On Feb. 4, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster introduced his FAA reauthorization bill, H.R. 4441. The bill includes provisions to transfer operation of air traffic services currently provided by the FAA to a separate not-for-profit corporate entity, and to reauthorize and streamline programs of the Federal Aviation Administration. You may recall that the previous FAA reauthorization in 2012 phased out the noisy stage 2 jets weighing less than 75,000 pounds. The current bill provides an opportunity to make further progress on reducing noise, and it will be voted on soon. But sadly, the initial bill does not include any such provisions - YET. With your support, we will persuade Congress to amend the bill to include meaningful and reasonable provisions to protect communities from excessive aviation noise. I am writing to ask that you please act today to support Quiet Skies’ work to make the voice of ordinary citizens heard in Congress. Please contact your Congressman today and ask for reasonable regulations to reduce aviation noise. A sample letter is provided below for your convenience. For your convenience, here is a link to the Directory of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/representatives/ Many thanks, Kimberly Gibbs and the Quiet Skies Team of activist supporters Sample letter to Congress: Dear Congressman <>: H.R. 4441, the Aviation, Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization bill fails to protect communities from excessive aviation noise. I am writing to ask for your support in amending H.R. 4441 to include the proposed solutions below, including replacing the acceptable noise threshold to a more appropriate 55 DNL, as proposed by the EPA. Proposed Solutions: Update Noise Metrics: • Replace the 65 Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) noise threshold with the more appropriate 55 DNL • Require supplemental metrics when assessing aviation noise, including frequency of flights, air traffic from 10 pm to 7 am and impacts of low-frequency noise • Include the 75 dB maximum daytime single event noise limit among the set of noise metrics Restore local control: Grant explicit authority to airport operators over airport operations for reducing community noise impacts: • Limiting the hours, the numbers, and the days of operation for noisy flights • Limiting night-time operations • Limiting the frequency and time of touch-and-go operations • Limiting or denying access to specific aircraft based on noise characteristics • Granting airport operators and local land use authorities the right to limit or deny the use of airport property as skydiving drop zone • Adopting landing fees based on noise characteristics and time of day, and curfews for noisy aircraft Impose fixed limits that cannot be exceeded to protect the rights of property owners: • Limit Repetitive Noisy Flight (RNF) hours to 8/weekend and 9 to 5 on weekdays. RNF flights are typical of local operators that fly repeatedly over a constrained geographic area, such as sightseeing, skydiving and flight training. • Limit of 1 RNF operator/airport and within a 30-mile radius or any other RNF operator • Maximum of 2 RNF’s/hour except 5 announced days/year • No RNF flights to operate with less than 80% of full capacity on board each flight • Reduce DNL to 55 and use supplemental metrics Improve transparency: • Mandate a robust and transparent community engagement process, including pre-decisional public hearings and public access to noise data and analysis, for any new or modified flight paths or “flight boxes” • Mandate robust data collection and analysis of aviation noise and other pollutants near airports • Require noise monitoring in surrounding communities at airports having more than 40,000 operations annually • Require all aircraft to be uniquely identified vs. current practice of using a 1200 anonymous beacon code • Require airports to publish monthly maps of all actual flight tracks that include highlighting RNF’s by category