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FAA to redirect island airport traffic

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By the end of the month, pilots will have little excuse not to follow the proper route when flying into the Hilton Head Island Airport.

On July 31, the Federal Aviation Administration will publish a new approach pattern in its facility directory that is designed to keep planes from flying over heavily populated areas on the island.

Pilots entering the area will be directed by Savannah air traffic controllers to get ready for the visual approach procedure, which keeps planes over water until they reach Broad Creek. Hilton Head's tower then will direct pilots to follow landmarks in the guide to reach Broad Creek and make their final turn to the runway.

The approach pattern applies to Runway 3, the one most flights use, airports director Paul Andres said.

The plan is the product of a year-and-a-half-long process in which federal, state and regional aviation officials tried to allay frequent noise and safety concerns.

The path, however, is not mandatory. Pilots don't have to follow it at night, on cloudy days or when other air traffic is in the way. If pilots don't follow the procedure, the airport or FAA can't penalize them.

"We're going to encourage as many as we can to use that approach," Andres said.

Having a published approach is uncommon for airports, and Hilton Head now becomes one of the smallest in the nation with such a procedure. Of the 58 airports that have published visual approaches, almost all are major travel centers such as Newark Liberty International, La Guardia Airport, Los Angeles International, Reagan National Airport and Chicago Midway, according to the FAA.

For years, residents have complained commercial airlines and private pilots often ignore the airport's recommended noise abatement routes and take shortcuts over populated areas.

"It offers a great solution to long-standing noise issues, provides operational benefits for pilots, and enhances the margin of safety at the airport," FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen wrote in an e-mail. "....(Pilots) can just dial the approach into their GPS systems and fly directly up Broad Creek over a less populated area."

But some pilots and local aviation officials say the new approach will do little more than shift the noise concerns to a different area of the island.

Based on their size or speed, planes now make a variety of approaches, which disperses flights and noise over different areas, said Dave Ames, chairman of the Aviation Advisory Board, which advises the County Council. Residents who live under or near the new path, such as those in Shelter Cove or Long Cove, may not like the change, he said.

"It will tend to concentrate flights down Broad Creek, which will only be displacing that distribution and concentrating that in one area," he said.

Don Baldwin, chairman of the airport's Community Relations Committee, shared some of those concerns, but said the initiative at least shows the airport is trying to be a better neighbor. The airport has stepped up other efforts over the past year to let pilots know about the noise-abatement routes for arriving and departing flights, including installing signs on the runway.

"Let's try it and see what happens," Baldwin said. "Worst comes to worst, you go back to the drawing board."

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