Is Boca Raton's Flight Monitoring System Lowering Noise
Complaints?
Boca Raton (FL) Airport's new internet flight tracking system,
designed to make it easier to identify aircraft making too much
noise over town, is getting mixed reviews eight months after it was
installed.
The system, on the airport's web site since September, can track
50 airplanes at a time in an 80-mile radius from Miami to West Palm
Beach.
Here's the idea. You surf on over to The Boca Raton Airport
homepage www.bocaratonairport.com and
click on Flight Tracks near the top. That way, you can identify an
especially noisy aircraft by tail number, determine its altitude,
where it came from and where it's going. Oh, yeah, there's an
hour's delay for security reasons.
Joseph Yucht is in heaven with the new web site. "This is like a
toy for me," he says. Yucht, 73 is a member of the airport's Noise
Abatement Committee. The committee uses the flight tracking system
to identify noisy airplanes and report them to the FAA.
Boca Raton Airport spends $1,000 a month on the system. But is
it worth the money?
Paradox: More Tracking, Fewer Complaints
Rather than generating more complaints, there have actually been
fewer since the system was installed eight months ago. There are
between 200 and 300 flight operations every day at Boca Raton. In
January, there were 8,389 takeoffs and landings. A total of 37
people called in 88 complaints about the noise. That's fewer people
making fewer complains when compared to January 2002, when there
were 8,086 takeoffs and landings, and 54 callers reported noise
issues 383 times, according to airport officials.
"Some people call more repetitively," said Russ Buck, noise
abatement administrator at Boca Raton Airport. "This is
educational; people can see how flights move, and noise calls have
decreased since we implemented the system."
It's Working, But...
Is it sophisticated enough? That's the question
Rob DuKate wants answered. His neighborhood is smack in the middle
of the primary approach to Boca Raton Airpor. DuKate says the
internet flight tracking system is working, but he's not completely
satisfied.
"We are 10 years behind the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport,
where their turn at I-95 and the industrial corridor is tighter,
yet we are getting much lower compliance, so I would like to see a
more improved integrated system here as soon as possible," said
DuKate. "There is no pilot accountability at the present time and
we have a lack of coordinated technology to show them."
Ah, but there is hope. A permanent noise-monitoring system,
costing about $800,000, should be operational in about one year,
Buck says.
But that's not good enough for DuKate. His biggest worry is that
a second fixed-base operator, like Boca Aviation, will open for
business as planned - before the new system is implemented. "More
jet charter operators will move in here, and although there will be
competition, there will now be environmental concerns, as well," he
said.