Witham Field Airport Manager Quoted by Local Media

Despite his steadfast position when speaking with us that “nothing has changed,” Witham Field‘s airport manager has been quoted twice by local media to say there is, in fact, increased air traffic — but only when President Trump is in residence at Mar-a-Lago:

• MARCH 16, 2017 “The airport has been taking on 100 to 150 additional private passenger planes each weekend Trump has come to Mar-a-Lago because of flight restrictions imposed several airports in Palm Beach County, according to George Stokus, airport manager.” — TCPalm.com
• FEBRUARY 20, 2017 “Witham Field Airport Manager George Stokus says with the TFR in place in Palm Beach County, he estimates his airport is getting at least 100 more aircraft than normal this time of year.” — WPTV.com (The period over which “100 more aircraft” applies isn’t disclosed in the article.)

These news stories may squash a few complaints, as residents may be led to believe that the increased airport noise is only when President Trump is in residence, but this is only a small part of the airport noise story. The noise we’re experiencing and opposing is an average of approximately 100 flights per day 7 days per week over our homes.

We’ve come to believe through unconfirmed reports that this issue is caused by an increase in training flights which do “touch and go” landings and take-offs and President Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago aren’t causing the increased air traffic problem. We believe it’s the training flights which cause the non-stop, over-bearing, quality-of-life-altering noise on a daily basis.

In fact, our flight data indicates that there are more loud aircraft flying into and out of Witham Field in Stuart, but there are fewer aircraft, overall:

• March 11 and 12: When no VIP Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) was in place, we recorded 111 and 72 flights overhead on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
• March 18 and 19: With a TFR in place, we recorded 45 and 49 flights overhead on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Similar statistics hold true on other weekends when President Trump has stayed in Palm Beach. Therefore, it’s not President Trump’s visits which are causing the increased airport noise issue — it’s something at a local level and which the Martin County Commission has control over, whether or not they admit it.

The Stuart Airport Noise Backstory

On January 5, 2017, we noticed a spike in air traffic over western Stuart. We reached out to law enforcement (thinking perhaps a search was underway), the Martin County Commission, and Witham Field (aka Martin County Airport), Stuart, Florida, to find out what was going on. Receiving no response and hoping it was an anomaly, we let it go.

As airport noise over our homes gradually increased, we reached out again on January 28, 29, 30, and 31. The Martin County Commission and airport manager’s standard responses are:

• “Nothing has changed”: We assert that something has most definitely changed. Prior to January, an occasional plane flew overhead. As we write this, aircraft fly over — loudly — as often as every 2 minutes, all day, every day.
• “Contact the Federal Aviation Administration” (FAA): The FAA has specific guidelines one must take in order to file a complaint. Reaching out to local officials for response to a reported issue is among the first steps which must be taken. This website serves (partially) to aid us in data collection (anonymous) toward this end.

It took several attempts and, in subsequent conversations with the airport manager, we determined that “nothing has changed” actually means “nothing has changed with air traffic patterns.” That’s an important distinction because the FAA is involved in air traffic pattern changes. We don’t disagree that the official permitted flight patterns haven’t changed, but two things absolutely have changed:

• The number of aircraft taking off and landing at Martin County Airport (aka Witham Field) have increased drastically beginning January 2017, a large majority of which are “training flights” from flight schools based at the airport; and
• The flight path which the majority of these flight school aircraft are taking is consistently outside of Martin County Airport’s preferred flight corridors because, once airborne, they depart the take-off/landing pattern, and then fly in circles — literally — over residences outside of the red areas shown here:
  

  

The above-noted changes would be due to a decision made at the local level or with the approval of the Martin County Commission. Therefore, we assert that this issue is in the hands of our Martin County Commissioners.

The purpose of this website is two-fold

• Inform Martin County residents about Stuart Airport Noise matters.
• Facilitate Witham Field Airport Noise Complaints more easily than Martin County’s website allows and with a certain amount of anonymity. You may do that using either of the forms here.

Stuart Airport Noise Flight Count Data

Flight counts on the Home page are personal observation over western Stuart and are not all inclusive. The data is captured, for the most part, from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m., 7 days per week. Therefore, the total number of flights, any day’s count, and average are actually higher, since we’re unable to capture data 24 hours per day.

Additional website content may be added as time permits. To submit suggestions, use the contact form here.

Additional Websites You May Wish to Visit

Martin County Airport Noise Complaint (Via “Official” County Form)

To Submit an Airport Noise Complaint Directly to Witham Field’s Airport Manager using Martin County’s Official Form, click here, but note that we don’t recommend this method because it’s our belief that only the airport manager receives your complaint. We feel that your voice will be stronger, if you you contact at least one of your county commissioners and even stronger, if you contact all of them. And if you’re going to take the time to make your voice heard, you may as well make the most impact, right? See the Take Action tab for more information.

Flight Aware Arrivals and Departures

To View Current Documented Arrivals and Departures for Witham Field, visit Flight Aware here.

Note: The Flight Aware website shows only “documented” flights which we gather are those which have filed flight plans. Also flying in and out of Witham Field in Stuart are “undocumented” flights which may be flights to or from another airport or training flights. If there are records of those flights on the Internet, we’ve been unable to locate them.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

To Contact the FAA regarding Witham Field airport noise (or any other airport’s noise), click here.