However, I think a lot of this is being done in terms of increasing the traffic and usage of the airport and I think it is equally important that safety issues be addressed. We have had plane crashes on average of about once every five years. If you double the number of flights on average you will have one approx. once every 2 ½ years. Sometimes people were killed sometimes they weren’t, I think that when you have an airport in the middle of a residential and

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc industrial area you have two major factors to consider. One is quality of life which is really related directly to the noise problem. The other is safety which indirectly affects quality of life because there are more plane crashes, more people can get their homes hit, people on the freeway get hit and people in the shopping centers get planes crashing. This is affecting their quality of life as well as everybody’s willingness to live in the area. I think we are talking more in general about what happens to Buchanan Field, we ought to keep in mind it’s not just noise pollution and irritation but it is also safety. Concerns about the safety of people in schools, in businesses, and in the residential homes. Comment 45 – I live closer to where Contra Costa Blvd. and Pacheco meet Center Ave. I have attended a previous meeting and got an education from Hal Yeager and the People Over Planes Organization which I thought was really great. I grew up in Pleasant Hill and went to Pleasant Hill High School in the corner of Pleasant Hill and Martinez. I have been here for 14 years and it has gotten noisier but the thing that concerns me is just the noise of the lessen planes. I’ve heard a few women say that the propeller planes don’t bother them but the jets do. They bother us because we found out that the lessons can go on Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and then on the weekends they give us a break and they start at 8 a.m. and go on until 10 p.m. I have a business and I have employees so I know these pilots have to make a living. I’m not against the airport or the airplanes the only thing that I would like to do is try to work with the people. The planes fly over the house then circle and fly back over all day till all hours of the night so if I want peace and quiet I have to leave the house. I think it is kind of absurd that somebody can conduct business for that many hours, 15 hours on a weekday and 14 hours on a weekend day. The jets don’t bother us as much but there has been a lot more jet noise flying and landing. It’s mostly the lesson helicopters that go back and forth, there are two or three at a time and their propeller sounds are annoying. Some of the propeller lesson planes are really loud and I know that some can’t afford to replace them with quiet ones. It would help if they could work on a way to get these quiet planes, work on the noise and maybe put a monitor in our back yard. Comment 46 – I live in the Hidden Lakes area of Martinez and I just wanted to say that we have heard a lot about the jet problem but our real problem is the props. They take off over the schools and then they fly left and north directly over my house. This is fairly new, we never use to have them fly directly over my house. I’m not sure why but I would look for a solution before becoming confrontational. It’s seems one solution would be to have all propeller planes take off on 19L, they could fly out over downtown Concord gaining altitude before turning to fly out north and west. I would recommend that you look at

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc taking off at 19L for not just touch and go flights but for departing flights. Comment 47 – I am a long time Martinez resident near the Pleasant Hill border. I would have to agree with the last two comments about the propeller planes. Frequently when looking up in the sky I will see the same plane fly, every five to 10 minutes, over my house and you can’t keep up a conversation with anybody in my backyard. I understand that I moved to an area where there was an airport in the vicinity but I didn’t anticipate this constant barrage of flights over my home. Corporate jets are a factor but on the most part they don’t affect my particular home as much. Also safety is a factor of my concern. I was at Sun Valley Mall the night the plane crashed into the mid-mall. Comment 48 – I tend to take the other side of the road here as I have made my living for the last 45 years in the aviation industry. I have three planes at Concord, all of them propeller-driven. I can only fly one of them at a time but I do practice good quality noise abatement procedures when I fly. I have heard the jets take off at 3 in the morning but most of them wait until 7. To me airplane noise is music to my ears so it doesn’t bother me. Question: Who and what is in the planes that they are taking off and landing at 3:30 in the morning? Is there any airport security when the tower closes at 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. when those planes are taking off? Answer: As was mentioned before the facility is open 24 hours per day. For the majority in the after hours, given the proximity of Mt. Diablo Hospital, John Muir Hospital and the fact that we have two Life Flight and Sheriff’s helicopters at the airport, typically some of our late night operations are emergency services. Regardless of that we do have staff on duty 24 hours a day at the airport. We do not go to the pilot of the aircraft and inspect as that is not part of our role or our authority to do that. Jet operations are Life Flights and they could come from across the country to transport organs or transport patients. However, it is not just flight emergency services, it is business operators as well that can be operating 24 hours a day. Comment 49 – I live in Pleasant Hill and I own three homes all of which are on the approach to these airport runways. I want to take the defense of the airplanes. I have been in this area since 1974, owned these houses since that time. Sure sometimes the noise is bad but when you start cutting back the powers of these airplanes you are going to have a much bigger problem than what you have. These airplanes require a certain amount of power to fly and if you start curbing the power back just to get a safe noise level you’re going to be

D:\Docs\2017-11-30\0b2c01bf717f5681967c584369dc6203.doc getting more problems. You look back over the last 30 years and yes there have been a few crashes and a few freeway landings but when you compare that to the number of touch and goes and take off and landings at this airport you will find it is a very minimal amount of damages, it’s not good but it’s not a major problem. If you cut back the power on these planes back for the noise you will have bigger problems because you are going to find them in schools and in shopping malls because they won’t have the power to take off. Comment 50 – It is inevitable that operations at Buchanan Field will continue to decline and what business remains will be insufficient to continue airport operations. In 1976 there were three times as many airport operations at Buchanan. Use of corporate jets will decrease as jet fuel supplies decline and jet fuel prices continue to climb. Extremely high fuel prices along with other significant cost increases for purchasing aircraft, maintenance, pilot training, etc. will cause most general aviation to go away. Buchanan will become a casualty. That’s the future and we can either embrace it or fight it, but we cannot stop it. I suggest we make plans to deal with it including consolidating what airport business remains at Byron Airport, away from schools and population centers that surround Buchanan. Let’s be proactive and arm the consultants with the facts and redirect efforts to plan future orderly withdrawal from Buchanan Field by consolidation of the remaining airport business at Byron Airport. It would be a waste of money to spend any more public funds on Buchanan and all reasonable efforts should be made to minimize the crash risk and noise pollution Buchanan brings to the surrounding community.

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