Airport Officials Oppose FAA Radar Plan : Aviation: Director at John Wayne fears that moving El Toro unit will hurt operations. Agency denies it.

Despite protests from John Wayne Airport officials, the Federal Aviation Administration has tentatively decided to move a radar now stationed at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to Camp Pendleton in San Diego County.

In recent letters to the FAA opposing the proposed move of the radar, John Wayne Airport Director Janice M. Mittermeier said she was concerned that reduced radar coverage could mean delays for local travelers because arrivals might have to be stretched over a longer period of time.

But FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell said that the airplanes will not have to be separated by any greater distance.

“We are going to move it to Camp Pendleton for the purpose of giving us better radar coverage,” O’Donnell said in an interview last week. “It’s not going to degrade the radar coverage for John Wayne Airport at all.”

O’Donnell said that while the decision has been made to move the radar, the federal agency is conducting further studies that should validate the transfer, with a final decision expected in late March.

John Wayne Airport spokeswoman Courtney Wiercioch said officials raised the questions to ensure that the issues are addressed as the FAA studies radar coverage.

“We will defer to the FAA. If the FAA does not believe that the transfer of the radar will result in any transfer of service from here, that’s their call to make,” Wiercioch said.

O’Donnell said the El Toro radar is a backup system to one now at Garden Grove, which provides principal radar coverage for aircraft arrivals at John Wayne Airport.

Some of the hills to the south of El Toro created problems and caused interference with radar coverage, O’Donnell said. But by moving the radar closer to the coastline at Camp Pendleton, the FAA will have a clearer view of air traffic along the coastline from John Wayne Airport to San Diego, he added.

“The move that’s taking place is being done primarily for technical reasons. It has nothing to do with area coverage,” O’Donnell said. “The Garden Grove radar has been, and will continue to be, the primary radar for John Wayne Airport. Nothing is going to change. . . . (The move is) going to provide us better service, better radar coverage along the coast.”

The issue came to the forefront late last year, when the FAA asked for comments on its long-standing plan to shut down the Coast Terminal Radar Approach Control at El Toro, known as Coast TRACON, and consolidate it with Southern California TRACON in San Diego County.

Five Southern California regional air control facilities are being consolidated into one facility as part of the FAA’s effort to better coordinate air traffic. Officials said they did not have figures on the total cost of the moves.

While Orange County did not object to the proposed TRACON move, local officials questioned the effect of also relocating the El Toro Airport Surveillance Radar, raising the concern that the current radar coverage of the Orange County airspace might be harmed.

“As the radar distance is increased from the airport, its resolution accuracy is reduced,” Mittermeier said in a letter dated Nov. 4, 1993, to Richard R. Lien, the FAA’s regional air traffic manager.

“An increased separation requirement could reduce the number of aircraft which could use the John Wayne Airport arrival airspace, particularly during peak operational periods, and produce air travel delays,” she said.

Mittermeier’s letter stated that if the radar’s relocation also reduces the coverage for low altitudes, it could hurt the ability of departing aircraft to operate under community-imposed noise restrictions.

“We feel strongly that any modification to (radar) coverage for John Wayne Airport should have no impact on the ability of the air carriers to perform (noise-abatement) operations,” Mittermeier said in her letter.

But O’Donnell discounted any suggested connection between the radar relocation and noise reduction procedures at the airport. “What’s that got to do with it?” he asked. “We are reading problems into this move that do not exist.”

Orange County officials also are worried that the radar’s move could affect the airport’s ability to increase operations at John Wayne, and perhaps also at El Toro, should local officials decide to convert part of the 4,700-acre base to a commercial airport.

The FAA began planning for the radar’s move about two years ago, before the Defense Department scheduled the closure of the El Toro station by 1999.

In a follow-up letter dated Nov. 15, 1993, Mittermeier suggested that the FAA delay the decision to move the radar until the county’s future aviation needs are determined.

“We cannot wait for that decision to be made,” O’Donnell said. “What we have to do now is improve our airspace plan without any degradation at all of the service provided at John Wayne Airport.”