Home Recording Makes Its Point, and Jets Will Give Calabasas Area a Wider Berth

A $30 tape recorder has apparently helped end a 17-year dispute over noise from jetliners that fly over Topanga Canyon and Calabasas.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said Thursday that commercial pilots will soon be required to fly higher above the canyon after taking off from Los Angeles International Airport for northern California.

Jetliners will not be allowed to turn north over the Santa Monica Bay until they have reached an elevation of 4,000 feet, said George Sullivan, assistant air traffic manager for the airport.

That should mean the planes will climb to about 11,000 feet when they pass over Topanga Canyon and even higher when they reach Calabasas, FAA administrators calculate. They now pass over those communities as low as 9,000 feet.

Aviation officials announced the new policy after listening to a tape of jet noise made on a hand-held recorder in the living room of Topanga Canyon resident Barry Glaser.

Glaser took the recording to the LAX control tower last week. The tape showed that jets could be heard for about 35 seconds as they pass over the canyon home.

“They were floored when they heard it. They had no idea how loud it gets up here,” Glaser said.

Complaints about noise from aircraft using a takeoff path known to pilots as “Gorman 5” are not new. Protests from Calabasas residents began soon after the FAA slightly rerouted the northbound departure lane westward from Woodland Hills in 1969.

About 70 outbound commercial flights use the route each day.

FAA technicians have periodically monitored noise on Calabasas streets with sophisticated sound meters. But the most recent tests last year showed that noise was within acceptable levels, officials said.

The new procedure will require some pilots to fly farther over the ocean before heading inland, according to Sullivan.

“They’ll be going further out before they make their right turn,” Sullivan said.

Glaser, who is a member of the board of the Topanga Town Council, said officials assured him that it would be noticeably quieter in the canyon and in next-door Calabasas starting in about four weeks.

He said FAA administrators have agreed to attend the next Town Council meeting March 2 to explain the new procedures to residents. The council has no official standing but advises the county on community affairs.