A number of residents and stakeholders spoke passionately at Qualicum Beach City Hall on Wednesday night regarding the ongoing issues with noise complaints stemming from their local airport. (Oceanside Air)

By Jordan Davidson

flight paths

‘A lawnmower in the sky:’ Qualicum residents air airport noise complaints

Jul 11, 2024 | 12:41 PM

QUALICUM BEACH — Another chapter in the ongoing saga of noise mitigation at the Qualicum Beach Airport was written this week during a nearly four-hour-long public meeting.

The Town held an open house on Wednesday, July 10 to hear comments, questions, and concerns about the Airport with voters and stakeholders, including those in the aviation industry.

Christine Purdy has lived on Juniper Dr. for over 30 years, parallel to the airport’s departure routes. She said the constant noise from pilot training had negatively affected her quality of life.

“Training circuits that seem to last most of the day, flying a circular route to practice touch-and-go landings and take-offs. Some days, the noise level is at a point where we cannot enjoy outdoor living.”

She said planes circle their neighbourhood sky starting at 9 a.m. until around 4:30 p.m., comparing it to a “lawnmower in the sky”, with further concerns about the impact of exhaust fumes from the aircraft unleaded fuel.

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Touch-and-go landings are a type of training exercise where a pilot lands on a runway and immediately takes off again, often repeating this pattern multiple times in succession.

Dillis Williams lives in the Qualicum Woods neighbourhood, “right under the flight path”, and said on a typical day they see planes do around 80 circular orbits during training while performing touch-and-go landings.

“Other airports in Canada are now charging for touch-and-go landings…some municipal airports in the US are apparently amending their municipal code to ban touch-and-go completely. So my question to everyone is, why is Qualicum Beach not charging the flight school for these touch-and-go landings?”

Support
Co-owner of Ascent Helicopters Withanie Lemke made a formal presentation about her company’s local impact since being established in 2005 in town.

The company then made the move to Parksville in 2013, claiming it was “because the Town just wasn’t supportive of our operation.”

She said she understands the long history of noise complaints related to the airport and said around 30 per cent of their pilots’ annual 95 hours of training still occur at the Qualicum Beach airport.

“We take noise abatement seriously, and we spend a lot of money to do as much as we can…many people in Oceanside take pride in Ascent and take pride in what we’re doing…I truly believe that positive energy can outweigh the loud, very loud, complaining voices of a minority.”

Stephanie Aldridge, executive director of Hope Air, a charity which helps provide free travel and accommodations for those with serious health issues across Canada, spoke about the importance of being able to utilize their airport when needed.

She said they have at least one volunteer pilot in the Oceanside area, who uses their aircraft to transport patients from the Island, including from more remote locations.

Digital Complaints
The Town added an airport inquiry tracking system to their website last year, where residents could submit detailed comments, complaints or questions.

Of the 105 public comments from 49 individual addresses received from Jan. 1 to June 15, 2024, the vast majority (84) were noise complaints, with individual concerns regarding noise ranging from low-flying aircraft to frequency of flights, and curfew violations.

Those living along Linden Pl. had the highest concentration of airport noise complaints with 17, (16.2 per cent), followed by Sumac Dr. with 16 (15.3 per cent), Aldous Rd. with 9, (8.6 per cent) and Dogwood Rd. with 8 (7.6 per cent).

Linden Pl., Sumac Dr., and Dogwood Rd. are in the direct path of the airport’s departure routes, while Aldous Rd. is right on the edge of the arrival, departure, and circuit paths.

The areas of Qualicum Beach with the highest noise complaints related to the airport sit almost directly below the departure routes in yellow, and the arrival route and circuit paths in green. 1-Linden Pl. 2- Sumac Dr. 3-Aldous Rd., and 4- Dogwood Rd. (Google Maps)

Out of the 105 complaints made in the first six months of the year, only two noise complaints were found to violate noise abatement procedure, while two more were curfew violations.

One curfew complaint was lodged on June 9 at 10:20 pm, and another on June 6 was reported just after 11:00 p.m., with both complaints coming from Sumac Dr.

Typical operations at the airport see planes depart the facility by either runway 29 to the north-west, or runway 11 to the south-east.

In most cases, existing noise abatement procedures dictate turns to the south to keep planes away from more populated areas, or ensure planes reach a minimum altitude and distance away from the runway before making turns.

The airport is also officially closed between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with exceptions for emergency situations.

The Qualicum Beach airport has been in operation since 1954, also serving Parksville and the surrounding area.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow