Helicopter Information

Tenants:

• Sun West has 2 hangars, one each in lot A1 and in lot A8. They are said to be the most active helicopter tenant.

• Ascent sublets from Allan Hansson in A3 who performs maintenance for them, as well as for KD Air. Ascent owns 1 helicopter which they say was in the airport for 6 days this year. They are also building a helicopter.

• Greg Walz has a hangar in lot A7. He flies for Airspan. He is said to be in and out daily as a pilot. He also does maintenance.

Helicopters associated with the following companies etc are known to visit the airport occasionally:

• Vancouver Island Helicopters

• Colson Logging

• Coast Guard

• RCMP

• Ambulance

• Canadian Skytrain

The nature of the companies or their visits is unknown. That may reflect the fact that landing fees are not enforced. The public service aircraft may be exempt from landing fees.

Sensible Solutions for Our Aircraft Noise Problem

A perspective from 2007
Prior to 2006, the Air Cadets trained in Campbell River for six years, with no noise complaints on record. The new flight school there is now eager to bid on the lucrative training contract. Clearly, that is the kind of community where the cadets belong. If not there, then they should train somewhere else over the vast uninhabited expanses of our enormous country, far from populated areas. The cadets should not come from all over B.C. to practice over our quiet community. We already provide enough support, as they are funded entirely by our taxes.

Flight schools benefit few people, while causing widespread disturbance and danger. They should be prohibited from using our airport. Anyone wanting flying lessons can take them in Courtenay. We don't need every convenience right at our doorstep. And we certainly don't want international student pilots practicing their dangerous, noisy maneuvers over our homes, as has been informally proposed.

To discourage excessive airport traffic, landing fees for non-tenants of the airport should be raised substantially, and enforced with motion-activated cameras. Continuing to rely on the present honor system to collect landing fees will only tempt pilots and flight schools from afar to overuse our public airport – perhaps without payment.

As for the helicopter operations, they don't even need an airport. They can be relocated on the far side of the mountainous area to our west, out of earshot, but still just a short drive away for their owners. And for medical emergencies, there are normally some forrestry helicopters stationed near highway exit 51 just outside Parksville.

Excluding fuel sales and landing fees, Qualicum Beach receives less than $28,000 in revenue from all of the helicopter and flight school operations combined. By comparison, the town's property tax revenue from Chartwell alone is roughly $500,000. So let’s keep our priorities straight.

Helicopter operations and flight schools are entirely unsuitable for our airport. Their leases should not be renewed. We must not accept a half-solution that would allow some of these operations to remain in place and continue growing, as that would guarantee future noise conflict. And their noise would only discourage better airport uses, such as the fly-in tourist residences that could bring greater benefit to our economy.

Finally, while KD Air is popular among many, some residents are inconvenienced by their noise. KD Air should upgrade to quieter turbo-prop planes, and fly at much higher altitudes. They should also divert their flight path over the ocean as far west as possible, to avoid residential Parksville and Errington.

The above letter to the Editor was submitted to the Parksville Qualicum Beach News, but was not published. The following Guest Shot editorial was published, after being edited:

Leadership is the Key in Preventing Airport Noise

A perspective from 2007
Aircraft noise should concern all Oceanside residents. Not only has it increased in recent years, but it will continue to increase – if we allow it. If you are not presently affected, you may have little sympathy for those who are. But no matter where you live in Oceanside, you will feel the effects of this aggravation yourself, if local airport activity continues to increase unchecked.

Now is the time to think ahead and imagine where the one-way street of airport development is taking us. Unfortunately, if you have never lived in a congested urban environment, you may have little grasp of how perniciously noise pollution can degrade your quality of life. It drives people away from busy cities to escape in quieter communities like ours.

Are those who escape welcome here? Not if they’re seniors, it seems. One Town of Qualicum Beach councillor worries that seniors are too thrifty to support the local economy. Yet the Globe and Mail reports, “People over 50 own three-quarters of all financial assets and account for half of all discretionary spending.” With the ranks of baby-boomer retirees swelling rapidly, local businesses should seize the golden marketing opportunity at hand. Seniors can be excellent customers – once you understand their needs.

