A Happy Valley resident of 40 years, Patrick Lovejoy is annoyed with the new flight path of planes from Los Angeles to San Francisco flying directly overhead every few minutes.
SANTA CRUZ >> In a rural area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, a new flight pattern for planes heading to San Francisco International Airport is drowning out the nighttime symphony of owls, crickets and frogs that Patrick Lovejoy listens to every night.
“They’re starting their descent and changing the speed of the jet engines and the wing flaps,” said Lovejoy, who lives east of Scotts Valley. “This goes on until after midnight, at dawn. I don’t mind an occasional flight, but it’s going on every 10 minutes. It’s really getting on my nerves.”
The recent change, which happened March 5, is permanent, so annoyed neighbors will have to get used to it. It’s part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen plan unveiled in 2012 to modernize and simplify air traffic control operations for Bay Area and Sacramento airports, said an FAA spokesman. The program implements satellite-based navigation and reduces fuel use and carbon emissions through shorter flight routes.
Lovejoy’s home near Happy Valley Road sits underneath the new flight path, which cuts through Capitola and near Scotts Valley northward from the Monterey Bay. Certain planes are continuing to use the older route that passes over the Westside of Santa Cruz and southern San Lorenzo Valley.
“In terms of the distribution on where flights are flying over, it’s roughly the same as before,” said San Francisco International Airport spokesman Doug Yakel. “Aircraft are still flying over the same regions, though the path is still new.”
He added that the planes on the new route are flying at a slightly higher altitude and couldn’t firm whether planes begin their descents here.
Though the differences between the flight patterns are small, it’s a big nuisance to some residents who are now affected.
SFO has received 10 noise complaints from the area since the new change.
“That is above the norm,” Yakel said. “We only average one or two complains from this region over a month-long period.”
Lovejoy said he fears that eventually the FAA will phase out the older path, shifting all the traffic on the new route above his house.
“It already bothers me now,” he said. “I’m so tired of hearing it. It’s so repetitious. If it doesn’t bother anyone else, I guess I’m going to have to live with it.”
Most of the public outreach about the project in late 2012 happened in the San Francisco Bay Area. No public meetings were held around Santa Cruz. However, the FAA notified local, state and federal officials.
“If it’s creating problems then I’m interested in investigating it,” said Supervisor John Leopold, adding that he hasn’t heard any complaints so far. The new flight path is above areas of his district.
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