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Home My WebLink About2004-01-20-HFAC-min Minutes Hanscom Field Advisory Commission January 20, 2004 Minutes: 1.Minutes from the November 2003 meeting were approved. (There was no meeting in December.) Miscellaneous: 2. Peter Enrich made available a response from Craig Coy to HFAC’s letter regarding the process for Massport’s plans to upgrade its noise monitoring system. It was agreed that HFAC would meet on Thursday February 24, rather than the third Tuesday, in order to avoid the school vacation week. Noise Report: 3. Sara Arnold presented a comparison of data for November and December 2003 to the same months in 2002. She also noted that aircraft activity for the year of 2003 decreased in all categories, including a 1.5 percent decline in jet operations. The largest percentage decrease was in turboprops. There was a discussion about the decrease in single engine piston activity. S. Arnold said that this is often associated with weather conditions, and there was heavy winter weather in the beginning of 2003 as well as in December. The economy may also be a factor. It seems unlikely that the July 1 rate increases influenced this. Residents objected to the level of jet traffic and especially to low flights in the middle of the night. Dave Bayley, Hanscom’s FAA Tower Chief, and pilots explained that when departing, a pilot will gain altitude as quickly as possible. This is for safety reasons, plus Massport encourages this in its fly friendly program. Arrivals must use the glide slope to make a safe landing. It is not in a pilot’s self interest to fly unnecessarily low. Liberty Mutual Presentation: 4. (Note: During the presentation, residents and representatives from Save Our Heritage held signs expressing concern about the effects a new hangar at Hanscom will have on the National Park.) Bill Costa explained that Liberty Mutual is developing plans to build a new 30,000 sq. ft. hangar with 6,000 sq. ft of office space on a site commonly referred to as the Hangar 1 site and will vacate their current hangar, which has approximately 20,500 sq ft. including office space. This plan resulted from a detailed decision making process within Liberty. The drawings are preliminary and are being shown to provide HFAC with information on the general concepts being developed by Liberty. It is unlikely that a final drawing will be available before the spring. His presentation and his responses to questions included the following information: -Liberty currently has four planes and 28-30 staff members at Hanscom; there are no plans to increase either. -The current hangar only holds three planes; their fourth plane is with a Fixed Base Operator. This is the driving force behind these plans. -The planes are originally manufactured Stage 3 aircraft and seat 8 to 12 passengers. -The drawings show 48 vehicle parking spaces—a decrease from approximately 65 at Liberty’s current hangar; all employees are often not there at the same time. -Aircraft passengers are almost exclusively Liberty employees; periodically Liberty donates its aircraft for corporate angel flights. -Flights are for business purposes (B. Costa knew of no aircraft use for non-business associated activity); no flights are for hire. -Liberty Mutual is headquartered in Boston, and has been at Hanscom since 1972; there are no plans to move the company or base aircraft at another airport. -The company understands the sensitivity of night activity and there is an effort to minimize operations between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.; out of over 500 operations in 2003, only 12 were between those hours. Global flights can make it difficult to avoid night hours. -Liberty will provide a low density use for the Hangar 1 site. -Liberty planes can be gone for weeks when they are used; they travel throughout the world. -Massport and Liberty have reviewed aircraft movement areas near the ramp area that Liberty will lease, and no problems were identified. -The current Liberty hangar is on 90,000 sq. ft. of land and the new site has 144,000 sq. ft.; it isn’t possible to reconfigure the current hangar to meet Liberty’s needs. -Liberty has experienced steady growth—economic fluctuations have had a minimal or no impact on Liberty’s growth, so a growth economy does not necessarily trigger more or less aircraft activity. -Liberty follows all security requirements mandated by TSA, Massport, and the FAA, which are all taken very seriously; in