Langley hears little about noise

By Louis hansen
The Virginian-Pilot

HAMPTON - Vic Johnston darted around his office at Langley Air Force Base in a mild panic. "Where's the noise complaint book?" he asked a colleague.

Johnston, the base's chief community liaison, apologized: "It's a fairly neglected book."

He finally found the skinny three-ring binder and confirmed his memory - eight people complained about jet noise around Langley last year.

Three people have griped about the fighter jets this year.

Virginia Beach and Chesapeake residents have racked up that many in a single night of touch-and-go s around Oceana Naval Air Station.

While jet noise and encroachment threatens Oceana's long-term future, Langley has kept a relative oasis in the midst of its urban surroundings. It survived the federal government's base-closing scrutiny in 2005 relatively unscathed.

There are two main reasons Langley is quieter than its Navy counterpart several miles south.

First, the Air Force base has just one-third the number of fighter jets at Oceana - 75 compared with 230.

Second, Langley pilots in general take off and fly directly over the ocean to conduct their training missions. Meanwhile, Navy pilots simulate aircraft carrier landings by repeating touch-and-gos at airstrips in nearby communities, such as Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field in Chesapeake.

Lt. Col. Matthew Fenton, former commander of the 71st Fighter Squadron at Langley, said the training schedule minimizes the effects on the community. Training usually ends by 10 p.m. and starts up again at 6 a.m. The base publicizes night operations in advance to warn the community of the extra activity.

Fenton flew three years from Okinawa, Japan, where jet noise and the U.S. military presence created friction with the local population. Langley is much more favorable for operations, he said, comparable to his other posts in Texas, Florida and Alabama.

Regular training for Langley-based squadrons occurs 80 miles east of the base, over the Atlantic.

"No one hears us out there," Fenton said.

Maj. Patrick DeConcini flew an F-16 for several years with the Air National Guard in Richmond. He recently began flying an F-22 Raptor with the 27th Fighter Squadron out of Langley.

The base offers training space with few restrictions.

"You take off and, bang, you're over the water," De?Concini said.

The only people he has spotted during landing descents have been on Langley's golf course.

DeConcini said the other pilots have been following Oceana's plight. If the Air Force practiced aircraft carrier landings, he said, "you'd have more noise complaints."

The complaint logs show a striking contrast with the naval air station. In 2002, for example, complaints to Oceana total ed 894. The same year, Langley received a dozen calls and e-mails about noise. The next year, Oceana complaints dipped to 639 while Langley recorded 15.

Brig. Gen. Burton M. Field , commander of the 1st Fighter Wing, said base leadership reaches out to the community on several levels, but the fact remains that "jets make noise."

Field said problems are minimized by the runway configuration and operations schedule. The base has water on three sides . Encroachment problems are "minimal," he said.

Hampton city leaders also have heeded military concerns about flight safety.

The Air Force approached them in the early 1990s, asking to curb future development as the service prepared for its next generation of more powerful fighter jets.

In 1993, the city re zoned several properties along the flight path from residential to commercial. The City Council decision scrubbed plans for new, high-end homes to make the way for a less-populated commercial park.

Hampton Mayor Ross A. Kearney II recalled that property owners fought the re zoning.

Kearney and other council members toured the site by helicopter and saw the potential hazards.

"We made people angry," Kearney said. However , "it made a great deal of sense."

Much of the land remains vacant, with some of the property becoming part of the Hampton Roads Center commerce park .

Kearney said the city will need to keep strong ties to the military. While the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission criticized Virginia Beach officials for ignoring years of Navy warnings and allowing fast-growing development under Oceana flight lines, commissioners also warned last year that development could compromise operations at Langley .

"None of us is safe," Kearney said.

Chuck Britt, 65, and his wife moved into the Country Club Apartments in Hampton about 15 years ago. The tidy brick complex sits less than a half-mile from Langley's main gate.

From his back porch, Britt took in the sweeping view of the river and the base on a recent weekday morning.

He hears the jets taking off, but he's not bothered. "You get used to it," he said. "It's all in your mind-set."

On the other side of the base, Jack Wright fed his neighbors' cats in the cool morning shade under a thicket of trees.

Wright, 57, grew up less than a half-mile from the west entrance of the base. His father owned a 50-acre farm, and eventually the extended family built five homes on the property.

Wright saw several generations of aircraft fly over the family farm . The jets are loud, he said. They interrupt phone conversations and shake window panes. But he's never bothered to complain.

The federal government forced Wright and his family to sell 8 acres and move in 1977. The homes were under the flight path.

Wright, a contractor, still owns 23 heavily wooded acres by the base. He has no plans to develop it .

Johnston said the Air Force reaches out to the community in several ways, hosting tours and sending airmen to civic groups.

They face far fewer queries about the noise and traffic than their Navy counterparts.

Johnston knows about the issues surrounding Oceana.

"I feel fortunate," he said.