The Town Council needs to rethink their attitude toward aircraft noise. Surely they are aware of how unhappy many of their constituents are about excessive aircraft noise. And after last year’s two aircraft accidents involving student pilots, surely they understands the dangers of training pilots over rural and urban populated areas. 

Let's not sugarcoat the problem. It is absurd to imply that helicopter noise is as innocuous as the sound of bicycles, or people simply walking past. Such observations reveal an insensitivity to those for whom loud aircraft noise interrupts conversations, disturbs their train of thought, and makes life generally miserable. Local aircraft noise victims will not be lulled into complacency by such distortions of reality.

Town Councilors must stop trying to transform our quiet community into the kind of noisy urban environment that so many have come here to escape. Those who enjoy noise can easily find it elsewhere.

It’s not just tourists and recent arrivals who dislike aircraft noise. Long-time residents have for decades ardently opposed development of the airport. Against their wishes, Town Council pursued development, aided by over 1.5 million of our tax dollars. Thanks to our taxes, the current airport tenants benefit greatly with very attractive lease rates, while we taxpayers suffer increasing noise aggravation. Newcomers or not, we all have a right to voice our concerns about the encroachment of aircraft noise on our lives.

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Answers to Some Common Questions 

This section offers answers to some of the questions that were raised 
in the local newspapers in 2007 by those who opposed preserving our quality of life.

Q. The Qualicum Beach Airport was here first. Shouldn't people who moved to this area later stop complaining?

A. Land title documents indicate that the airport was given to the Town in 1957 as a land grant from the province.

According to one local resident, the airport was originally just a grass strip where deer could often be seen grazing. There were no airplanes parked on it. It seemed to be just a clearing for emergency landings.

Unfortunately, on neighboring properties near the end of the new runway, there were some trees that obstructed the flight path. This prevented the airport from being certified by the government for commercial aircraft use.

According to local residents, after one property owner refused to cut down his trees, some illegal activities followed. One night, after a long visit from a local aviator, the owner left, posting his property for sale. Had he been intentionally intimidated? Local residents assume so. A short while later, two of the property owner's old growth fir trees - roughly 4 feet in diameter - were mysteriously destroyed by what seems to have been a dynamite explosion. No one was ever arrested for this crime. The subsequent owner removed all the remaining trees.

Another airport neighbor - a former village councilor and middle-school principal, who owned property close to the runway - was also subjected to criminal abuse. One day, he discovered that his acreage had been selectively cut to clear away any trees that obstructed the airport flight path. About 50 trees were cut down, each reaching 70 to 100 feet in height. These trees were cut without his permission or knowledge. Though there was some evidence that a particular local aviator was the perpetrator, the Village Council took no remedial action.

According to longtime residents, the airport could not have been certified without the removal of its neighbors' trees. The fact that certification was was obtained only after it was made possible by illegal activities, leaves the airport little historical legitimacy. 

This arrest raises questions about how much drug smuggling has taken place in the airport's history, and how much of this kind of activity - if any - continues to this day. In any case, the arrest seems to lend some credibility to the longtime residents' contention that illegal activities took place during development of the airport. And it seems these illegal activities removed obstacles to airport expansion at just the right time for development to proceed. 

By contrast, both longtime residents and more recent arrivals live here legitimately, having purchased their properties and homes legally. No doubt, most have settled here believing that the airport would not become as noise as it has, due to inappropriate use.

The real issue we should be concerned with is not whether the airport was here first. The real problem is that the airport has changed in character, from quiet noisy. The result has been ongoing disturbance to the entire Oceanside community. For example, one helicopter business started leasing space at the airport around 1994, and has expanded greatly in recent years. As well, the flight school has burgeoned to 35 students in just 2 years. Informed sources have indicated that the present school or a similar one is planning to expand to year-round operations, attracting international student pilots. Regardless of when the airport came into being, it must not be allowed to disturb the community.

