VAN NUYS : Airport Panel Will Study Copter Noise

The Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council has decided to investigate claims by a homeowner activist that helicopter noise at the airport can be reduced by cutting down flights by media organizations and tourists.

The council on Tuesday night voted to ask representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Los Angeles Department of Airports and the Los Angeles city attorney’s office to come before the council to discuss a study by Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, that purports to analyze helicopter traffic and noise. Silver told the organization that most helicopter noise comes from media and sightseeing flights, not emergency choppers. He recommended that flight patterns be changed and that news organizations be asked to pool footage from a single helicopter.

But council members, some expressing concern about acting on the recommendations of an amateur survey, voted 13 to 0 to conduct their own research. Member Doron Kauper abstained.

“We should have further technical debate by qualified people,” member Clay Lacy said.

Silver’s critics say that a desire to move helicopter routes away from his own home is behind the activist’s lobbying, a charge that Silver denies.

Helicopter operators said they approved of the council’s decision to refer the matter to professionals.

Rick Voorhis, owner of an airplane flight school based at the airport, said that one of Silver’s suggested route changes is unsafe because it crosses the paths of jets that use Burbank Airport.

“Anybody can put information into a computer and spit it out and make it say that it’s unsafe to get into your car at night,” Voorhis said.