Resident complaints about noise from close-flying military planes and helicopters using the Kaneohe Marine base are being raised with federal lawmakers at a time when 53,000 flight operations annually are expected to soar to nearly 79,000 in coming years.
Four state legislators — Rep. Pono Chong, Rep. Cynthia Thielen, Rep. Ken Ito and Sen. Jill Tokuda — sent a letter last week to Hawaii’s congressional delegation asking that they conduct a public meeting over the aircraft noise.
"Our constituents have expressed concerns about noise from military aircraft flights, particularly noise that can be heard from schools, businesses and private residences," the letter says. "Such noise is not solely caused by operations at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii-Kaneohe Bay. Aircraft from other branches of the military also use (the base)."
Ever since the Navy acquired 464 acres on Mokapu Peninsula in 1939 for a PBY Catalina seaplane base, aircraft have been flying overhead.
In the ongoing evolution of the air station, the latest concerns are over Marine Corps, Army and perhaps Navy helicopters overflying Aikahi Park houses — rattling jalousie windows as they go — before landing near the base’s helicopter hangars.
Another sore spot: Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo carriers practice touch-and-go landings, with flight routes taking the big jets near the Kaneohe Bay shoreline and, some residents say, over land and homes, drowning out televisions.
P-3 Orion propeller planes also stray too far and too low over Kaneohe Bay and Enchanted Lake neighborhoods, some say.
And that’s before 18 P-8A Poseidon jets, up to 24 MV-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys and the majority of 27 AH-1 Cobra and UH-1 Huey helicopters arrive, along with 900 aviation personnel associated with the Ospreys and choppers.
Thielen said she’s received a "significant" number of recent complaints about aircraft noise and low overflights — probably fewer than 100 — "but there’s an email chain going out with people contacting each other and describing what has been going on."
"A number of these people that have contacted me are retired military, and they and I are in strong support of the military, but we feel that there can be a better action taken to protect the residential community while still letting the military practice," she said.
Bob Vericker, a 30-year resident of Aikahi Park, said military helicopters wouldn’t have to alter their flying routes much to appease residents.
"All of the people that I’ve talked to in Aikahi Park, many of which are military, are completely supportive of the military, and we don’t want to do anything that adversely affects their training," he said.
If the flight route for helicopters were changed so that they flew north of Nuupia Ponds bordering the base, rather than south and near civilian homes, it would keep the aircraft out to sea and away from Aikahi Park, Vericker said.
"I don’t want to silence the sounds of freedom — everybody calls them the sounds of freedom, and they are — but I want them moved north. In other words, move them closer to the ocean," Vericker said.
Not all the parties are in sync as to where the helicopters are flying.
In a July 24 letter to Thielen, Marine Corps Base Hawaii commander Col. Brian Annichiarico said the helicopter flight path was modified so aircraft use the path suggested by Vericker.
Vericker said he’s seen inconsistent Marine Corps efforts made in reducing the aircraft noise, and while Annichiarico, who took command in November, has been successful in reducing some of the racket, it’s "the loudest it’s been in the last couple of years in the 30 years that we’ve lived here."
Thielen also noted Annichiarico’s involvement, saying he is making "every effort" to keep aircraft away from residential areas.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii said in an email that the departure route takes rotary wing aircraft on the base side of the center line of Nuupia Ponds at altitudes of 600 to 800 feet above the ground.
Officials said helicopters heading east from the base are unable to go around the peninsula, around Ulupau Crater and out to sea, due to the location of the live-fire range at Ulupau. A departure around the peninsula also would increase flight time to training areas and waste fuel, the Marines said.
Asked about P-3 Orions and C-17 cargo jets flying low over homes, the base said all aircraft fly in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration rules. For congested areas, the FAA says fixed-wing aircraft must be at least 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a 2,000-foot horizontal radius.
"In addition to the FAA rules, (the base) has developed more restrictive course rules that keep the flight path of fixed-wing aviation over water as they approach the runway," the Corps said in the statement. "Occasionally the aircraft may not be able to maintain their course over water and overfly land but do so in accordance with FAA regulations and safety of flight."
The Marine Corps air station was selected by the Navy for 18 P-8A Poseidon sub-hunting aircraft as a replacement for the aging P-3 Orion propellor aircraft, but the Navy reportedly is trying to shift the Hawaii jets to Whidbey Island in Washington state in a cost-saving move.
Four Huey and five Cobra helicopters were flown during recent Rim of the Pacific exercises, and the nine aircraft remained at Kaneohe Bay as the first of the anticipated 27 helicopters, officials said.
Ospreys are expected to start arriving as early as 2014, with all of the aircraft expected to be in Hawaii by 2018, the Corps said.
The Corps said it has attempted to get Ospreys to Hawaii so residents could see — and hear — the aircraft, which are expected to have a flight pattern looping around Kaneohe Bay similar to that used by C-17s and P-3s.
A request was submitted to have an Osprey demonstration for both the 2010 and upcoming 2012 air shows at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
"However, due to availability, cost and logistics this request could not be accommodated," the base said.