The airport's rightful owners are the citizens of Qualicum Beach. They have a moral obligation to respect the concerns of all Oceanside residents regarding the noise, the pollution, and the dangers of aircraft operation near their homes, that are resulting from continued commercial expansion at the airport.

Q. If groups of loud motorcyclists are allowed to make noise in Oceanside, then why not airplanes too?

A. This question only confuses the issue of aircraft noise. In fact, motorcycle noise and aircraft noise are entirely separate issues. One kind of noise does not justify the other.

Many people find limited, occasional airplane noise to be no more than a nuisance. However, the ongoing noise and overhead danger caused by flying schools is unacceptable in our community. And frequent noise from low-flying helicopters is an intolerable disturbance. 

If the airport is limited to quiet, commuter use, without helicopters or flying schools, then most local aircraft noise conflict in our community will be avoided. If there is a problem with motorcycle noise, that issue should be dealt with separately.

Q. If we don't support the teen-aged air cadets who practice over Oceanside during the summer, they might become juvenile delinquents. Shouldn't we support them?

A. This idea has been mentioned a number of letters to the editor in the PQB News.

Learning to fly is a positive pursuit for young adults. However, they should not be learning to fly in an airport that is so close to residential areas. Accidents do happen, and the constant flight school aircraft noise is unacceptable. (See Plane Crash in Qualicum, Oct 14, 2006 and Courtenay Student Pilot Accident in 2006) The Air Cadets should return to Campbell River, where, prior to 2006, their training program was operated successfully for 6 years without any complaints on record. If not there, then they should train somewhere else over the vast uninhabited expanses of our enormous country, far from populated areas. Clearly, Qualicum Beach is not a suitable location for a flight school, whether for the air cadets, or for international student pilots studying year-round - as has been informally proposed.

Furthermore, there are plenty of ways to keep young people involved, including sports, school, music, volunteer work, and employment. In any case, if certain young people are found to be emotionally unstable or inclined toward juvenile delinquency, they should not be accepted for flight training. While some delinquent youth may have been turned around by the Air Cadet program, but it seems there are less risky ways to rescue delinquent youth.

Facts: There were 35 Air Cadets in the 2007 summer program, and they come from all across BC. This year and last year, they were taught by a private flight school headquartered in Courtenay. This year, they all received their flight training at the Qualicum Beach airport. Just one student was from Oceanside this year.

Q. What if a school bus filled with children crashes into the Englishman River? Won't we need local helicopters for rescue?

A. Since the local terrain is not very steep, there should be other more practical means of rescue, rather than helicopters. In any event, if that kind of rescue is needed, there are normally some forrestry helicopters stationed near highway exit 51 just outside Parksville. Otherwise, helicopters can easily fly in from Nanaimo, Courtenay, or Port Alberni.

Q. Why are international flying schools becoming increasingly popular in Canada?

A. According to a Transport Canada employee, international flying schools have been easier to operate in Canada than in the USA in recent years. This is because after 9/11, it was learned that some of the terrorists underwent pilot training in Florida. The USA subsequently increased security restrictions, making it more difficult for foreign students to obtain pilot training in the USA. This left Canada as an easier alternative for international students wishing to obtain aircraft pilot training.

Q. Wouldn't a busy airport help to increase economic activity in Oceanside?

A. There are different approaches to supporting economic activity. Some - like increased air traffic - would impact our quality of life in a negative way. We need to decide what kind of community we are going to be. Are we going to be a busy airport community, trying to compete with Nanaimo and Courtenay? That would be a poor choice, because we do not have any natural competitive advantage in that regard. Their airports are larger and better-equipped. And there is just no need for a third busy commercial airport so close by.

Our strongest advantage is our peaceful, relaxed way of life. Our quality of life appeals to a broad cross-section of our society, including people of all ages. It also appeals to the baby boomers who are just starting to retire. If they come here to retire - with their substantial life savings -  then countless businesses stand to prosper. Restaurants, financial services, real estate firms, grocery stores, car dealerships, golf clubs, and landscapers are just a few examples. Countless other quiet, clean industries can prosper alongside them.

