11 July 1999

To the Editor, The Orange County Register

Re: Russell Niewiarowski: "Reorienting Runways is a win-win solution for everyone", (Commentary, Sunday, 11Jul99)

As a captain for a major airline and a former El Toro jet squadron commander, I read with interest Mr Niewiarowski's proposal for takeoffs to the southwest from El Toro via a new runway.  As numerous airline officials and pilot groups have already observed, there could hardly be a worse site for an air carrier airport than El Toro.  While I do agree with his assertion that new runway orientations are needed, they won't work very well in the direction he suggests.

This latest takeoff proposal, like those of the county, is yet another horrible option from a safety standpoint.  Although problems of slope and tailwinds are mitigated somewhat in this proposal, the rising terrain of the San Joaquin Hills is just about as bad as Loma Ridge to the north. What's worse, though, is that the captain is left with few options should there be a power loss.  Regulations wisely require that we plan for this contingency on every takeoff that we make.

Mr Niewiarowski's proposal to lengthen El Toro's north-south runway doesn't really deal with the problem of landing to the south in rainy weather or with a moderate south wind because a precision instrument approach in that direction there probably won't be possible due to mountainous terrain.  We saw a vivid example of this on June 4th when the demonstration flights were delayed half a day for this very reason.

Although I'm not an noise expert, I don't imagine that the folks who work and play at the Irvine Spectrum will like it very much either when airliners come over 300 - 700 feet overhead every few minutes.  Perhaps this latest proposal will entice Mr Bren at the Irvine Company to take a public stand.  In any case, I must agree with the Air Line Pilots Association and several airport consultants who say the only practical runway configuration at El Toro will be two parallel runways running northwest - southeast.  Unfortunately this would impact areas that have not previously been much affected in the past.  I'm not sure even the county has the stomach for that.

Captain Charles J. Quilter II
Laguna Beach
(949)-494-4180
 
 Back to the V-runway proposal.