Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Aircraft Noise topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents ask Elbert County to join Centennial Noise Roundtable over low‑altitude training flights
Summary
Residents from Park Lane Estates and Ponderosa Park urged commissioners to support joining the Centennial Noise Community Roundtable to address extensive flight‑training activity that they say produces repeated noise and low‑altitude maneuvers over homes.
Several residents told the Board of County Commissioners on March 12 that repeated flight‑training operations from Centennial Airport are creating persistent noise over neighborhoods and asked the county to sponsor participation in the Centennial Noise Community Roundtable.
Brenda Deitch said she lives 17.2 miles from Centennial Airport in Park Lane Estates but that training flights create noise “from before 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.” She said pilots use what the speakers called the “3 Towers Training Box” over parts of Elbert County and asserted that some maneuvers occur under 1,000 feet. “We don’t think that’s right...we quite frankly don’t want them doing...stall out maneuvers right over our homes,” Deitch said, and asked the county to sponsor a representative to the Centennial Roundtable to pursue relief.
Pam Thompson, vice chair of the Centennial Noise Community Roundtable, briefed the commissioners on the roundtable’s work and said a July 2024 study at a single monitoring point recorded roughly 3,700 flights in one month within one training box. Thompson advised that flight schools and pilots generally pick training‑box areas and that FAA enforcement and engagement can be difficult. She said the FAA requires new flight students to remain within 25 miles of their home airport for certain practice, which places parts of Elbert County within a high‑use training area.
Commissioners did not take a formal vote but asked residents and roundtable representatives to provide more information and contacts so the county can consider official participation or support. County staff said they would follow up on how to engage with the roundtable and with the FAA on noise concerns.