But if we degrade the special value of our community by disturbing entire neighborhoods with unpleasant industrial aircraft-related noise, we will lose what makes Oceanside special. We will repel the very people whom we should be trying to attract. Affluent baby boomers will choose to live in other better-managed communities than ours. So will the countless other people who are eager to escape the noise and pollution of urban centers across the USA and Canada. We will have nothing special to offer, having squandered our natural advantage.

So the choice is, collect less than $28,000 per year in rent from noisy tenants at the airport and degrade the value of our community, or build a truly prosperous community around our small-town quality of life, and look forward to a very bright future. 

Q. Wouldn't more airport commerce increase residential real estate values?

A. Real estate should always be dedicated to its "best and highest use". But that principle must be applied to the community as a whole, not just individual properties. We need a plan so that property uses are compatible, to support civic harmony.

The best and highest use for Oceanside residential real estate is dwellings for people who want a peaceful lifestyle. Our high quality of life is our strongest card. It has real economic value, because countless Canadians and Americans are seeking an escape from the noise and irritation of city life. Our peaceful lifestyle can be enormously appealing to them, but only if we offer a consistent lifestyle experience. 

Consistency is the key to appealing to these potential residents. And their attraction to our community will support our real estate values. This is why we will sustain our property values far better with a quiet, commuter airport, than with an increasingly noisy airport that conflicts with the essential character of our community.

Q. Shouldn't Oceanside cater to the needs of young people?

A. Taking steps to support our quality of life should not impact Oceanside young people in a negative way. Young people deserve to have places where they can gather and socialize, as long as they are located in appropriate neighborhoods and do not create public disruption. Bowling alleys, movie theatres, and food and beverage establishments, can all make a positive contribution to our community. Like anyone else, young people are free to enjoy leisure activities of their choice, as long as they don't disturb neighbors with loud car stereos, and as long as they conduct themselves as responsible adults.

In any case, airport noise will not help young people have a good time. Helicopter noise holds no special appeal for young people. Having foreign pilots come here to learn how to fly will not make our young people any happier. 

Even the Air Cadet training program could be easily moved elsewhere in BC. It would simply involve having the cadets stay in another community for a few weeks in the summer. The cadets come from all around BC, and just one was from Oceanside this year. 

Young people wanting employment in aviation have a wealth of  opportunities in communities across BC. They do not need to pursue their careers in Qualicum. But there will still be aviation jobs in Qualicum, even when the airport is focused on serving commuters.

Q. How can we attract tourists if we don't have a busy airport?

A. Tourists don't want noise any more than we do. If they come for anything, it's for our relaxed lifestyle, and the quiet natural surroundings.

Q. How can we stop flying schools from other communities from practicing over our homes?

A. We cannot control who flies over our community. But we can discourage undesirable use of our airport by substantially raising the landing fees for any planes not owned by airport tenants. At present, the landing fees at the airport are very low, and are overdue for a significant increase. 

We should also take steps to ensure that the fees are actually collected, by installing cameras to record all take-offs and landings at the airport. At present, fees are collected on the "honor system", which depends entirely on pilots reporting their own use of the airport.

All flying schools - whether located in Courtenay, Boundary Bay, or elsewhere - should be discouraged from practicing over our community. And Oceanside is certainly not the place for foreign students to practice dangerous, noisy training maneuvers. Raising our airport landing fees would help make our airspace less attractive to them.

Q. Should the Qualicum Beach Airport be closed?

A. It seems there are no laws governing airborne aircraft noise. Once a plane is in the air, it need only obey the air traffic regulations. Otherwise, it can fly anywhere in Canada, making any amount of noise, without regard for the people below it. There are guidelines, but they cannot be enforced. 

Some people say that if we really want to solve the Oceanside aircraft noise problem, we should shut down the airport permanently. Our community would still be easily accessible from the Nanaimo and Courtenay airports. And the extremely valuable Qualicum Beach Airport land could be used for profitable residential or commercial development that would generate substantial tax revenues for Qualicum Beach. 

