Hartford-Brainard (KHFD), Hartford, Connecticut: Noise Complaints Spike At Airport -- Officials Attribute Rise To Unusual, One-Time Events

HARTFORD ——   Brainard Airport received an unusually large number of noise complaints in the last quarter, but an airport official downplayed the spike, attributing it to several uncommon, one-time events.

Airport Operations Manager Kurt Sendlein noted that complaints have fallen to none so far this month, an unusually low number.

Sendlein gave his report this week at the quarterly meeting of the Brainard Airport Noise Abatement Committee.

One night of unusually heavy helicopter activity generated a large number of complaints, Sendlein said. Six choppers were in the air that evening, he said.

"It just happened to be that both Lifestars were in the air," he said. "There was some flight training. It was just kind of a strange night."

In addition, the airport received a significant number of complaints from a single Newington resident about helicopters flying over his home, Sendlein said. It turned out that several corporate helicopters were diverging from the recommended flight path, and gladly changed their practices, he said.

The rest of the 28 complaints were from Wethersfield residents, Sendlein said.

Sendlein said that several jet pilots unfamiliar with the airport generated some of the complaints by approaching the airport over Wethersfield instead of the river.

Paul O. McDonnell of Clough, Harbor and Associates, a consultant helping the airport update its master plan, said that his company would soon begin noise monitoring for the plan. He noted that noise levels must be very high for the Federal Aviation Administration to deem them unacceptable.

"It has to be pretty bad before the FAA says it's too loud," McDonnell said.

McDonnell said that he expects to schedule a public hearing in December or January on the noise portion of the master plan.

The airport is required to update its master plan once a decade, he said.

McDonnell also reported that the crosswind runway would remain open. The neighboring Metropolitan District Council wanted at one point to take part of the runway for its expansion, but has since dropped those plans, he said

The proposal sparked strong resistance from pilots, who packed a public hearing to protest, McDonnell said.

"A lot of people came out of the woodwork to keep the runway," he said.

Closing the runway, which his rarely used and short, would lead to little to no reduction in noise, McDonnell said.

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