Update: October 11, 2020
LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS (LAWA) SUBMITS FORMAL REQUEST TO FAA FOR VNY
In its presentation to the Task Force last year, Sherman Oaks & Encino for Quiet Skies (SOEQS) showed how the FAA immediately returned Van Nuys Airport (VNY) departure procedures between August 2017 and May 2018 to the Sepulveda Basin, south of Victory Blvd., in the vicinity of 2.2 DME, where the planes had been turning safely and without complaints for over forty years. SOEQS has continually stressed that this same area could be immediately used again in place of the current PPRRY waypoint that is harmful to tens of thousands of residents. We also requested that the current HARYS, ROSCO and WLKKR procedures that utilize PPRRY be suspended.
In May, the Task Force passed a number of recommendations for VNY and BUR that SOEQS and other organizations had been advocating for, and sent these recommendations to the FAA.
On September 1, the FAA rejected most of these recommendations, stating that they were “not operationally feasible.” The only solution for VNY that they cited as being “operationally feasible” was one that they proposed in 2019. Our communities have been opposed to it, as presented.
Over the last month, SOEQS has continued its advocacy with government officials to ensure that the intent of the 2020 Task Force recommendations and the 2019 Part 175 of the Reauthorization Act request by Los Angeles World Airport (LAWA), which have been supported by the Los Angeles City Council, Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, Encino Neighborhood Council, and Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, stays front and center. Specifically, we have continued to advocate for elimination of the PPRRY waypoint to be replaced immediately with dispersed departures south of Victory Blvd, over the Sepulveda Basin in the vicinity of 2.2 DME.
On October 8, LAWA (operators of VNY), officially submitted a request to the FAA for changes and sent a follow up letter. The request includes:
An amendment of the current HARYS, ROSCO and WLKKR procedures, which will eliminate the PPRRY waypoint.
Design and implement the notional procedures put forth in 2019 by the FAA (a two+ year process). LAWA has added this statement: “to be designed to mirror conventional departure tracks as close as possible to address concerns about increased departure flights over hillside communities and to provide the maximum dispersal possible for flight tracks, especially on initial departure.”
Consider implementing the interim procedures that were “enacted in August 2017 through the time the revised open SID procedures were published in May 2018." These included ATCs issuing “initial turns to airplanes, once they reached the Sepulveda Basin just south of Victory Blvd….to provide immediate relief to communities while the notional procedures are evaluated.”
“LAWA would like the FAA to consider maintaining these interim procedures as part of the permanent solution.”
Click here to read LAWA’s Letter.
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