https://youtu.be/tjwgyFX5hA8The Airport Communities Podcast
In our last episode, Honk If Ya Love California, we talked about the history of modern environmental law in America: the EPA, NEPA, SEPA. We showed how many complex, interconnected pieces there are, like PSCAA. We took some time to mention how important WA electeds were in that process, and how they created carve outs for aviation.
Today we’re talking about what everyone always wants to talk about: flight paths. Because deep down, people just want the airplanes to go somewhere else. We get it. That is why the subject is always subject to extremes: magical thinking, or ‘Don’t like it? Move!’ Neither were ever true.
But the system constraints are also as split-personality as the environmental law in Episode #23. The legislators who helped create so many improvements to air pollution writ large were also key advocates for the aviation industry and very intentionally created the box we now find ourselves in.
That was the Greater Good Argument. Reducing negative impacts overall was the win. Creating economic benefits overall was the win.
The one-line rule of aviation law is this: No ‘residential zoning’. The FAA gets stuck in the middle as the bad cop enforcing a system we all voted for,
The dirty little secret is how poorly the airline industry has fared. In spite of such a unique authority, they’ve never found a way to make enough money to fund a properly working ATC system–one of their many broken promises in lobbying for it. Passengers became addicted to cheap flights. And the entire system is now subsidized by credit cards, with the externalities borne by people living under the flight path.
The challenge for airport communities is to stop complaining to the people and agencies that cannot help and start complaining to those that can.
‘Flight paths’ is such a big topic, we had to split it into two episodes. Both are much longer than we would prefer. But you asked for it. Splitting such a tightly integrated system into pieces is just part of the Casino. One cannot see how rough it is to change anything without touching on everything from ancient aircraft to cutting-edge physics–and everything in between.
These two videos will save you a hundred hours of meetings and research. Really. Or read the sources below if you have that hundred hours to spare.
In Part I, we discuss those 400,000lb tubes going 200mph and how FAA-speak like NextGen, SIDs, STARs, RNAV, Glide Slopes and Wake Recat figure into your rights. Most of it is depressing. Even worse, there are also several terrible jokes referencing Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and Orcas.
In Part II, we’ll use that to talk about why so many lawsuits fail, and some better options given the current playing field.
Topics
- HistoryLink: NEPA
- Ep #4: The Railroad In The Sky!
- Ep #19 Banking
- Ep #23 Honk If Ya Love California!
- Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 (ANCA)
- Four Post Plan from FAA DECISION and ORDER
- Seattle Community Council Federation v. FAA 961 F.2d 929
- Gate to Gate How the FAA Manages Air Traffic
- FAA Puget Sound Area Airspace Explainer
- Quieter skies ahead: Seattle at forefront of high-tech plan to change airplane traffic
- Sea-Tac airliner tests could yield quieter, more efficient landings
- Final Environmental Assessment for Greener Skies Over Seattle
- Crosscut : Jet noise jeopardy: Seattle’s skies will soon get quieter — except on Beacon Hill
- FAA Report to Congress – Greener Skies Project
- FAA – NextGen Briefing to Port Of Seattle 2017
- Seattle Times 24 hours of arrivals at Sea-Tac Greener Skies
- Federal Way 2018 Quiet & Healthy Skies Task Force Report
- As Sea-Tac Airport traffic booms, distant neighborhoods are noisy despite FAA plan
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