Airplanes took off
over Southlake and Grapevine again this month prompting resident
complaints about commercial airplanes flying outside of their normal
flight path.
Long-time Southlake resident Vic Awtry recorded
audio of the airplanes flying over his home in Lakewood Acres over the
Nov. 3 and 4 weekend to show how disruptive the take-offs can be from
runway 13R/36L. He compared that to audio of an airplane coming in for a
landing along the normal flight path toward the same runway.
"You
literally cannot have a conversation outside. The planes are not
staying in the noise corridor," Awtry said as he addressed the City
Council on Nov. 6. "If they would do that it would be fine because
they've been a good partner. It's different than it's ever been before I
can promise you. I've been here a long time."
Awtry said he
understands the airport's need to make improvements to the runways and
shift air traffic to another runway based on wind conditions. It's the
Federal Aviation Administration's decision to allow airplanes departing
from runway 13R/36L to use different headings that cause problems, Awtry
said.
D/FW Airport closed runway 18R/36L maintenance for 16
hours from Nov. 3 to Nov. 4. Airport officials purposely scheduled the
closure for the weekend because air traffic decreases on weekends, said
Cynthia Vega, media relations manager for D/FW Airport.
It
coincided with northerly winds, which put the airport into a north flow
configuration for take-offs and landings. With one of the primary
take-off runways closed, airplanes were diverted to runway 13R/36L, the
diagonal runway on the west side of D/FW Airport, for take-offs.
It's a rare occurrence but it happens, Vega has said.
"However,
it's important to note, air traffic control is responsible for all
decisions regarding the routing of planes in and out of D/FW Airport,"
Vega said.
When a prolonged closure "changes normal flight
patterns," the airport alerts area cities, as it did in September and
again recently.
"Our noise compatibility office sent a
notification email to the affected cities of Southlake and Grapevine,
and we also posted the information to the D/FW website, as well as
D/FW's Facebook and Twitter accounts," Vega said.Southlake posted a story about it on mysouthlakenews.com and Grapevine posted it to its website, grapevinetexas.gov.
The last closure lasted
33 days from August into September, when the first cold fronts of the
season shifted winds to the north several times, again forcing the
airport into a north flow configuration.
At the time, airport officials said they would take complaints from residents into account when planning future runway closures.
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