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From the Ottawa Citizen

Carp residents waking up to noisy helicopters

Airport neighbours get testy over late-night flights
By Kristy Nease, The Ottawa Citizen November 9, 2010

OTTAWA — Some residents in Carp are buzzing with frustration about noisy helicopters flying over residential areas near Carp Airport, sometimes after midnight.

Carole Larose lives in nearby Westwood Estates and says she has been woken up by the sound. She and others have complained for a little over a year, and she says they’re unhappy with the answers they’re getting.

“This isn’t a case of, ‘Not in my backyard’,” Larose says.

“I know I moved into an area where there’s an airport. However, the airport has always been for smaller aircraft, and they don’t normally travel at nighttime and if they do, they’re certainly not circling over your head and they don’t wake you up.

“At one point (in the fall of 2009), it got so loud that sitting in my living room and trying to watch TV, the drone was deafening.”

The airport is owned by the City of Ottawa, but an agreement was recently reached with West Capital Developments to take ownership for $1.2 million.

The transfer, which has been in the works since 2004, should be completed by Dec. 15. In that time, West Capital has pumped about $5.5 million into the facility, including a new terminal, said West Carleton-March Councillor Eli El-Chantiry.

To address any concerns about the airport, West Capital is creating an advisory committee with public and private stakeholders, which should be up and running in the new year, says president John Phillips.

The committee will have representatives of future residential and commercial development on the 1,000-acre airport property, and there will be a seat for nearby residents.

Meanwhile, the president of Helicopter Transport Services, a company that has worked out of Carp Airport since 1988, says he is unaware of any violation of Transport Canada rules at the airport, including the federal department’s aircraft noise regulations.

Luc Pilon says they retrain their helicopter pilots every spring and fall, as mandated by the government. During training, they simulate real-life scenarios pilots encounter in the field, such as flying in darkness in the Arctic, landing on sloped ground and more.

Between Aug. 28 and Sept. 11 this year, Pilon says, the latest flights took place at 12:18 a.m. and 12:32 a.m. The earliest flight, last Dec. 10, was 8:36 a.m. “We try to fly as neighbourly as we can. And we take every complaint pretty seriously,” Pilon says, adding that sometimes his pilots fly higher than the minimum allowable heights to avoid disturbing residential neighbours.

And he says the company has had busier years than this one.

But Larose isn’t convinced. She says noisy flights over residential areas can’t be allowed to continue. She has safety fears, too, about pilots training to land without navigational equipment.

The city has no authority over any noise made at the airport, even under its noise bylaw, as the airport is governed by Transport Canada regulations.

Carleton-Mississippi Mills MP Gordon O’Connor says his office has fielded a number of complaints.

Speaking hypothetically, O’Connor said that if the proposed committee can’t succeed in getting the airport to take action, “it would move up the next level to Transport Canada.”

“I think the approach is to go with the committee and see where it goes, because once the committee forms and you have all the stakeholders, usually there’s compromise,” he says.

“You’re not going to have some of the stakeholders say ‘No, we’re not going to make any amendments,’ because it’s only a matter of time. If you keep building up pressure, governments do respond to pressure.”

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Here is an interesting story about Tim Howard and his 1966 182 that has been parked in our field for the last few weeks - the one with the big tires. Tim will be taking the plane to Africa where it will support the Hanne Howard Fund, a charity he and his wife Hanne Howard run. You can see their work at http://www.hannehowardfund.com.

By TONY SPEARS, Ottawa Sun

Ottawa airport CEO Paul Benoit could barely suppress manly grunts as he read out specs for the newest additions to the airport’s firefighting and snow-removal units.

He announced the $11-million purchase of four fire trucks and seven snow plows at the airport Wednesday.

“Now I’m going to sound like Tim Taylor from Home Improvement, so bear with me,” Benoit said.

The fire trucks boast 11,500 litres of water capacity, nozzles that can blast foam and dry chemical sprays at the same time and the ability to lay down 34,000 litres of foam and water in 2 1/2 minutes.

The trucks can go from zero to 80 km/h in 25 seconds.

One of the fire trucks is armed with a “stinger,” which can punch through the skin of a flaming aircraft to deliver a watery attack.

“Using a stinger means we won’t have to put a firefighter at risk,” Benoit said.

The new fleet of seven super-plows should help airline flight schedules stay on track this winter.

The orange Oshkosh machines have 7.3-metre plows on the front, and 6.7-metre sweepers — spinning at nearly 140 km/h — on a second, detachable section. Blowers complete the assembly on the 23-metre-long machines.

Operator Billy O’Brien said it would take just one pass to clear a runway with the new machines, meaning the old rate of 45 minutes per runway will be reduced to a scant 15.

They also use infrared and GPS technology so operators won’t collide during whiteout conditions.

“It’s a Cadillac,” O’Brien said.

Cross posted from: http://rainaviationblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/buttonville-airport-closing...

Cadilac Fairview Corporation and Armadale Company announced today that they have made plans to redevelop the site currently occupied by Buttonville Airport.

“This site represents an excellent opportunity to create a world-class development and we look forward to working with the planning authorities on this exciting project,” stated John Sullivan, Executive Vice President, Development of Cadillac Fairview. “The site’s scale and location and the move to mixed-use and higher density in accordance with sustainable planning principles should allow us to attract significant employment uses to the site through the creation of a vibrant 24 hour mixed-use community,” adds Sullivan.

Buttonville Airport, which has operated since 1953, will cease operations in 2015 according to reports.

(Cross posted from http://rainaviationblog.blogspot.com/)

There are reports in the media (Toronto Sun, CTV) of a 1974 Piper PA28-151 C-GYOV (Cherokee Warrior) landing on Highway 407 westbound between Warden and Woodbine - near Buttonville Airport.

The pilot declared an emergency reporting "I have engine cut out" according to the ATC tapes, and was cleared "to land on the 407 at your discretion". The pilot successfully landed the plane an no one was injured.

From CTV News: C-GYOV after landing on the 407

The city of Ottawa has agreed to sell the Carp Airport (CYRP) to West Capital Developments for $1.2 million.

West Capital Developments is a real estate development company started in 2002 for the express purpose of developing the Carp Airport lands, according to its web site.

The Carp Airport has seen many improvements in recent year, a new hanger and FBO building in 2006, a self serve fuelling system also in 2006, and the opening of Touch ‘n Go Aviation in 2009.Carp Airport lost flight training when Carp Flying Academy closed in January 2009.

The Carp Airport was transferred to the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in March of 1997 as part of Transport Canada’s National Airports Policy – a plan announced in July 1994 to transfer ownership of small airports having no regularly scheduled passenger service to local municipalities.

Carp was originally a military airfield built in 1943 that was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program during the Second World War.