While some people feel that closing the airport may the best option in all respects, there are several obstacles that would need to be overcome: 

1. The original Crown land grant stipulated that the airport land be used as an airport. This restriction would need to be removed, perhaps through some agreement with the provincial government.
   

2. Some Qualicum Beach residents enjoy the convenience afforded by the airport for quick access to Vancouver. However, a one-acre helicopter port by the Lee Road boat basin could offer the same convenience with much less disturbance to the community, while occupying much less land. A company like HeliJet could serve the travel needs of the community quite effectively.

Qualicum Beach Airport - A History of Controversy 

In this section, you can read about the controversy surrounding the certification of the Qualicum Beach Airport in the 1970s, and airport development in more recent times. As you will read, the controversy has continued for years.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the links below. After opening each image, you may want to enlarge it to a more readable size. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can zoom in by holding down the Ctrl key and tapping the + key. In Firefox, just click on the image.

Licensing Delayed, May 1971     Aid Sought     Neighbors' Trees Obstruct Flight Path

Trees Dynamited     Dynamite Photo     Airport Meeting

Aura of Secrecy     Bus Depot     Decision on Paving     Do Something

Material Goals      Parker: Refuse Paving     Paving Being Railroaded     Referendum Resisted

Referendum Requested     No Action Taken

Letter to MOT Part 1     Letter to MOT Part 2     Re-Examine Paving Offer     Easement Denied

Tourists Dislike Noise     Tree Cutting     Trees Chopped     Who Should Vote?

Land Use Change     Industrialization Opposed 1     Page 2

Qualicum Beach Expansion     Five Killed In Crash     White Elephant

Expansion Opposed     RDN Decision     

Crown Land Grant 1 2 3 4

2007

Qualicum Tourists Flee Aircraft Noise

Related news items:

Student pilot crashes near Edmonton

Helicopter crashes in residential neighborhood in Cranbrook, BC

Helicopter Crash in Washington Ignites Major Forest Fire - Opens in a new browser window.

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Petitions

If you have ever lived in another community with a growing airport, you may have noticed that airport expansion never seems to end. Moreover, growth proponents will never admit to you how noisy your life will become in 5 or 10 years as a result. But gradually and insidiously, airport and aircraft noise will invade your life. More and more airport businesses will start up and grow - honest businesses no doubt, but operating at the expense of your peace and quiet. The meager contribution they make to the local economy will be overshadowed by the widespread noise and disturbance they cause. Gradually, they will become so entrenched that there will be no stopping them. By then, your opportunity to have any say in the matter will have passed forever.

The online petitions  have already been submitted, along with several other paper-based ones, including about 500 signatures in total. As the petitions are now closed, please consider emailing the Qualicum Beach Town Council instead. It is an effective way to get your point across.

Thank you.

Here are some comments from the online petitions:

"We need to examine which types of flights are causing excess noise problems (i.e. flight schools, helicopters, etc.), and at the numbers of people who avail themselves of these activities, versus the numbers of residents in the area who have to listen to them. I'm willing to bet that we will find that rarely have so few been able to adversely affect the quality of life of so many. NO one moves to this area seeking a noisy environment, so why are certain people among us so eager to create one, and foist it on the rest of us? (By the way, I lived here well before runway lights, or helicopter flights, or flight schools - and the residents of the area were never consulted before so many big changes to airport operations were made)."

"Please! Keep our community peaceful."

"I have lived in Coombs for 38 years and the airplane and heli noise has gotten to a point of absolute intolerable, the planes fly over my property starting at about 7:30am and fly until 10:00pm or later. They fly at extremely low heights and are an extreme harassment. These pilots should be prosecuted for criminal harassment. They fly over our property when we have asked several times for the fly club to fly some place else, they have steadfastly refused to respect those of us who live under their flight path. They can fly some place else than over our heads, there are millions of square miles of space up there go fly over the ocean or on the other side of Mt. Arrowsmith. NOT OVER OUR HEADS! My option would see the airport closed! These are recreational planes they DO NOT HAVE to fly here at all! Meaning they can be told to fly elsewhere or not at all."

