Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee

TOWN-VILLAGE AIRCRAFT SAFETY & NOISE ABATEMENT COMMITTEE One Washington Street, Hempstead, New York 11550 (516) 489-5000 x3296 – TVASNAC@tohmail.org Meeting Minutes Monday, May 24, 2021 Virtual Meeting In Attendance Carl Baessler, Village of Atlantic Beach Dan Plaut, Village of Cedarhurst Andrew Weiss, Village of Floral Park Laurence Quinn, Village of Garden City, Akiva Lubin, Village of Lawrence (called in) Sean Wright, Village of Valley Stream James Vilardi, Executive Director James Vilardi asked Carol Renta to take attendance. Meeting was called to order. James Vilardi asked if everyone read the February 22, 2021 minutes. Carl Baessler made the motion to approve these minutes, and Dan Plaut second the motion. There were only three people that attended the April meeting, so no minutes were taken. James Vilardi asked if everyone reviewed the Calendar of Meetings for 2021-2022. Carl Baessler made the motion to approve the Calendar of Minutes, and Dan Plaut second the motion. James Vilardi asked the committee for suggestions on how we can get the elected officials to sign onto the letter to the FAA. In the beginning of the year, their representatives seemed interested, but they have not returned our calls or emails. Carol Renta told the committee that Governor Cuomo’s office said they cannot sign onto the letter with us, and asked their name be removed as there may be other things going on between the FAA and the Governor’s office and the letter may be a conflict. James Vilardi suggested each committee member take one elected official and be responsible for contacting that official to ask if they would be willing to sign onto the letter with us, or if they would prefer to be removed from the letter. We need an answer so we can get this letter out. Either they want to join us, send their own letter or do nothing.  Dan Plaut is going to contact Andrew Mulvey in Governor Cuomo’s office, Mike Ianelli in Senator Schumer’s office and Tom Curry in Congresswoman Rice’s office; Carl Baessler is going to contact Michael Schield in Senator Gilibrand’s office; and Andrew Weiss is going to contact Justin Conner in Congressman Suozzi’s office. It was suggested that perhaps we should get a letter from the village mayors as well. Carol Renta suggested asking Supervisor Clavin to sign the letter and reach out to the elected officials himself. The committee thinks this is a good idea. Carol Renta will speak with the Supervisor. Andrew Weiss brought up the question – How do we get the FAA to say we can speak with the Round Table rep? James Vilardi pointed out that we are a member of Round Table, but we are an independent body. If our goal is to have an FAA representative sit in our meetings or specific policy recommended changes, we should be able to do it outside of the Round Table. We are representing a specific 1 population in the Town of Hempstead on behalf of the Supervisor so we can’t confuse that with the Round Table.  James Vilardi stated that he does not think the Round Table is focused on agenda items and policy change. We are more focused on policy changes here than the Round Table - What will directly benefit Town of Hempstead residents?  Andrew Weiss added that the Round Table has created statutes. They came up with the Part 150 study which was supposed to be a noise study but how do you come up with ideas to reduce noise pollution if you don’t listen to the community.  James Vilardi commented that the Round Table and the people who run it think one thing - if they decrease noise in Community A, it will increase noise in Community B, so to do nothing is probably better.  Andrew Weiss agreed that this is exactly the FAA’s position. We will not divert aircraft just to divert noise from A to B. James Vilardi asked if there were any comments from Lawrence.  Akiva Lubin stated that he is very frustrated that we are not being paid attention to. He is “up in arms” and just does not know what we should do. Speaking with Supervisor Clavin will be helpful. We have to go up the chain of command. The federal elected officials probably will not listen to us directly. James Vilardi stated that it all goes back to us speaking with the representatives of our federal elected officials and find out if they want to sign on or not and if they have changes. This is a priority. Akiva Lubin asked what happened with Congressman Suozzi. He was so on top of this about a year and a half ago and was all up in arms when planes where flying over his area. What happened with that? He was supposed to have a meeting with the FAA and then they backed out at the last minute.  Andrew Weiss stated that Congressman Suozzi and Congresswoman Rice had a deal with the FAA, they actually had a signed letter, and then the FAA said they had to run it up the channels and wound up pulling out. Andrew Weiss commented that there was some discussion within the FAA about possibly changing flight patterns such as flying planes over the LIE instead of homes. Not sure where that went, but that would be a good thing and reasonable. James Vilardi added that we probably have to get permission from the military and ask for more planes to fly over the open water.  Andrew Weiss replied that the short answer is because it’s restricted air space. Dan Plaut commented that he’d just be happy if they just all follow the 3.13 glide slope that all these planes are designed to have because they essentially fly flat from Massapequa straight to our area, so they would be about 600 feet higher over our neighborhoods if they just flew the angle they are supposed to fly. Here’s the airport, here’s the house, figure out how high you’re supposed to be. It’s really just a simple trig problem.  Carl Baessler asked if NextGen was supposed to fix that – isn’t it supposed to find a point in the sky they are supposed to fly?  Andrew Weiss answered that it will make it worse. You can get more planes in the sky with NextGen’s theory. They fly in formation. James Vilardi reiterated, that it’s better if planes flew at one level instead of notching down until they got to JFK. 2   Dan Plaut replied that since the late 40’s early 50’s planes are designed if power goes out they can glide in at a 3.1 degree glideslope, and that was traditionally the angle at which planes approached any airport. But now they go flat, drop down, flat drop down. They should do the glide slope instead, because when they drop down they are too low before they even hit Nassau County.  Andrew Weiss stated that the FAA said they would consider that for night traffic, but not during the day when there is more traffic.  Dan Plaut added that it’s a problem because if the wind picks up, they drop too low. Some pilots refuse to land in these conditions. James Vilardi asked who locally in the military, if it’s even a local decision, would make a decision about flying in restricted air space. There must be a commanding officer in New York who has control over the air space, someone in the military. Carl Baessler responded that Tracon probably has orders to stay away from this area. We should reach out to Tracon because they control the studies and can tell you where to go.  Andrew Weiss offered to call a friend of his who is retired Air Force. James Vilardi asked the committee who we would contact to open a discussion about whether or not commercial airliners can use restricted air space in a limited capacity to take the noise out to sea instead of over neighborhoods. Who would we start this discussion with? Carl Baessler commented that when he first joined this committee, there was a gentleman whose big thing was planes taking off on a 31 left; they make that hard banking turn and go over Howard Beach, why can’t they do that when they go on the 13? It’s the same runway. Just make a hard turn and go over the water. Their argument was that it isn’t always possible. But if it’s possible going one way, it should be possible going the other way.  Everyone agreed. James Vilardi suggested speaking every week between now and the next meeting to see what progress we are making with getting the federal elected officials to sign onto this letter. Let’s speak at 7 p.m. on June 1st, June 8th and June 15th. Dan Plaut commented that when he flies into Miami they cut into the water, so why can’t we do that here.  James Vilardi agreed that this seems to be the answer, to come in over the water so you fly over fewer homes. It seems so simple. They can clear the air space in 15 minutes if they wanted to. Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Laurence Quinn and second by Carl Baessler. Prepared by: Carol Renta Secretary, TVASNAC 3