Airport to Test New Copter Flight Routes in Secret : Van Nuys: The 30-day study will determine if revised patterns will reduce noise complaints. Homeowners are split over keeping the starting date confidential.

In a decision that drew mixed reactions from Encino homeowner groups, Van Nuys Airport officials have decided to secretly test new helicopter takeoff and landing patterns during a 30-day period beginning sometime in the next three months.

Airport officials intend to conceal the starting date because if residents know about the test, the results would not be valid, Airport Manager Ronald J. Kochevar said. The test is scheduled to begin sometime between Wednesday and Sept. 7, he said.

The test will determine if the new helicopter patterns generate fewer calls on the airport’s noise complaint telephone lines than the routes now used, he said. If complaints decrease during the test period, it would prove that the new routes are quieter, he said. But Kochevar added that the routes will not be adopted until the results of the test are discussed during several public hearings.

During the 30-day test period, airport officials will also accept comments from helicopter pilots and air traffic controllers to determine whether the new routes are safe, he said.

Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, said people who live beneath the new flight paths should be notified of the exact dates of the test. “I think it’s reprehensible that they would conduct secret tests that affect the lives of residents around the airport,” he said. “It’s reprehensible that they are treating residents like guinea pigs.”

Other homeowner groups, however, support the tests.

Don Schultz, president of Ban Airport Noise, a group dedicated to reducing aircraft noise throughout the San Fernando Valley, said the secret test is needed to identify the helicopter routes that generate the fewest noise complaints.

“I’m still in support of the tests and I think this is the only way to do it,” he said, adding that similar tests have been conducted by other airports to adopt new, quieter routes.

Rob Glushon, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn., said the secret test is needed to obtain “unbiased conclusions concerning helicopter flight patterns.”

“There is no other way to get objective feedback, whether positive or negative,” he said.

Helicopter noise has become a contentious issue at Van Nuys Airport because more helicopters fly in and out of the airport than any other airport in the county and because federal regulations require helicopters to fly comparatively low routes, remaining below 500 feet to stay out of the way of big jets landing at nearby Burbank Airport.

A group of residents, pilots and airport officials, brought together by a consultant hired by Van Nuys Airport, has met three times to discuss ways to reduce helicopter noise. As a result of the meetings, the consultant, CommuniQuest Marketing, a Manhattan Beach firm that specializes in airport noise issues, recommended that two helicopter routes be altered to reduce noise.

The most controversial of the two changes is to eliminate a helicopter route that runs south from the airport, directly over Bull Creek, a flood control channel that is parallel to the airport runways.

The Bull Creek route would be replaced with a parallel route to the west, running over Balboa Boulevard, in theory using the street-level traffic noise to mask the noise of helicopters flying south above the boulevard.

“I can’t see much of an impact there to residents,” Kochevar said.

But the suggestion was opposed by Silver, who argued that residents south of the airport--particularly Encino residents--already endure jet noise and should not suffer the “double burden” of helicopter noise as well.

The consultant also recommended that helicopter pilots who take off toward the east over Stagg Street continue to Van Nuys Boulevard before turning south toward Los Angeles--instead of turning before that--to minimize noise complaints from residents southeast of the airport. No objections have been made to that recommendation.

NEXT STEP After Sept. 7, airport officials will study the number of complaints generated during the 30-day helicopter test period. If the new routes generate fewer complaints than those now used, airport officials will discuss whether to adopt the new routes at meetings of the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council and two other citizen advisory panels that have been formed to study aircraft noise. Airport officials can implement the new routes administratively, with or without the support of the citizen groups.