Mayor Seeks Reduction of Copter Noise : Laguna Complaints Spur Call for Meeting With Base Officials

Responding to complaints from residents, Laguna Beach Mayor Robert F. Gentry on Wednesday called for a meeting with commanders of Orange County military bases to press for reduction of noise generated by helicopters flying along the coast.

Military helicopters have been spotted skimming beaches as low as 300 feet, a violation of guidelines calling for minimum height of 1,000 feet, Gentry said.

Daily flights cause windows to shake as helicopters hover along the coast en route to and from exercises at other bases or at sea, residents said. The low-altitude flights often disturb cliff-side homes, residents said.

The helicopters are based at Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center and the Tustin and El Toro Marine Corps air stations. Duty officers at the bases declined immediate comment on the letter.

From Three Locations

Military officials said the noise from helicopters, which usually travel along the coastline every day, comes with the territory. The choppers--single-engine UH-1 Hueys from Los Alamitos and CH-53 Sea Stallions from Tustin, and twin-engine CH-46 Sea Knights from both Tustin and El Toro--use the route near the water to avoid traveling over heavily populated inland areas and to stay close to shore in an emergency, said Marine Lt. Col. Gary Albin, who helps to monitor noise complaints from residents.

“You can’t just move aircraft someplace else without impacting someone else,” Albin said.

According to military regulations, twin-engine helicopters should be at least a mile off the beach if they are flying below 2,000 feet, weather permitting. The Hueys, normally close to shore, are directed to stay above 1,000 feet.

Albin said Marine pilots occasionally fail to adhere to regulations.

“Sure, there’s a problem sometimes, but the majority of our pilots are conscientious,” he said. “Most pilots avoid beach areas.”

Residents called the El Toro base from throughout Orange and Riverside counties with about 500 complaints last year, Albin said. Each case is recorded, he said, and pilots are notified of the complaints. The base gets about 10 calls a month from Laguna Beach residents, he said, as helicopters make their way to and from Marine exercises at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County.

Considered an Intrusion

“Sometimes the helicopters have to go off routes to avoid oncoming traffic,” Albin said. “This is when people get really incensed with aircraft. They feel it’s an intrusion.”

Residents are studying up on helicopter types to learn more about the problem, said Grant Sullivan, a Laguna Beach resident.

“It becomes too much sometimes. It just seems to go on and on and on,” Sullivan said. “It’s been so bad I couldn’t talk on the telephone.”

Sullivan’s wife, Validia, said she has tracked military traffic since October. She is tired of the incessant “whop, whop, whop” of some helicopters, she said.

“The noise is just horrendous,” she said. “There have been constant daily and nightly flights that have been plowing through here.”

The noise is made worse, Sullivan said, by the echoes created by the hills near her house.

In a letter to The Times Orange County Edition, Emerald Bay resident J.A. Capobianco said: “Our weekend warriors seem to take extra delight in awakening us bright and early every Saturday and Sunday morning.”

But Col. Roger Goodrich, a former helicopter pilot with the California National Guard, which flies out of Los Alamitos, said the activity is necessary to train reserves in the event of war or disasters.

“They wouldn’t be there if national security didn’t require it,” he said.

Dave Forsyth, a resident of Laguna near Victoria Beach, said activity on the weekends is particularly bad.

“The noise was so intense and obtrusive that you couldn’t carry on a conversation,” he said Wednesday night. Forsyth put together a pamphlet to help residents identify helicopters, urging people to call base duty officers at the time of noisy flybys.

“Clearly, this can’t continue,” he said.