Select Board, FinCom Back Airport Study

CHATHAM – A town meeting article seeking money for a study of Chatham Airport is likely to revive what seems to be an annual referendum on the George Ryder Road airfield.

 The measure seeks $7,500 as the town’s share of a $150,000 study which will investigate whether safety upgrades are necessary in light of the increased use of the airport by Pilatus PC-12-type aircraft, which are larger than the Beech Baron planes the facility was designed for.

 The select board recommended that voters approve the appropriation by a vote of 3-1-1, with board member Stuart Smith dissenting and Shareen Davis abstaining. The finance committee recommended the article unanimously.

 Airport critics have attempted to ban the larger aircraft, which have wingspans larger than 50 feet and are categorized by the Federal Aviation Administration as Design Group 2. A bylaw amendment approved at last year’s annual town meeting restricting the airport to use by smaller Design Group 1 planes, with wingspans less than 49 feet, was shot down by the attorney general as infringing on the authority of the Massachusetts Aeronautics Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration. 

 Critics say more frequent use of the airport by larger planes constitutes an expansion of operations and increases noise levels for neighbors. 

 Airport commission Chair Huntley Harrison said at the March 10 select board meeting that as long as the larger planes can safely use the airport, they cannot be banned from taking off or landing there. However, in the past five years the number of landings and takeoffs by PC-12-type aircraft have increased to more than 500 operations (with one landing or takeoff constituting a single operation), the threshold at which the FAA recommends that airports review their design aircraft. An airport’s design aircraft is used to establish airport safety design standards; Chatham’s current design aircraft is the Beechcraft Baron.

 Harrison said the study will determine what, if any, measures need to be taken to ensure the continued safe operation of the airport in light of the increase in use by larger aircraft. It will look at current operations, the airport layout and determine how existing conditions align with FAA safety guidance, according to an explanation included with the article. The study will identify procedures, measures or changes that the town and FAA will then consider. It doesn’t authorize any changes to the airport or change existing operations.

 “It’s basically a safety study,” said select board Chair Dean Nicastro. “I don’t believe it is an attempt to expand the airport.”

 Smith was concerned that the study would not solve the problem of fears about the airport expanding operations and turning into a “Nantucket Airport” with increased use by the PC-12 planes. He wanted to have the study’s scope of work brought back before the select board out of concern that it would read as if the town was endorsing the increased use by larger aircraft.

 “These planes using the airport more regularly than they have in the past are impacting people who live here,” Smith said. The airport’s traditional use is by single-engine Beechcraft Baron-type planes, “which everybody, I think, supports,” he said.

 The town can’t prevent the larger airplanes from using the airport if they can do so safely, and the $7,500 is “small potatoes” to ensure safe operations, said board Vice Chair Jeffrey Dykens. The FAA will pay 95 percent of the cost of the study, with the state and town each contributing 5 percent.

 Smith wanted to delay a vote until the scope of work is revised “so we make sure we’re not making a bad situation worse,” he said.

 But Nicastro pushed ahead with a vote on support for the measure.

 “This board has spent too much time on the airport in the last 11 years, and I’m not going to spend the rest of my two months as chairman dealing with the airport,” he said.

 Board member Cory Metters agreed that gathering data on the issue would be helpful. But noting an erosion of trust in town officials regarding the airport, he asked what would happen if the town funding is defeated at town meeting. Harrison said he didn’t know; because it is a capital expense, the current article appropriates the money from free cash. The funding could be taken from the airport’s revolving fund if needed, he added.

 The study seems to do what airport critics have sought, finance committee Chair Stephen Daniel noted in an email: to gather data on safety related to the larger aircraft. 

 “If operations need to be modified to enhance safety at CQX, then let's figure out what it needs, and let's get it done,” he wrote.