- April 17, 2024
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Dear Editor:
Anyone who lives anywhere near the Ormond airport is affected by the near constant noise of small airplanes buzzing overhead, day and night. Despite our beautiful, natural surroundings, we have this constant annoyance. We have been told that there is nothing that the city can do about it, so we accept it. But do we want to open the door to even more noise?
Those who are trying to convince us that we need the extension say that it will reduce the noise. Really?
Most of the flights are from flight schools that use small Cessna-style aircraft. If the runway is extended, it will be practical for larger aircraft, including small jets, to utilize the airport. There is nothing we can do to prevent a flight school from providing training for these louder aircraft.
The Observer recently published an article about a local flyer who runs a flight school in New Smyrna. That article said, “she hopes that with future expansions to the Ormond Beach airport, she'll be able to expand operations locally.”
So, we may have not only more flights, but louder aircraft.
We are told that the extension will bring new businesses like Security First to the area, thus providing an economic benefit to the city. Flagler Executive Airport already has a runway longer than what is being proposed for Ormond. It takes about 16 minutes to drive there from Security First, which is about 10 minutes longer than it would take them to drive to our airport.
Is saving 10 minutes of driving for a handful of people worth spending millions of dollars, heavily impacting the people who live at the end of the extension, and adding more noise to thousands of Ormond Beach residents? I don’t think so.
Norman Lane
Ormond Beach
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