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36 hours after city vows airport noise reduction, flight schools are back at 7:15 a.m.
FERNANDINA BEACH — Just 36 hours after City Manager Sarah Campbell told city commissioners that Fernandina Beach was stepping up efforts to curb aircraft noise from Jacksonville-based flight schools, two training aircraft from one of the schools residents complain about most were again circling the airport shortly after 7 a.m., conducting repeated touch-and-go landings.
Flight tracking data reviewed by the Fernandina Observer showed two Cessna 172 aircraft operated by Jacksonville-based Aerosim Academy repeatedly taking off and landing at Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport beginning around 7:15 a.m. Thursday. One aircraft completed a series of looping approaches at altitudes as low as 200 feet over the airport area, while another conducted multiple touch-and-go maneuvers over roughly an hour, according to FlightAware tracking screenshots provided to the Observer.
“Because we had the update from Mr. Coyle with the airport annual report tonight, I wanted to mention some of the activities that we have been doing in response to concerns about noise at the airport,” Campbell told commissioners.
“First of all, we met with the Crane Island Homeowners Association a couple of weeks ago. It was a very large turnout, about 40 to 45 people,” Campbell said.
“Mr. Coyle gave a similar presentation about the operations at the airport and what our noise abatement guidelines are, and we had good feedback and question-and-answer session with the residents,” Campbell said.
“We’ve also been visiting in Jacksonville to some of the flight schools,” Campbell said, adding that she and Coyle had met with two schools in person and conducted Zoom meetings with two others “to remind them of our noise abatement guidelines” and seek suggestions to improve communication and compliance.
“Mr. Sensenbauer… has been sending letters to violators,” Campbell said. “So each week, if somebody is violating the noise abatement guidelines, that flight school is receiving a notice from the city.”
The latest morning activity is likely to intensify questions about whether voluntary guidelines are enough.
"The city manager and airport director have recently held meetings with the flight schools about noise abatement. The position of the airport seems to be there is nothing they can do, the FAA is in charge. The flight schools ignore the noise plan. The form letter from the FAA states that noise issues are a shared responsibility between the community and airport sponsor. This is not the wild West," wrote one Parkway North homeowner.
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jbmaris135
When I read that Crane Island was one of the areas complaining about airport noise, I laughed to myself. How can you complain when you build a subdivision on the approach to an airport that has been there for at least 70 years?
Saturday, May 23 Report this
Mark Tomes
As if meetings with residents and flight school owners will really result in anything changing... If I was a flight school operator, I would definitely be having my students fly up here for practice. It's free, very few restrictions, fairly clear air spaces, and beautiful scenery. I get that, but if they are violating regulations that have any teeth in them, they should be hit hard with penalties. Say $20,000 per violation? That would get their attention real fast, as well as all the other flight school operators in the area. They are profit-making enterprises making a buck at the expense of our peace and quiet and airport facilities, so for any real change, one has to hit them hard in the pocketbook.
Saturday, May 23 Report this
DouglasM
Nate Coyle had an interesting slide on airport operations in northeast Florida. Out of 13 listed airports, FHB was #11 with over 59K recorded aircraft movements. Palatka had over 100K. Palatka!! Craig, where these flight schools are from, is choked with over 157K.
No wonder they come. The 14 TOL's accomplished by the targeted plane in this article, is a very efficient maximization of training time (which isn't cheap).
Exactly which noise abatement guideline was violated by this aircraft? It was after the 10p-7a quiet period.....the turns look like they are at the water. I see a responsible training operation in this example.
Saturday, May 23 Report this
kt22mike
In the Fernandina Observer in April 2024 it detailed a proposal by Airport Director Sam Carver to introduce an automated aircraft landing fee program to generate revenue for airfield maintenance and help deter continuous flight school traffic.
he system tracks incoming training aircraft, logs each touch-and-go as a billable event, automatically bills the aircraft owner/operator monthly, and passes the revenue back to the city (while retaining a percentage for administration). Local pilots who hangar their planes at the airport would be exempt.
my guess is the system is smart enough to vary the fee by time of day to discourage early flights.
And by the way those flights on Thursday morning were extremely loud.
Saturday, May 23 Report this
LuvAmelia
Why isn't there a fee for touch and go training? Seems to me that adding a fee would change the number of incidents and raise money for the island.
Saturday, May 23 Report this
AcurtNA63
I served on the Airport Advisory Commission for twenty years, 16 as Chair. I spent a lot of time at Commission meetings. I repeatedly urged the various commissions, over the years, to oppose residential development of Crane Island for this very reason. Well the chickens have come home to roost! The airport provides a valuable service to the community. Its presence was a factor in the Ritz decision to locate here. So be careful what you wish for; you might get it. If the facility is closed or severely restricted, the city may be liable to both the FAA and the State for the improvements made over the years
Sunday, May 24 Report this
Rosied
The airport we there long before Crane Island Live with it
Monday, May 25 Report this
yodachewy
Thanks for the article. Last week used the flight aware dot com tool and found it very useful. Crg designated flights continued and some loops continued as well. But they have reduced somewhat here on the near in location but they do still persist though in smaller numbers. Maybe it helped.
The robo flights have always seemd to use sound frequency tools and seem to be doing some survellience work. They are still doing that today, 6/1/26.
Monday, June 1 Report this
DouglasM
I just found out that while we all have been debating this issue, SB 422 was signed into law by the Governor in April and will take effect July 1st. That law prohibits the collection of fees derived from ADS-B transponder technology. Those pretty patterns depicted in this article will still exist to be seen on FlightAware, but you can't do anything about it. That is derived from ADS-B technology.
The alternative would be to have Mike L parked behind the 5th green at Amelia River with binoculars and pen and paper recording the serial numbers and counting aircraft takeoff and landings. It should work, right?
SB 422 ends the debate on fees.
Tuesday, June 2 Report this
Nannyridge1
Well, it has certainly taken long enough for some of the truth to come out. So much Fake News, so little time. To DouglasM "SB422 DOES NOT end the debate on Fees" it just eliminates the ADS-B, the Optical (camera) version works just fine. Kissimmee, Tallahassee and over 100 airports in America are using it now. To rosied, unless John Broadbent brought the island over from England in 1883, Crane Island was here before the airport was built in 1943. The airport is the best asset FHB has, Nate is a good Director and a good GM for Bent Wing FBO, but it's hard to serve two Masters and when the conflict of interest comes, which ring will he kiss? The King of the FBO or the Queen of the Commission? Why would anyone oppose a Fee they will be exempt from? The infrastructure at the airport needs work too and a lot of it, the Flight Schools from Jax are wearing it out and they don't contribute a nickel to the community or spend a dime at the airport. If you think PAID PARKING is the biggest problem in town, buckle your seatbelt, we're going to have some rough air up ahead. The Old Guard needs to advocate the throne at the airport.
Wednesday, June 24 Report this