No Mayhem in the Skies Over the Valley

The article “The Freeways Above Us” (Sept. 26) was misleading and not accurate, implying that all is mayhem in the skies above the Valley and without absolute control or purpose. Nothing could be further from reality.

Commercial aircraft landings on Runway 8 at Burbank are restricted above 3,000 feet MSL (altitude above mean sea level), not 2,000 as the article reported, until past Van Nuys.

The article says: “Fixed-wing aircraft are restricted to 1,200 feet on takeoff and landing.” Again, nothing could be further from the facts. The landing pattern west of Van Nuys is 2,000 feet MSL, and east of Van Nuys it is 1,800 feet MSL, while takeoff allows the same restrictions. Furthermore, the implication that airplanes would have a separation of only 100 feet at the Santa Monica Mountains is not factual.

No mention is made of the special flight rules area that allows transition over Los Angeles International Airport and requires pilots to observe very specific rules, keeping transitioning aircraft at a 1,000-foot separation vertically while passing in opposite directions. This route, while not directly under air traffic control, requires notification and permission from air traffic control to enter. Nor is there any mention of the Hollywood Park or Shoreline route, both under strict air traffic control.

Also, there are procedures and rules requiring constant contact within 30 miles of Burbank, or any major airport for that matter, when flying by visual flight rules, and constant contact when flying by instrument flight rules.

The controllers at Van Nuys, Burbank, L.A. Center and Approach Control all deserve our admiration for the magnificent job they do with the antiquated equipment they are forced to work with.

DAN SPINDLER

West Hills

Editor’s note: To make the information clearer to general readers, altitudes reported in the story were the distance above the Valley floor, not the altitude above sea level.

County Officials Were Cautioned Over Westridge

The Times is to be thanked and congratulated for its editorial (Sept. 19) “The County Must Follow Its Own Rules.” This is especially true in light of the paper’s own property ownership in Tejon Ranch, which may be developed in the foreseeable future.

Before the county’s initial decision on the Westridge development, the Regional Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors were clearly informed that their conduct was both illegal and against the public interest. One would hope that developers like Newhall Land & Farming Co., which market their developments as “family-oriented” communities, would be interested in funding their fair share of local schools and libraries out of a sense of enlightened self-interest.

Unfortunately, the bottom-line mentality of annual profit statements and the need of politicians to raise large sums of money to stay in office appear to have dictated an initial decision that would put a further strain on public resources already underfunded and overutilized.

It is ironic that the supervisor who represents this area bills himself as a conservative Republican while voting for a project whose approval abandons the free market by ignoring its social costs and imposes new taxes.

KEITH W. PRITSKER

Stevenson Ranch

Omission Made Letter Off by a Few Degrees

When a letter that I wrote was printed (Sept. 19), a portion of a sentence was omitted, causing the rest to give incorrect information.

The sentence in the third paragraph should have read: “Official temperatures from Pierce College in Woodland Hills showed that August, 1992, was nearly 6 degrees warmer than normal with an average high of 101.8 degrees and an average low of 61.4 degrees, while those from Burbank were 5 degrees above normal, with an average high of 93.5 degrees and an average low of 66.8 degrees.”

The way it came out, the temperatures from Woodland Hills and the reference to Burbank were deleted, resulting in Burbank’s temperatures being attributed to Woodland Hills. The next complete sentence (with its reference to two Valley locations) then seemed not to make sense.

As I indicated, my purpose was to point out that the use of a comparison of the August, 1993, temperatures with those of August, 1992, to demonstrate the coolness of August, 1993, was misleading.

GLENN BOGGS

North Hollywood

Homeowners Association Did Not Lobby Robbins

Robert L. Loveridge (Letters, Sept. 19) argues the issue of the two proposed Valley rail routes, monorail on the Ventura Freeway or subway along the Burbank-Chandler line.

However, he wrongly accuses me and the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. of “lobbying and enlisting the aid of the infamous ex-state Sen. Alan Robbins to initiate legislation to specifically block any form of aboveground rail system along Chandler Boulevard.”

This is an allegation which I categorically deny. Our association, and I personally, have never lobbied or enlisted the aid of Robbins regarding the Burbank-Chandler line.

In fact, we were out of favor with Robbins and his staff because of our strong opposition to any Burbank-Chandler line.

Robbins was so obsessed with pushing the Burbank-Chandler line that he almost single-handedly got his subway legislation through the Senate.

There was little, if any, public involvement. Neither I nor our association took part in any of his negotiations. In fact, we were told by a Robbins aide that we were not invited to any of his meetings because we did not support his views.

DON SCHULTZ

Van Nuys

Schultz is president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn.

Sepulveda Basin Sewage Plan Is a Mad Adventure

I am a longtime resident of Encino and am deeply concerned over the latest plans to destroy the tranquillity and scenic beauty of the Sepulveda Basin. I am referring to the Bureau of Sanitation’s plan to bring in 90 to 200 trucks a day carrying sewage from septic tanks to dispose of in the basin.

I oppose this tactic and join in the demand for an environmental impact report, which would have exposed the negative aspects of this plan and offered new alternatives.

The odor, increased traffic and danger of spillage all combine to make this mad adventure unacceptable.

MRS. GLADYS STRIKER

Encino