- May 17, 2024
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Safety and FAA regulations bar the Flagler Executive Airport from acceding to two residents' demands that the airport increase approach elevations over local neighborhoods and ban touch-and-go operations, according to the airport's director.
"We do not have the authority to do that. Nor would it be safe for us to ask an aircraft to do that," Flagler Executive Airport Director Roy Sieger said at a Dec. 18 County Commission meeting.
Sieger was addressing the commission after an attorney representing the two residents sent the county a letter of demands that the residents hope would decrease noise and pollution over the Seminole Woods and Quail Hollow neighborhoods near the airport, where the residents, Gina Weiss and Ray Stevens, live.
"The noise, fumes, and vibrations have reached unbearable levels to the local residents, effectively ousting them from their homes and curtilage," GrayRobinson attorney Nick Dancaescu wrote in the letter. "... The operations permitted by the County at the Airport are effectively taking our clients' property, amongst others. This needs to cease."
The letter demands that the county raise approach elevations over Quail Hollow and Seminole Woods to greater than 500 feet, ban touch-and-go operations entirely and create a hotline residents can use to report any violations of those rules.
The airport takes noise complaints seriously, Sieger said, but the 500-foot elevation demand isn't possible given airplanes' approach trajectories.
"You can't say to come up as high as 500 feet and shoot at the ground to land. It's not possible to do," Sieger said. "Helicopters can do it. Airplanes don't do that."
FAA regulations and grant requirements would bar the airport from halting stop-and-go operations, Sieger said.
"The FAA compliance manual ... talks about restrictions on touch and go operations," he said. "And it says a touch-and-go operation is an aircraft procedure used in flight training, it is considered an aeronautical activity; as such, it cannot be prohibited by an airport sponsor without justification."
Justification, Sieger said, would mean a problem that would render touch-and-go operations unsafe, like capacity problems or runway length.
Weiss, Sieger said, had approached the FAA to complain about the noise, and received a letter back. Sieger read a portion of it at the meeting. The letter notes that Weiss' home is under the final approach course for one of its runways.
As opportunities arise to improve our methods, please be confident we will pursue them within our means and our authority."
— ROY SIEGER, Flagler Executive Airport director
Aircraft operating under visual flight rules or using an area navigation approach to the runway would generally be flying at about 300 feet when passing near her home, it notes.
"Due to your home's proximity to FIN [the Flagler Executive Airport] and direct alignment with runway 6/24, noise from aircraft in your area is unavoidable," it states.
The airport does have noise abatement procedures in place, including asking pilots not to fly at night, Sieger said.
The city of Palm Coast, he said, could also mandate real estate disclosures for properties near the airport and require that buildings constructed near the airport use sound-insulating building materials.
"As opportunities arise to improve our methods, please be confident we will pursue them within our means and our authority," Sieger said.
