The FAA has informed Senator Patty Murray’s staff that there will be no changes in the floor of the airspace located over Magnolia.
Well over one hundred people showed up at a Community Club meeting last November to express concern about the proposed change that would have lowered the floor from 3000 feet to 2000 feet above sea level. That would have resulted in larger planes flying lower and with more frequency over Magnolia and parts of Queen Anne and Ballard.
The FAA stated that after considering all the public input it re-evaluated its proposal and determined no significant net gains in safety or efficiency that would justify the various negative impacts resulting from lowering the floor of the Class Bravo airspace.
The Magnolia Community Club collected and forwarded 77 pages of petitions to the FAA in opposition to the proposal. King County councilmember Larry Phillips along with Representative Jim McDermott and Senator Patty Murray each wrote to the FAA opposing the change.
According to a media release from the Magnolia Community Club today: Community leaders are extremely pleased, not only with the FAA’s substantive decision, but also with its demonstrated willingness to work with affected communities and respond to their concerns. The successful resolution of this issue is due to the hard work over a long period of time by many volunteers within the community who gave up their free time to attend meetings, collect signatures and contact both the FAA and our elected officials. All involved must be thanked for their efforts and professionalism. There is little doubt that the value of our community input was enhanced by the professional manner by which those involved responded to and interacted with the FAA and our elected officials.
YAY! I love you Magnolia! THANK YOU NEIGHBORS!
This is wonderful news!
Big kudos to Robert Bismuth, the Magnolia Community Club Trustee, who spearheaded the efforts on behalf of the community and to Councilmember Larry Phillips who lobbied hard against this proposal that would have resulted in less safe skies over Magnolia!
Less safe skies over Magnolia? What a joke! Don’t let the planes fly over my fine neighborhood, let the peasants put up with the noise. Really a 70 degree turn to miss your snooty neighborhood and you try to hide behind safety. What a joke. Everyone knows the how you bought quiet at the expense of safety!
Planes can turn up to 360 degrees safely. A lower Class B space would have meant VFR GA aircraft would be more crowded in the remaining 1000 feet available to them. Since they are not directed by air traffic control, but see and avoid, it’s hard to say the changes FAA intended would have promoted safety.
Yes, huge thanks to Robert Bismuth and Larry Phillips!
Appears to me the planes are flying lower anyway – has anyone else noticed? Percetible change seemed to happen when the FAA announced the proposal last fall. Just saying…
You may be right actually. Although the neighborhood did a good job organizing a response to the class B proposal, it seems we may have missed a more important concern. Last November the FAA modified the instrument approach into Boeing Field and in doing so they lowered the minimum glide slope intercept altitude by 600 feet. Check out this pdf file of the current approach plate that shows a minimum glide slope intercept altitude of 1600 ft. http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/BFI/IAP/ILS+RWY+13R/pdf
Appears to me the planes are flying lower anyway – has anyone else noticed? Percetible change seemed to happen when the FAA announced the proposal last fall. Just saying…
I like jet engine noise!
I like jet engine noise.
So many magnolia haters jealous because we actually have a COMMUNITY where people organize and try to protect their neighborhood.
Maybe if you had studied, gone to college, and laid off the drugs, you too could live in a place where people actually care about what is going and try to do something about it.
Rock on! I can fly my GA airplane at 1000′ without having to coordinate with Seattle approach. No change from what we do now. Thanks Magnolia, you made my life easier.
Rock on! I can fly my GA airplane at 1000′ without having to coordinate with Seattle approach. No change from what we do now. Thanks Magnolia, you made my life easier.
I went to the Northwest Aviation Conference last weekend and they announced the new airspace. There were lots of comments from various people about “oh those Magnolia people, they cant be bothered with aircraft noise”.
The only thing that is annoying is that:
-Kenmore Air will still be flying low, particularly in bad weather so they can stay legal.
-People will still land helicopters in Magnolia subdivisions and the FAA won’t do anything about it. The guy didn’t even get his certificate suspended and continues to fly today.
MCC, since you are very effective at changing airspace could you perhaps spend some time on increasing police presence in Magnolia? I see crime as a larger threat than you know, aircraft noise.
Thank you Robert Bismuth, Larry Phillips and outspoken neighbors!
Thank you gentlement for mobilizing the neighborhood and keeping those heavy jets at least a couple thousand feet MSL. The 04:30 UPS plane is bad enough at that altitude. I can’t imagine the sound level if it were at the lower altitude. It’s gratifying to know that community action can work even with a federal beauracracy.
You mean to tell me that GA aircraft flying head on at the same altitude to large turbojet aircraft inbound to Boeing is safe? The FAA never EVER said that ANY large jet aircraft would fly lower over Magnolia, only that an airspace classification change was being considered. BTY GA aircraft are NOT prohibited from flying in class B airspace. The primary reason for the proposed airspace change is so air traffic would be in communication with VFR aircraft to prevent a collision.