"I have lived in the Qualicum Beach area since 1970 and the airport noise has always bothered me, so much so that I moved out of Q.B. only to find that the air traffic noise is as bad out in Hilliers. The land that the airport occupies would serve the citizens of Q.B. far better if it were a light industrial area supplying jobs for our children and grandchildren. I believe this would generate far more tax dollars for the town as well."

"Close the flight school!!! How long is it before a stall goes wrong and there is a training plane in one of our yards. Commercial activity is fine as it is good for economy but enough with the flight schools..."

"action on aircraft racket long overdue"

"Unbelievable volume of air traffic over our house. We are being continually driven from the property to get away from it. It's affecting our health."

"We have been exposed for over35 years to this ongoing indifferent abuse. This is the worst year yet- absolutely intolerable now!"

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Facts About The Air Cadets Scholarship Program

• The program ran for about 6 weeks this year, ending on August 16.

• Of the 35 air cadet scholarship students training in Qualicum in 2007, just one was from Oceanside. The rest come from all over BC.

• The program trains about 240 young pilots every year across Canada. This is funded entirely by the Department of National Defense (DND) with your tax dollars.

• Every year, private flight schools in each province are invited to bid for the lucrative training contracts. In each province, the contracts are awarded to the flight school that submits the lowest bid, provided that they seem able to do the job.

• Flight schools that are located close to Air Force bases have a substantial cost advantage because the students can be billeted at low cost at the Air Force Base.

• In other communities, arrangements can be made for the students to be billeted at local community colleges. This involves a somewhat higher cost.

• Only two Air Force bases are located in B.C., one in Victoria and the other in Comox. The Victoria airspace is too busy for the flight training program, so the cheapest practical place to billet the students is at the Comox base. Thus, any flight schools operating near Comox have a cost advantage over all other flight schools in B.C.

• In 2006 and 2007, the winning bidder for the air cadet scholarship program was the Courtney Flight Center, which also owns the Qualicum Flight Center. In 2006, half the students were trained in Courtney, and the other half in Qualicum. In 2007, for reasons unknown, the entire class has been bused to Qualicum each day for flight training. In both years, local residents complained about the noise.

• In the seven years prior to 2006, the winning bidder for the scholarship training program was Parallel Aviation, operating out of Campbell River. During that time, few if any noise complaints were made by Campbell River residents about the air cadet program. Perhaps the airport there is better located, or the area is more sparsely populated. Unfortunately, Parallel Aviation went out of business two years ago. Their chief instructor then started another flight school, called Discovery West, but it has so far been unsuccessful in bidding for the lucrative flight training contracts.

• The air cadet scholarship program offers an excellent way for young people to learn how to fly. But it should not be operated in the vicinity of a quiet retirement community like Qualicum Beach, and over the homes of Oceanside residents. The program would receive a much better welcome in Campbell River. 

• To limit local aircraft noise, a bylaw should be passed to prohibit fixed wing and helicopter flight schools from operating at the Qualicum Beach airport.

Other points of interest:

• At Comox, more than 2500 Air Cadet glider plane training trips are towed each year by the Air Force’s noisy 1950s vintage planes. Local residents do complain about the noise. This glider training program is conducted by the Air Force itself. In contrast, the powered plane training program is conducted by private flight schools at public airports - such as the Qualicum Beach Airport.
  

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A 37-Year Airport Neighbor Speaks Out

September 29, 2006

The Mayor and Council
Town of Qualicum Beach
Qualicum Beach, B.C.

Sirs (&Ms'):

The ongoing volume of flight training and helicopters, has made the peaceful
enjoyment of our property almost non-existent. The surrounding countryside
is vibrating constantly with the noise of aircraft of one kind or another.
While at a neighbour's place last month I happened to have a noise meter
handy at the right time and registered the noise level of the local airline
passing over their roof at an impressive 87+ decibels, and I don't think
this was the loudest one - just the one that I was able to measure. It's
difficult to be ready at the right time if you're trying to get anything
else done.

