Saywha’? There’s a flyover in my ear

By Virgil Hervey

Does it seem to you that the noise from the Air National Guard jets is more invasive lately? Well, if it does, you are not alone.

In the last few months, in what appears to be related to the Air National Guard’s (ANG) change in mission to train Dutch pilots at the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport, residents of the village, especially at the north end and those near the airport, are, after more than a decade of relative quiet, again taking note of the excessive noise from the base’s F-16 fighter jets.

Nancy Bunton, owner of Greenleaf Gardens on U.S. 68 on the north edge of town, says it has gotten noisier lately.

“It is more constant. It seems like there are more flights. The one thing I don’t like is that they fly at night, after 9 p.m.” she said. “There are people here. Our lives are impacted. They could be more considerate.”

Due to the nature of her business, she is required to hold conversations with customers out of doors, something which she finds impossible to do at times because of the noise from the planes overhead.

Lisa Goldberg, who lives on Meredith Road, thinks the number of flights has actually decreased in the last year. However, she thinks the planes are flying lower and are “much, much louder.”

“I feel as if, when they are flying so low, I can almost see the person flying the jet,” she said. “The engines sound sharper. It hurts your ears and rattles the windows.”

During the spring and summer of 1994 a number of public workshops were held in Yellow Springs in connection with a noise compatibility study to recommend land uses around the airport and to reduce the noise impact for residences under the flight plan. According to Don Hollister, who was on Village Council at the time, the public workshops actually made a difference.

A colonel from the ANG came to one of the meetings and listened, and certain accommodations were reached, including not flying after 9 p.m. and not after 6 p.m. on weekends, except for three weeks during the summer.

Hollister, who lives in the heart of town, recently called the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport manager again to complain about planes flying after 9 p.m., a nuisance that began only recently.

In a recent interview Colonel Mike Roberts, commander of the ANG’s 178th Fighter Wing at Springfield-Beckley, said his unit started training Dutch pilots in April 2007. The first of their planes arrived in May. They bear Dutch markings and are the property of the Netherlands. While here, they are maintained by U.S. employees..

Due to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations, Springfield will lose its American F-16s in 2010, but the base will remain open to train foreign pilots. Currently there are 14 Dutch F-16s on the base with another 14 due to arrive when the U.S. planes go.

The Dutch version of the F-16, or the F-16MLU, is built in the Netherlands. One difference between it and the F-16s villagers are used to hearing is that the Dutch planes are outfitted with Pratt & Whitney engines instead of those built by General Electric. This may account for the different sound that people who live near the airport have been reporting, Roberts said.

According to Roberts, as a part of the unit’s noise abatement plan, once they are airborne, the pilots are supposed to veer to their right and head west for four miles in order to avoid flying over the northern edge of the village. The village is two miles to the southwest of the airport. After that, they often head south to the Ohio River and then over to southern Indiana for bombing practice.

“They are students and sometimes make mistakes,” Roberts said regarding reports that planes have been flying over Yellow Springs. “They are not perfect.”

The weather also plays a big role in the students’ ability to avoid the town, Roberts said. If the weather is cloudy, they may have trouble seeing it. This is more of a problem if they are making a landing approach from the southwest when the winds are out of the northeast. In that case they have to fly over the village. When they are making their normal approach, they avoid the village by flying around it to the south and turning to make their approach from the northeast.

According to Roberts, an environmental assessment was done before night operations could be conducted at the base. All ANG takeoffs and landings are reported to operations. No planes are to take off after 10 p.m. If they do they are assessed a penalty in the form of the reduction in their total allowance for takeoffs and landings for the year.

The recent increase in night flying that villagers have noticed is an important part of the pilots’ training and can’t be avoided, Roberts said. However, to minimize incursions at night, pilots are required to make a single approach and come to a full-stop landing. There are no practice approaches or flame-out procedures at night. Another procedure they employ to abate the noise at night is, if the wind out of the southwest is less than 10 knots, they will take off and land to the northeast.

The hush house, a specially designed building with baffles to reduce noise, is used for testing engines.

According to Roberts, the Air Force is conscious of incursions. They do not want the base to be shut down due to civilian complaints.

When it was pointed out to him that the apparent increase in flights over or close to the village could not be accounted for solely by pilot error, Roberts said he would talk to the pilots and remind them of the noise abatement procedures.

“They have their hands full. It’s a very busy job,” he said. “But I will talk to them and make sure they are following procedures. We are very sensitive to the noise issue. We want to be good neighbors.”

With the airport so close to the village, Hollister worries about accidents.

“Noise is a certainty and a crash is a possibility,” he said.

However, he thinks it might be worse if the ANG left and Springfield-Beckley relied on general aviation to survive.

“At least you can lobby with the ANG,” Hollister said.

According to Major Laura Powers, wing executive staff officer and chief of public affairs for the 178th Fighter Wing, noise complaints can be registered by calling base operations at 327-2332.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com