DAN’S PAPERS
danspapers.com
June 20, 2014 Page 41
Airport Rules What East Hampton Should Do After Taking Their Airport Private
T
here are two ways you can run an airport. You can run it with the help of the FAA, which means you abide by their regulations but they give you a whole lot of federal money for runways, airport towers, traffic controllers and everything else. Or you can run it privately as a business, without help from the FAA. I remember the time 25 years ago when the FAA accepted the application of East Hampton Airport. We were overjoyed. East Hampton had been, not long before, a dirt runway with a “terminal” that consisted of a chicken coop donated by a farmer, shoved up against a World War I army barrack. We joined the FAA. Everything was updated. The Feds paid for nearly all of it. They took over responsibility for lengthening the runways, providing security and insurance. They even provided nearly all funding for a new airport terminal, complete with control room. We
breathed a whole lot easier then. But as years went by, local residents began to get really fed up with the FAA and its inability to control airport noise. It was true that houses were being built closer and closer to the airport, so there were more people to complain. But now more planes and helicopters were going in and out, flying low over everybody’s houses. It was becoming intolerable. In response, the FAA set up all sorts of new flight patterns for arriving aircraft. But, frankly, none of them worked. The FAA took an “on the one hand this and the other hand that” approach to the needs of the pilots and the homeowners. And so now East Hampton is toying with the idea of throwing the FAA out— the airport is owned by the Town—and running the operation themselves without FAA help, as they used to. There are, it turns out, other airports in the country about the size of East Hampton that set their own rules. What the hell do we need the FAA for? The rich and famous
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Over Memorial Day weekend, there was an average of one complaint for every other aircraft. This can’t go on. will pay anything to get out here by plane or chopper. Last week the numbers came out for the Memorial Day weekend at the airport. There were 20% more planes and choppers this holiday weekend than the holiday weekend a year ago. The tide was becoming a flood. Over that weekend, 872 planes and choppers came in and out. The airport fielded 475 noise complaints, 302 about helicopters and 173 about airplanes. That means there was an average of one complaint for every other aircraft. Some came in quietly. Others rattled the windows. (Cont’d on next page) This can’t go on.
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By DAn RATTinER