I see the latest cute trick in airport management is to put a notice in the
paper distributed on the Friday preceding the Monday when you will be
allowing Strathcona Helicopters to train pilots for Weyerhauser for a whole
week at the expense of the peace and quiet of everyone who has to live under
the abominable noise that that activity will produce. Some notice! It is
noteworthy that you have all made yourselves unavailable to protesting
callers and have left a girl in the office to take the flak. Of course, on
the weekend there is no one at all to answer complaints. Really up front,
eh? Just great! The Town has pulled this stunt twice in recent past years
and it was totally unacceptable both times before.

Weyerhauser (or whatever the current name is) has stripped enough profits
out of this province that they can afford to build their own training strip
on some of the land that the public isn't allowed on and far enough removed
that they can train chopper jockeys all year if they want and no one will be
disturbed.

In fact, all helicopter traffic at the Qualicum airport should be disallowed
with the possible exception of occasional refueling, emergency or Coastguard
landings. Helicopters don't need an airport. If you're so keen on
accommodating helicopters, put a pad in right in town. There's a vacant lot
right next to the Town Hall that would be perfect.

How much is the Town being paid to permit this current affront to affected
homeowners?

M. McFeely

Here is an letter from a 38-year resident of Combs: 

I would like to address all those folks who say that people who moved into a neighborhood next to an airport should not have any say as to the noise and traffic that exists around and near their homes. I don't live near the airport, I live 6.3 air miles from the airport. In the 38 years that I have lived here the air traffic over my property has increased 100 fold. Every day from as early as 7:00AM to as late as Midnight and later, recreational planes and helicopters fly over my house at absurd height levels. It is truly like living in a war zone. 

J. Gerberg

The above letter has been edited for brevity.

A Common Sense Vision for 
the Qualicum Beach Airport

The Qualicum Beach Airport should be devoted to commuter traffic. The airlines that serve it should be required to fly only quieter turbo-prop driven planes.

The flying school needs to be eliminated. Flying a plane is not a necessity of life like food, clothing, shelter, sanitation and such. It is just a pleasant and expensive noisy hobby, which shouldn't be imposed on the whole community for the convenience of the few who wish to take it up. 

The airport should not permit regular use by helicopters. Helicopters don't need an airport - that's what makes them so useful for the tasks they are used for. They are extremely noisy and obtrusive. Occasional use by the Coast Guard, RCMP, or emergency landing is all that should be permitted.

The development of the Qualicum Beach Airport has been paid for almost entirely by taxpayers, at a cost of more than $1.6 million. That should be enough. Now the people who use the airport should be the ones who pay to maintain it. Let them cut their own grass and maintain their own asphalt and fencing and lighting. That in itself should have a certain limiting effect on growth.

The Town has jacked up my taxes by nearly $700 from last year. This is money that I won't have to repair my fences or cut my grass or repair my aging building. 

There have been flying lessons over my roof all day today and they continue now as I try to compose this letter. The planes are about 2 minutes apart, making it extremely difficult to write anything intelligible. After enduring 37 years of aircraft noise, I'd like the quiet enjoyment of my property to become more than just a meaningless phrase.

M. McFeely, August 14, 2007

The above letter has been edited for brevity.

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Qualicum Beach Town Council

Click here for a sample letter to Email the Entire Town Council. Just add your name, complete address & phone number.	Or to email an individual Councilor, click on a name	Or copy and paste an email address into your email program.
	Mayor Teunis Westbroek	mayor@qualicumbeach.com
	Councilor Barry Avis	bavis@qualicumbeach.com
	Councilor Jack Wilson	jwilson@qualicumbeach.com
The remaining two councilors, elected in 2008, are not shown here.

If you don't have email, fax your letter to: 250 752-1243, or drop it off at the Town Hall. Alternatively, you can mail your letter to:

Qualicum Beach Mayor and Council
Suite 201 - 660 Primrose Street
Box 130
Qualicum Beach, B.C.
Canada - V9K 1S7

Be sure to address your letter to the Qualicum Beach Mayor and Council.

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