The JAC Airport Board held a special meeting to hear from the FAA on proposed changes to existing flight vectors both north and south of the airport and to hear updates on JAC’s own Fly Quiet Noise Mitigation program.

After years of work, the FAA announced a new flight path with a slight mandatory left turn on departing flights to the south which was to begin October 7, 2021. That approved angle was estimated to be about 10° to 12°, well short of the voluntary, suggested 45° turn endorsed by JAC as part of its noise abatement program. No specific criteria for not following the requested flight path was given by the FAA at this meeting, although the FAA stated that it recognized that more needed to be done.

ANPAC sent letters to the FAA including a simulated video from a flight consultant which showed the 45° noise mitigation vector proposed by JAC, but not approved by the FAA. ANPAC urged the FAA to reconsider this route and requested the specific criteria that the FAA used in not approving that vector as a mandatory southern departure.

As of the end of July approximately 500 signatures and 250 noise annoyance surveys had been returned in support of ANPAC’s mission to reduce noise overhead.

ANPAC hosted a luncheon for informal discussion with JAC’s Board.  Jim Elwood, Executive Director of the Airport, and Valerie Brown, JAC Airport Board Member attended. We shared the data from our noise annoyance surveys and spoke about our interest in securing a greater eastward turn on southern takeoff procedures. We discussed ways to urge the FAA to move towards approval of an eastern turn on southern departures greater than 10 to 12° and how to strengthen JAC’s own implementation of its voluntary noise abatement program. We were assured the airport board recognized the problems we faced. 

We received a response from the FAA explaining timing and the process used in the design of the FAA proposed 10 to 12° eastern vector turn on southern departures which noted that the 45° eastern turn was “determined to be impractical from industry and did not meet FAA safety software criteria “. However, the FAA stated they were committed to working with the airport in the future to review the feasibility of additional proposed design changes in the post implementation period.

ANPAC attended various HOA annual meetings to explain our mission and answer questions.  

Jim Elwood, JAC Executive Director, requested that the FAA not implement the 10° to 12° flight path vector. The FAA responded to the Airport Director noting that a delay of implementation would offer time for the airport to work with the community and requested that the airport propose an alternate flight procedure design by September 2022.

ANPAC secured two additional neighborhood noise monitors south of the airport. 

ANPAC met individually with local government officials, Town Council members, County Commissioners and several Airport Board members to explain the effect of the increased aircraft noise on the homeowners living in the vicinity of the airport.

ANPAC also mobilized support from its base for a vacated position on JAC Board of Directors to be filled by a well-qualified candidate who resides south of the airport and is aware of the issues faced by local residents – currently none of the JAC Board Members live in the area surrounding the airport.

The JAC Board met to hear presentations from their consultant, Mead and Hunt, on aircraft noise and improvements in JAC’s own Fly Quiet program particularly as it impacts Grand Teton National Park.  The JAC Board approved $235,000, to fund the following: 

Phase 1. Establishment of a task force to analyze existing southerly departure procedures and consider other flight paths including specifically eastern turns of greater than 12° up to and including 45°(cost 52K).

Phase 2. Enter a flight path development phase if alternative departure procedures show promise (cost 140K).

Phase 3. Produce a presentation appropriate for the FAA whether for a “special“ departure procedure or a “public“ procedure with a goal of completion by September 29, 2022 in line with the FAA’s requested time frame (cost 43K).

An ANPAC member was invited to be on the task force, which includes airport experts, flight design experts and local human and natural community representatives. Sally Painter, one of ANPAC’s founding members, will serve on the task force.

Rob Wallace is selected as the new JAC Airport Board Member. Rob does not live near the airport, but we are looking forward to developing a good working relationship with Rob.

The Airport Board, on February 3rd had a presentation of the Fly Quiet Program which has been in development for five years and is just now being “implemented”. View presentation here.

The first meeting of the Southernly Departure Task Force was February 10. 2022. Task force members included: Valerie Brown, Chair of Southern Departure Procedure Task Force & JAC Board Representative, Jeremy Barnum, Grand Teton National Park Representative, Sally Painter, Resident of Bar B Bar and ANPAC Representative, Frank Durbian, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Elk Refuge, TJ McCann, Resident of Bar B Bar, Todd Stiles, US Department of Agriculture, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Alec Seybold and Richard Scott, Flight Tech Engineering for flight procedures, Greg Dryer, Juvination for air traffic considerations, Paul Dunholder, Bridgenet International for noise modeling and monitoring, Ryk Dunkelberg, Mead and Hunt noise consultants, Bill Kane, Facilitator.

Historical developments were reviewed for the task force and public who chose to attend the meeting. A noise abatement left turn of 45 degrees was instituted in the early 1980’s but due to terrain issues and updates to FAA standards and procedures, this was eliminated approximately 20 years ago. The Airport completed a 14 CFR Part 150 Study in 2019 that recommended implementation of the historic left turn, or similar using newer technology. However, the FAA could not safely recreate the turn and proposed a 10–15-degree vector to the east (called KICNE1), then back to the west rejoining with the current ALPIN 3 departure path.