addition, the people who fly are known to Liberty. Area residents expressed a desire for Smart Growth principles to be used when creating parking. There were suggestions that Liberty employees could use commercial aviation or trains to save money, particularly when traveling along the northeast corridor. There was concern about noise from idling aircraft and from the increase in aircraft operations that will result when a new tenant comes into Liberty’s current hangar. There were a number of questions about Liberty’s operation, how this has fluctuated over the years, and how it might look in the future. B. Costa said he will look into the issues and plans to return to a future HFAC meeting. In response to a question about other vacant hangars that might be developed, Massport staff said that Hangar 24 is currently empty and Massport is issuing a Request for Proposals for its development, as has been reported at past HFAC meetings. There is also the empty hangar on the north side of the field, on Navy land. John Williams expressed concern that the HFAC discussion was focusing on Liberty, which has been at Hanscom for years, while the real issue is how the hangar they vacate will be used. Others agreed that this is an important distinction. The next HFAC meeting will discuss steps for HFAC to take as they relate to Liberty plus the global and/or operational issues that are related to Massport. Vegetation Management Plan (VMP): 5. Tom Ennis reported that implementation of the VMP was scheduled to begin on February 2 by Northern Construction. Most of the work will be done in February—this will include the wetlands work. Some upland cutting may be done in March. Grubbing and seeding will take place in the spring. Invitations to abutters were issued to attend a meeting on January 21 to answer last minute questions. T. Ennis has also been meeting with the towns’ Conservation Commissions for a final discussion of their Orders of Conditions. In response to questions about the Bedford Town Forest and Jordan Conservation Land, T. Ennis said that Massport has talked to the FAA about alternative gradations, specifically 34:1 and 20:1. The latter would require lighting, in some cases 80 foot lights on substantial foundations. There have been no recent meetings with officials in the Town of Bedford. The last obstruction analysis was done in 1999 so a new one will be needed in the near future. This analysis determines how soon additional vegetation removal will be needed after this project. The land in the area was field and farmland when the airport was built. Trees have grown over the years, and need to be managed to protect landing and departing aircraft. Other: 6. S. Arnold said that there have been two times when Massport has used sodium formate on the airfield and has had CDM Environmental Consultants come for water sampling. Other use of the chemical has been more incidental. In response to a question about dates it has been used, she said she will talk to operations about this. HANSCOM FIELD ADVISORY COMMISSION DATE: 1/20/04 HFAC MEMBER ATTENDEES CATEGORYNAMEIN ATTENDANCE Contiguous Towns (4)********************** BedfordSheldon Moll Bedford Alt.Mark Siegenthaler ConcordAnne ShapiroX Concord Alt.Charles Blair LexingtonPeter EnrichX Lexington Alt.Michael Barrett LincolnSara Mattes Lincoln Alt.Sarah Holden Local Citizen Groups (2)********************** So. LexMargaret CoppeX No. LexGraydon Wheaton Area Wide Organizations (2)********************** LWVJanet Kennedy LWV Alt. Other Area Towns (2)********************** Carlisle or ActonSteve LernerX WalthamRep. Tom Stanley Waltham Alt.Michael Squillante Businesses Basing Acft at Hanscom (2)********************** East Coast AviationTom Hoban RaytheonMichael Burke Aviation/Aviation Related Businesses (2)********************** Jet AviationFrank DiglioX Signature Flight SupportRick Blaze Signature Alt.Paul Gamache Business Aviation Organization (1)********************** MBAAJohn WilliamsX NBAA (Alt. Org.)Ken Heider General Aviation Organization (1)********************** Hanscom Pilots AssociationThomas HirschX Ex-Officio Members********************** MassportSara ArnoldX MassportRichard WalshX MassportCedric DanielX HAFBRhonda Siciliano FAADave Bayley MMNHPNancy Nelson **************************************************************** Other AttendeesAffiliation 1Tom EnnisMPA 2B. ForesterCNC 3Bill CostaLiberty Mutual 4Lori AndrewsLiberty Mutual 20 residents and activists were also in the audience