West Valley residents angry over Sky Harbor flight paths

• West Valley residents are hearing lots of noise from new airport flight paths
• The FAA is expected to release an update on the changes any day
• Residents report near-constant noise from planes at Sky Harbor

Former pilot Dave Paulsen was enjoying a quiet retirement in Goodyear until recently, when a steady stream of airliners started buzzing his home.

On a recent evening, he counted more than 30 flights passing overhead, every 10 minutes or less, near McDowell Road and Pebble Creek Parkway about 20 miles west of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

"You open your windows and you've got it all night," Paulsen said of the aircraft noise. "I bought out here because it was quiet."

A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Paulsen is not alone in noticing a change in air traffic and the noise that comes with it.

In September, Sky Harbor received 255 complaints or questions about air-traffic noise, 15 percent more than were made all of last year.

All of the commotion is due to a change in arrival and departure procedures for airliners that the Federal Aviation Administration launched Sept. 18 to improve safety and efficiency. The agency is expected to soon release an update on the changes.

Most of the complaints are coming from a central Phoenix neighborhood near 19th Avenue and Van Buren Street, Sky Harbor spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said.

But others in the West Valley are complaining that they have noticed a big surge of commercial airliners flying one after another on virtually the same flight path over their homes. Sky Harbor had nearly 1,200 flights per day last year.

"At night, you can see them lined up with their lights on along Bethany Home Road," said Mitchell Bodrie, a retired Glendale truck driver. "If I had binoculars, I could probably look in on the passengers when they make the turn and the plane pitches."

The inbound flights swing south near 73rd Avenue and then turn east near Van Buren Street as they line up to land at Sky Harbor, he said.

Gary Cochran, another Glendale retiree living in the Palm Shadows mobile-home park near 51st and Glendale avenues, is angry about departing flights constantly rattling the windows of his home.

"It's like an echo chamber in there," he said.

Ian Gregor, an FAA Pacific Division spokesman, said 14 new arrival and departure routes, using satellite navigation systems, are more direct, predictable and are intended to cut fuel costs and emissions.

That means more flights flying over a concentrated area.

"Planes flew over Glendale when we were using the old procedures," Gregor said. "However, the flight tracks were more dispersed and most were slightly farther west than they are today."

The FAA met with residents last month in Phoenix to hear their concerns.

Glen Martin, FAA regional administrator, said there is no one-size-fits-all answer to solving noise issues, but the FAA wants "to work toward solutions that are acceptable to as many parties as possible."

Gregor said he could not comment on whether the FAA would consider dispersing more flights so they are not heavily concentrated over certain neighborhoods.

West Valley residents say they just want peace and quiet when they sit on their patios.

"I want it to go back to where it was before," Paulsen said of the previous flight patterns. "They changed it to put a few more bucks in the airlines' pockets."

Bodrie of Glendale said the airline pilots should be given more discretion on where they turn and should stay over freeways and farmland whenever possible.

Noise complaints

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has a aircraft noise complaint line at 602-683-2669 or go online to skyharbor.com/community/cnrpandcomplaints.html.

Complaints take off

Sky Harbor Airport, which had nearly 1,200 takeoffs and landings per day last year, has seen a big increase in complaints and questions about aircraft noise in the past few years. Here are the number of complaints from the past five years:

2014 — 384.*

2013 — 327.

2012 — 106.

2011 — 129.

2010 — 192.

*Through September

Source: Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport