What YOU Can Do to Stop Airport Noise

CALL THE FAA

(202) 267-3521

The recorded message is going to tell you to email them at [email protected], and then you can leave a message. Do it! Tell them that airport noise from flight schools at Witham Field aka Martin County Airport is out of control and that our local officials are unwilling to take any action to restore peace in our community.

Then you may put your complaint in writing per the FAA’s instructions here.

After that Call . . .

The Martin County Commission will take action only when enough people complain about the increase in Stuart Airport Noise, in person, by phone, and by email.

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Contact Your County Commissioners & Airport Manager

Here’s how to get in touch with your Martin County Commissioners. Note: By Florida law, all information provided in an email to a public official or public email account, including email address, is made available in accordance with public records laws. If you prefer this information not be made public, you may create a free email account at Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail or use our Contact page, and we’ll forward your email using an @StuartAirportNoise.com email address on your behalf.

•  Email All County Commissioners: Use commish [at] martin.fl.us to email all of your Martin County Commissioners at once.
• Who’s My County Commissioner? Here‘s the Martin County districting map.
• Your Martin County Commissioners:
  

  	District 1	Read About Doug Smith	Email dsmith [at] martin.fl.us	Use Online Form (Email Address NOT Required)
  	District 2	Read About Ed Fielding	Email efieldin [at] martin.fl.us (no g)	Use Online Form (Email Address NOT Required)
  	District 3	Read About Harold Jenkins	Email hjenkins [at] martin.fl.us	Use Online Form (Email Address NOT Required)
  	District 4	Read About Sarah Heard*	Email sheard [at] martin.fl.us	Use Online Form (Email Address NOT Required)
  	District 5	Read About Edward Ciampi	Email eciampi [at] martin.fl.us	Use Online Form (Email Address NOT Required)

  *Sarah Heard is also a member of the Martin County Airport Noise Advisory Committee.

• Connect via the County Website: The official Martin County Board of County Commissioners website is here.
• Call and Speak with a Commissioner: The number is (772) 288-5400
• Submit a Complaint to the Airport Manager: Here is the County’s official email form for the airport manager. Leave your email address and name blank for an anonymous submission.
• Call and Speak with Airport Manager: The airport manager, as of June 2017, is Erik Treudt, and his number is (772) 221-2374, according to the Martin County directory.
• Print & Share Flyer: Here’s a flyer you may print and share with your neighbors and friends to help spread the word.

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Attend Airport Noise Committee Meeting January 2018

Attend Airport Noise Advisory Committee Meetings: The Airport Noise Advisory Committee doesn’t meet often enough. Their next meeting is scheduled for January 2018 at Martin County Airport (aka Witham Field). Mark your calendar. Attend the meeting. Even if you don’t speak up against airport noise in Martin County, just showing up to the meeting sends a message to the Committee. Here is the link to the location, listed as 2011 SE Airport Road, Stuart, per the Martin County website.

UPDATE: The Martin County Website link above includes a map link to 2011 SE Airport Road, Stuart. The Airport Noise Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda just released, however, shows the address as 1895 Flying Fortress Way, Stuart, Florida. Here is a link to Bing maps, where you can see the true location and get directions.

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.

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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.