Tweed-New Haven Airport: A word on diversions.

Bradley International Airport is a ’crutch’ for Tweed”, pontificates the often barbarous, self-appointed ‘Citizen Leader’ of East Haven!

#easthavenpolitics #10000hawks

In the background, as if singing a background chorus with this cacophony of nonsense, come espousals from her Top-Aide and Protege that Tweed’s coastal location is somehow detrimental to successful operations.

This community activist strongly opines that an airport should not be built at a coastal location. Hmmm...

Ever hear of:

BOS, SFO, MIA, PBI, FLL, JFK, LGA, EWR, ORF, TPA, MSY, SAN, LAX, PWM, BWI, ACY, SAV, RSW.

Guess where they are all built?

I am a bit ahead of myself. Read on!

Finally, to add to the antics of the above duo of Court Jesters, comes a group of Doctors, Lawyers and Environmentalists emblazoned in all manner of expertise…to include aeronautical of course. Do you really want to join this musical group? They call themselves Save Our Shoreline Connecticut.

Save Our Shoreline Connecticut rants on a daily basis over Social Media over the minutia of Tweed-New Haven Airport. It’s almost as if they are an echo chamber for these prominent and esteemed ‘Civic Leaders’. This group promulgates the one-sided, half-stories and taken out context perspectives of all things Tweed related, but specifically, and for example, the matter of Flight Diversions that happen at HVN.

It’s as if they are trying to scare and mislead people into their way of thinking?

In non-technical terms, I say, “Whatever”.

In technical terms however, I offer a more salient and purposeful response.

First, I am not a Scientist, Doctor or any number of other highly esteemed experts. I am a Parent of two Teeneagers…who needs to dust, vacuum and take that tree-limb off my front lawn. But hey, I’m entitled to an opinion too, right?

This said, when I am not negotiating peace deals between my teen children (more often than not they all fail) it just so happens that I have the necessary qualifications to talk about airplanes and airports and utterly dispel the malarky spewed by these groups and their specific members.

Location, Location, Location!

Airports are built in a variety of locations across the globe. Some are built on mountain-tops, some in a valley, others yet still are built far removed from cities and towns, while others still are built nestled amidst business and industry. Some are even built at coastal locations. Some are built within ear-shot of Volcanoes. Some close to power plants.

Each of these locations chosen for airports are anything but perfect. Often, airport location was chosen for its distance from inappropriate land-use (like schools and residential homes) and guess what happens? But that’s a different issue.

If you think a sprawling international airport many miles from city center is a perfect location (great for neighbors), just ask the folks who have to drive to it every day (not great for travelers and workers for example)! Further, ask the people who live close by to a “city-center” airport that is convenient for many millions of travelers how “perfect” the location is for them (Not perfect for neighbors). Are you honing in on the dilemma to where an airport is built?

Airports are constructed in a variety of locations…none of which are ideal. An airport that is coastal in location has its own issues just as the International Airport that is built adjacent to a goliath mountain range. Denver International Airport comes to mind. DEN is nicely removed from much of the area’s residential community and certainly not near the coast. It’s also well removed from the City of Denver itself…they built light rail for this reason, did they not? This doesn’t make the airport convenient to City Center, does it? Especially in snow storms. And oh, how those Colorado snowstorms and hellacious Winter winds interact with the Rocky Mountains and the airplanes that fly in their shadow! Despite its great location, DEN is not in a perfect location. That theme again!

Don’t worry DEN, I am only trying to make a point about location and where airports are and can be built. There’s a certain audience this point is directed to. The daily smear campaign against Tweed brought about by the likes of EH Politics, 10,000 Hawks and Save Our Shoreline Connecticut seems blissfully unaware of the above point: Our network of airports is built in a variety of places…some better than others, but none of them ideal.

Time and time again, there are issues and concerns that make no location for an airport “ideal”.

A word from your Captain.

