Full list of "Questions To Ask Congressman Honda's Office" is out

Post date: Nov 07, 2016 4:9:38 PM

Questions To Ask Congressman Honda's Office

We may have chance to meet with staff from Congressman Honda’s office, so please log on your questions below, and we will ask them for an answer soon!

The link to this doc is: http://tinyurl.com/askHonda, and you can pass it around too.

Disclaimer: Yes, there are some questions appearing naive to the knowledgeable eyes. You can either join us to help improve the understanding of normal residents, or you can scoff it off again, and keep yourself being knowledgeable as always. We only show respects who can act in a way to help the situation, being knowledgeable but without any concrete help not respected here. Thanks.

• 1. NextGen

     1. Would he verify with us if it is true that San Jose NextGen towers slated became operational Q3 2016? (See FAA 2015 NEXTGEN Implementation Plan, page 11). If it is true then it matches what we have experienced so far.

     2. Were the changes in the SJC SouthFlow arrivals (that fly over Sunnyvale and Cupertino) part of a NextGen implementation?

     3. If not, what caused the concentration of SJC SouthFlow arrivals over Sunnyvale and Cupertino, and what caused the other flight path changes (i.e. change in flight speeds, altitudes, descent rates, etc.)?

     4. What was the FAA directive name for these changes (if not NextGen)?

     5. When did NextGen / or the FAA directives get implemented - What date?  Or dates (if the process of implementation was in phases)?

     6. Several cities across the country are suing the FAA about Nextgen including our neighbors in San Jose, Santa Cruz and Palo Alto. Solutions from FAA to combat these lawsuits and placate those parties have already resulted in negative impact on Sunnyvale and Cupertino residents. Should we follow our neighbor’s step and take legal action against FAA, such as suing the FAA? If yes, how should we proceed?  If not, why not?

  2. SJC South Flow

• • 1. Could he help us to find out what exactly FAA has changed for activating South Flow. The weather was not changed dramatically compared to the past. Why the noise level is so noticeable now, as well as the frequency. Why the current fly path and noise is so concentrated? Anything he plan to do to change things back for us.

    2. For SJC south flow activation, what are the exactly the factors? We found even south wind  speed is low, and airplanes are still directed to take south flow approach over the high density Sunnyvale and Cupertino residential area, which is really unnecessary.

• 3. SFO

• • 1. The SFO inbound flights are now taking a new flight path through Los Altos, Mountain View, Cupertino and Sunnyvale. The route goes along the boundary of district 18 and district 17 for which you are representing. Is your office aware of the creation of this new path? If not, how can you become aware?

• 4. San Carlos - Surf Air

• • 1. The so-called “Full Bay Approach” means that some of the bay was not utilized for air traffic. Can your office clarify with FAA and/or SJC which part of the bay was not utilized and how SFO would make use of the part without impacting SJC flight paths, especially SJC south flow path, and without compromising the quality of lives of people who live in Sunnyvale and Cupertino?

• 5. Noise

• • 1. San Jose ( not Sunnyvale leg) is only major Bay Area airport that does has not any publicly accessible aircraft noise monitoring system data, it’s greatly needed.  Will your office see it's done, please.  See report by FAA: https://www.faa.gov/airports/environmental/airport_noise/noise_exposure_maps/

    2. FAA has not been forthcoming with changes in flight profiles resulting in greater noise impact.  Could airports be in serious violation of SEQA for not publically hearings with local noise impacts and possible mitigation by FAA?

    3. is HITTR (in Cupertino) & 4Kft approach to SJC part of NextGen? If so, we're in deep morass and HITTR and ZORSA (in Sunnyvale)   needs pushing up to 6Kft @ 200kt (and no, we don't care how they solve radio/descent/whatever and how much it costs the airlines) by any means. And we should fight their nonsensical GPS 'they-all-run-on-precise-rails' approach. And we should get a commitment with 'max % days' can run south-pattern, otherwise airport pays up. they dump trash, they pay.

    4. Is Sen. Honda signing the bill to push the noise level down to 55db from 65db?

    5. WHY are we having no sound measuring equipment on the ground to tie FAA down ?

• 6. Petition

• • 1. Nearly 1000 people have in last few days signed a change.org petition concerning recent occurrence of excessive aircraft noise, causing disruption not ever seen in Sunnyvale and Cupertino, will your office support seeing basics of 3 points are done?  We understand that since petition written facts have been uncovered by citizens that show few specifics need refinement, but main needs of regulation of noise below levels needed for sleep, online monitoring, and city representation are essential.

• 7. Semi-Solutions (We residents should not be doing this, it’s not our responsibilities!)

• • 1. If we get agreement from FAA, SJC, San Carlos/whatever HOW do we monitor and fine transgressions in noise level, speeds. heights ? As Palo Alto agreements show, they're not really worth the paper they're written on.

    2. Given that FAA, SurfAir and San Mateo did not consult with Sunnyvale or Cupertino before FAA started the trial route, can your office ask the FAA to stop the trial immediately and return SurfAir to its original flight path, instead of waiting until January, the originally scheduled end of the trial, to revisit the topic? Also, please work with the FAA to ensure that SurfAir’s temporary route change to fly over Sunnyvale does not become permanent

    3. Palo Alto has its own airport and the city, seeing how successful San Carlos was, has hired its own consultant. Can you (Honda's office) please proactively stop any attempt by Palo Alto to reroute its planes to Sunnyvale to make sure that we don't have another SurfAir situation?

• 8. Next Steps

• • 1. What is the next step going forward?

    2. What else do we as residents need to do other than just filing complaints?

    3. Are there any other groups contact him regarding this issue? Who are they?       

    4. Can you please help coming up a quick temp solution for SJC South-flow air noise issue for now such as raising the flight altitude, and continue working with SJC/KSQL/FAA to come up a long term/permanent air noise mitigation plan for the city of Sunnyvale and Cupertino including: solving SJC South-flow air noise, stop SurfAir/KSQL aircraft “full bay approach” plan by the end of the year, and possible SFO/PAO/OAK issues?

    5. Can you help to arrange FAA representative to meet Sunnyvale/Cupertino residents?