In December of 2021, the airport director asked the FAA to delay implementation of KICNE1 due to a community objection that the path shifted noise from one residential area to another. The FAA delayed implementation to allow the airport time to get community feedback and develop a procedure which met FAA criteria and was acceptable to all parties.

Ground rules given at the onset were that “Solutions which optimize for one group at the expense of others will not be carried forward – noise will not shift from one neighborhood to another.”

Introductions to various types of flight procedures were described by the aviation consultant team including conventional ground radio based navigation procedures , RNAV (navigation routes that followed defined vectors and waypoints) and advanced RNP (routes within a specified narrow containment area which include curved paths and tighter clustering of flight departures) which are currently available on only approximately 30% of commercial or private jets but will become more common over the next 3-5 years.

Noise analysis methods to be used were described using single event noise levels for permanent and temporary sites at representative locations and computer models to show data of typical aircraft flying any developed flight procedure.

Sally Painter, ANPAC Member on the task force, was extremely beneficial allowing us to represent our members of over 600 people. ANPAC sent emails to supporters with notifications of all upcoming task force meetings and instructions on how to attend in person or virtually as well as encouraging supporters to write to the task force and airport with their thoughts and descriptions of how noise is interfering with their daily lives.

ANPAC sent reminders to supporters of the upcoming third task force meeting on April 28, 2022 urging attendance with in person or virtual instructions and stressing importance of this meeting where proposed new southern departures flight paths would be presented.

Aviation consultant company Flight Tech Engineering’s Alec Seybold presented six alternative flight paths that would meet FAA criteria. These can be viewed here.

Concept 1 RNAV DP EAST SHIFT, later renamed C 1 RNAV SOUTH EAST, modified the original KICNE 1 by shifting departures further to the east avoiding all residences and instead crossing the Elk Refuge and passing to the east of the Jackson Town Center. It did not require advanced software technology.

Concept 2 RNAV, DP WEST SHIFT, later renamed C3 RNAV SOUTHWEST, shifted departures to the west of current ALPIN 3 path but took flights closer to the Snake River.

Concept 3 ZIPET ONE RNAV, later renamed C6 ZIPET RNAV, was similar to the current ALPIN 3 with slightly more initial southwest routing.

Concept 4 IMMEDIATE TURN TO SOUTHWEST, later renamed C4 RNP to SOUTHWEST, required the advanced RNP navigation methods not yet available on all aircraft with an early turn to southwest then rejoined ALPIN 3 route.

Concept 5 IMMEDIATE TURN TO SOUTHEAST, later renamed C2 RNP TO SOUTHEAST, also required advanced RNP technology and a low-level turn to southeast avoiding residences especially those directly south of the airport and flew over the Elk Refuge passing east of the Town of Jackson.

Concept 6 EAST HOOK DEPARTURE, later renamed C5 RNP TO EAST, made a curved or hook turn to the east avoiding residences and the Jackson Valley by flying over Kelly and Gros Ventre.

ANPAC evaluated carefully evaluated all proposed paths and contacted the task force multiple times for additional information. We communicated to our supporters ANPAC’s preliminary endorsement of the proposed flight paths departing to the east which would benefit residences south of the airport pending noise analysis of the different routes to be presented at the June meeting. Concept 1 was favored as it could provide much needed immediate relief from the increasing noise while the other two of these concepts would not be immediately available due to the advanced technology. ANPAC wrote to JAC Task Force and Board members advocating for concept C1 and noise relief for residents south of the airport.

At the September 21st JAC board meeting, results of the Southern Departure Task Force were presented, most notably that the task force was able to identify six safe alternative departures however they were unable to come to a consensus on a flight path that would satisfy everyone with GTNP objecting to any increase in noise within the park boundaries. The task force chair, Valerie Brown, made several motions including not implementing KICNE1 as a single departure path since it did not satisfy all stakeholders. Expanding the hours of voluntary curfew for general aviation flights from 0930- 0700 hours was emphasized. The Board asked the staff to come back with a proposal to work on alternate RNP flight paths to disperse residential noise without increasing noise in GTNP.

ANPAC learns general aviation facilities approval for expansion which will further increase the number of private jets and noise in our neighborhoods. ANPAC writes to the airport board and executive officer requesting a proposal to immediately begin work on alternate RNP’s path to reduce noise in southern residences including the Painter RNP and Concept 2 RNP.

ANPAC requested the addition of more permanent noise monitors, specifically in Moulton Loop, Oat Grass, Teton shadows, Teton Sage area. Currently there are only two permanent monitors in Moose and Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis Club.

ANPAC also requested expansion of voluntary curfew hours in the general aviation facility and asked the airport to encourage the Fly Quiet program more strongly to both commercial and private airlines by making it part of the Jeppeson and Foreflight information packets which pilots review prior to every flight. ANPAC requested increase signage, pamphlets and instructions for pilots to respect the airports neighbor by honoring the curfew and noise abatement flight path when safe to do so.