Community dialog: Gillespie Field, Balboa Park, stadium

View from under airfield’s flight path

Robert Dennis, president of El Cajon Flying Service Inc., makes a case for the value of flight schools and the proposed expansion of Gillespie Field (Community dialog, East County, Feb. 9). Undoubtedly, the regional airport has value, but, if Dennis does not live under the flight path, he is not subject to the seconds-apart drones of vintage piston engines often flying only a few hundred feet above hundreds of residences, schools, and industrial parks that encircle the airport. On a typical day, many dozens of single-engine aircraft buzz overhead from early morning to mid-evening.

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Why has the noise-level of such small planes remained essentially the same since the “dawn” of aviation over 100 years ago? Why are there noise restrictions on boat engines, motorcycles, autos and even lawn mowers but, little, if any, on small aircraft engines? Where are the emission standards on the thousands of decades-old engines that apparently just get rebuilt time after time? What about the engine emissions that get “spewed” over the communities of El Cajon, Santee and Lakeside in a steady, unseen drizzle?

Gillespie Field is in the “doughnut hole” surrounded by well over 100,000 citizens. Does the East County need more noisy landings and takeoffs over populated areas?

Training commercial pilots for other countries should not take importance and priority over the peace, health, and safety of the airport’s neighbors and surrounding communities. – A.H Pedrin, Fletcher Hills

Robert G. Dennis of El Cajon Flying Service refers to Gillespie Field as an “ambassador” because the Swedish Air Academy trains more than 100 Chinese students there to become pilots in mainland China. These students are being taught to fly over thousands of homes in El Cajon, Lakeside and Santee. They fly dangerously low, they practice touch-and-go procedures outside of the recommended air patterns, they have no curfew, they “freshen” their engines (i.e., dump fuel) over our neighborhoods and schools, they have no noise-abatement rules, and the citizenry has no effective way to complain.

Dennis is invited to sit in my backyard on any given day to observe these actions. Instead of touting themselves as international ambassadors for a country against whom we are beefing up our military, flight schools at Gillespie Field might try becoming better neighbors to their fellow Americans. – Sue Strom, El Cajon

Let park be a park