As a professional pilot, I can sit and name dozens of Airports that I’ve piloted Jet Airplanes to and from...in rain, wind, snow, ice, turbulence, day and night. I have 30 years of flying into airports that these citizen action group people don’t even know exist. In this, I can do so over a simple cup of coffee. From my own experiences and the training I’ve received in the course of my career as a pilot, I can see very clearly the foolhardiness of most of the arguments made against Tweed Airport. Location and diversions are one of those arguments.

Each of our nation’s airports present unique circumstances to pilots, aircraft and airlines in a variety of ways. In this, all of the airports have one similarity…they are unique. Tweed is no different. With this in mind…

Long Island Sound and the local terrain that surround Tweed do not pose exceptional risk, hazard or difficulty to aircraft pilots such that you might often hear from the aforementioned gaggle of citizen experts. Fog happens. Look to the beginning of this article where I listed all the airports that reside very close to…if not on the coast. Are they rolling up their runways and shuttering their Terminals?

In reality, airports build and maintain a wide-array of ground based navigational aids to help combat various weather issues. Aircraft and avionics (aircraft instrument) manufacturers do the same. Various kinds of runway lights, instrumentation systems (airport, aircraft and satellite) all exist to help flight crews “see through” fog for example. Tweed has these resources and so too do the aircraft that use it’s runways. I’ve written about and spoken about these aids to navigation many times…not just to the community, but to the very persons and citizens action groups that opposes Tweed.

With this said, airports and aircraft manufacturers are always striving to improve on what is already available to make airports “all weather”. In fact, many improvements can be made at Tweed along these very lines to reduce the number of diversions that we do see ( not all diversions, but some). Guess where those improvements can be detailed? Guess who will oppose those improvements with misinformation and scare tactics?

While Tweed faces operational issues from time to time (wait…that might be why improvements are proposed! ), they are not exceptional or extraordinary in any way. They simply are what they are…just like at other airports. Tweed-New Haven Airport is not on any list of "most dangerous" airports. Well, not on any real list!

Related to the issue of airport suitability locations comes the other battle cry of these citizen hound dogs...diversions. Diversions happen on the order of over 12,000 per year. This is nationwide. Can you imagine how busy these groups would be if they tried showing the community the real…and big picture? 12,000 diversions. That’s a lot.

The number of flight diversions will only increase as the frequency of flights Increase. In the matrix of diversionary matters there are a number of issues. Weather is a primary driver for aircraft diversions. Thunderstorms, low-visibility, runway conditions (snow, ice and rain) and wind are among the specific weather related reasons. And last time I checked, these things happen in other places besides New Haven, CT.

Just as a matter of example, I reference Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. AUS happens to be proximal and useful as a diversion airport (and vice versa) for IAH, DFW, SAT and DAL airports…when… wait…Thunderstorms routinely happen in the area around all these airports! This part of the country (Texas) is in Tornado Alley. Have you seen how many airports are built in Tornado Alley? If you follow the ‘logic’ of citizen action groups as described above, there shouldn’t be airports in Tornado Alley just as there shouldn’t be airports on coastlines because of instances of Fog.

You mean to tell me they build airports in areas Climatologically prone to Thunderstorms and Tornados? Texas airports are just one example of how airports are impacted by weather. Some places have thunderstorms, others snow & ice, some fog. And where shall we have airports?

I love when an argument is cyclical and thus closes itself out in order to make a final point.

I have included linked articles that only lightly touch on the issue of diversions but that are very useful in proving a point: The point that these citizen action groups are misinformed, biased, malicious, self-absorbed and should be summarily expunged from the discussion centering around Tweed-New Haven Airport. Their issues of diversions and airport location do not stand up to real data and fact. They just try really hard at deceiving you into believing such.

Tweed-New Haven Airport being a coastal airport is no more special than an airport being located in gee, I don’t know, a Great Lakes snow belt. Do you know of any plans to close Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, Buffalo-Niagara International, Rochester or Syracuse? I didn’t think so!

Every airport endures diversions, and every airport is uniquely arranged within its environment. The rantings of these groups and persons is next to meaningless.

You are more than capable of countering the points made by these groups. My only purpose is to occasionally facilitate your efforts with factual, empirical evidence. Feel free to use the points and information that I have provided you to silence the real public nuisance. And it isn’t airplane noise.