Santa Monica Airport Commission Rejects 2 Additional Flight Schools

Venice and Santa Monica residents' complaints about constant noise from planes belonging to flight schools at Santa Monica Airport are apparently being heard.

The Santa Monica Airport Commission took unprecedented action at its monthly meeting Monday night, recommending that Santa Monica deny use permits for two schools that were planning to join the airport lineup. Airport staff had recommended approving the applications.

Santa Monica Airport already has eight flight schools in operation. Weekend rules prohibit touch-and-go maneuvers, so the planes land, then taxi back to the east end of the runway and take off again.

But flight school activity peaks on weekends, and for those who live under the circular flight path, the two kinds of landings/takeoffs make no practical difference.

Many Venice and Mar Vista residents resent the schools, whose planes take off to the west, loop over residential areas to the southeast, and then approach the airport from the northeast to land and begin another cycle. 

The commission voted 3-1, with one abstention, to recommend that the city manager deny use permits to Angel City Flyers and The Flight Academy until the entire issue of flight schools can be studied.

"It's the first time I've ever seen a use permit denied to a flight school here,'' said veteran Santa Monica Aiport director Bob Trimborn, adding that he was even more surprised because each school would have used just one aircraft, at least initially.

Trimborn said the airport's flight schools almost always follow the applicable rules, but Commissioner Richard Brown said the real question is how many schools are enough.

"My problem is adding a flight school,'' Brown said, even though the applicants had promised to use new aircraft with fuel-efficient, allegedly quieter engines.

The Airport Commission is an advisory body; the city manager has the power to ignore its recommendation and grant the use permits anyway.

The commission later voted to have a fuller discussion about flight schools at its January meeting, with an eye to having a workshop with public input soon afterward.

In addition to the schools, SMO is the subject of a growing uproar over jet operations and the perceived increase of piston planes flying over Santa Monica schools and residential neighborhoods, due in part to recent FAA trials of altered post-takeoff flight paths for some planes.

A brand-new organization of pilots, mechanics and controllers—Friends of Santa Monica Airport—introduced itself at the meeting, vowing to work with residents to find solutions to airport-related problems rather than obstruct efforts to modify the airport's operations.

The president of the executive committee of Friends of Santa Monica Airport, Robert Rowbotham, says his group wants to help.

''We know the community is up in arms,'' Rowbotham said. ''We know that if we don't get better at what we do....'' His incomplete sentence alluded to the operating agreement between Santa Monica Airport and the FAA that expires in mid-2015. Some residents hope that will mean airport operations will be heavily modified or that the facility will be shut down altogether.