Pilot’s Commentary on Airport Was Misleading, Manager Says

A reply to the Commentary by Capt. Richard Deeds, a 27-year veteran of a major airline:

Captain, I vacationed every summer in Newport Beach beginning in 1947 and purchased a residence 18 years ago where I vacation year-round.

The original Orange County Airport was for small, private aircraft and no one was aware it was about except for airplane hobbyists. There was peace and quiet under the flight patterns.

But some big-moneyed entrepreneurs, hoteliers and politicians determined the Orange County Airport should be another LAX, changed the name to John Wayne Airport and launched noisy commercial airplanes over previously quiet neighborhoods.

I and many other longtime residents in Newport resent your invasion of the privacy of our bedrooms, our living and dining rooms and, especially in the summer, our patios with your obnoxious invasive takeoff jet noise, even though you restrict your takeoff procedures and claim them unsafe.

Capt. Deeds, you state you want to solve the problem of noise and uniform takeoff procedures designed to strike the best balance between safety and noise relief and to design such procedures based on safety, not politics.

My solutions are:

* Produce noiseless jet aircraft.

* Replace John Wayne Airport with alternative sites already researched and available.

* Limit John Wayne Airport to small aircraft only, as the original Orange County Airport was originally designed.

* Form a coalition of pilots who refuse to fly out of John Wayne.

C. PIERRE DE LAWTER, Balboa