Meeting Notes : Navigation Committee
Committee notes reflect the views and opinions of the committee members and not necessarily those of the Noise Compatibility Study Group, Coordinating Council, Regional Airport Authority of Louisville and Jefferson County, or the Consultant Team.
Pending Committee Approval
Attendees: Bob Adelberg, Jim Clark, Dorn Crawford, Emily Evans, Mary Rose Evans, Ben Finn, John Lanning, Norm Nezelkewicz, Bob Welch
The meeting began shortly after 12:30 PM. The chair thanked Jim Clark, chief of the Louisville air traffic control tower, for providing meeting facilities and a tour of the tower. The committee then proceeded to a short business session preceding the tour. Notes from the previous meeting were reviewed and approved.
Members received copies of Leigh Fisher Associates’ follow-on analysis of radar tracking data for further review. The LFA memorandum, attached to these notes, gives statistics showing runway use for each flight during the 30-day period radar data were collected, and lays out a methodology for estimating runway use year-‘round. These estimates furnish critical input for modeling current and future noise exposure for the study. The committee will therefore give careful attention to this material for further discussion at its next meeting, focusing particularly on:
Comparing "actual use" table data to arrival/departure graphics.
Comparing "actual use" table data to "assumed use" table estimates.
Reviewing methodology and usage assumptions.
Evaluating model implications.
During this discussion, Jim Clark and Bob Welch also pointed out that radar graphics presented to the Study Group cover so much territory as to distort noise implications. Departure patterns can diverge widely as aircraft turn toward their final destinations, but by that time they may be well above noise-sensitive altitudes. The same may occur with arrival patterns. The chair observed that charts included in the presentation that are color-coded to depict altitudes as aircraft arrive and depart the airport area help make this point, but agreed that the committee should consider whether other portrayals might add clarity.
The committee also had an initial discussion of issues and priorities to help guide the study’s supporting analysis. After reviewing an illustrative list offered by the consulting team, and their own topics compiled in previous meetings, members arrived at the following tentative list of navigation-specific issues for further discussion. Their aim is to refine, establish priorities, and prepare a report for the next Study Group meeting as input to a consolidated finding:
Runway preferences
Approach & departure patterns
Conformance with noise abatement procedures
Weather thresholds
Instrumentation
Visual flight rules
Land compatibility / noise ‘corridors’
Day/night noise pattern discrimination
The business portion of the meeting concluded at 1 PM, with agreement to hold the next meeting for the above purposes at 7 PM, September 14, at Audubon Country Club. The committee then received an orientation briefing and tour of the air traffic control tower, covering radar instrumentation, zones of control, weather and other critical data displays, and the view from 23 stories up. The meeting adjourned just before 2 PM.