Reduce Jet Noise in Virginia Beach
Oceana was here before the "City" of Virginia Beach but for the most part (F-4 notwithstanding) the aircraft have gotten louder and louder and thousands of homes have been built... yet the base was here first.
All local home owners can hope for, as we approach the end of the fiscal year and the inevitable conversion of JP-5 into dB's, is a minimal level of noise awareness by our military pilots. Even though many in the military and politicians alike think the recent F/A-18 crash and the new louder F-35 JSF will have little or no impact on Oceana being added to the next BRAC list, I remember how panicked our local politicians and senior military were the last time Oceana was on the BRAC list. Bottom line, believing Oceana is immune from the BRAC is foolish.
One idea to help shore up Oceana's future is to make the airfield home to Virginia Beach's General Aviation (GA) fleet now mostly based in Norfolk and Chesapeake. This would be great for local military who are interested in flying but acknowledge Chesapeake's two airports are too far away and Norfolk, while much closer, lacks hangers, GA repair facilities, aviation gas is $7.30 verses $5.79 a gallon and annual plane property taxes are whopping $2.40 verses .58 per $100 in Chesapeake and Suffolk.
Joint use air bases work great for the Coast Guard. The Air Force has 12, the Army 10 but the Navy only has one. Clearly the Air Force, Army have over come traffic issues and security concerns. It should be noted that until post 9-11 NAS Oceana didn't even have a perimeter fence. Finding a way for GA planes to coexist with Navy Jets would take coordination. Certain times of the day would have to be excluded as jets, costing taxpayers nearly $25,000 per hour, would always have priority but the Navy could figure out something.
When the next BRAC comes a calling it will be too late to think outside the box. Establishing a GA presence now for interested military and civilians would shore up Oceana against the the next BRAC and the increased contact between military and civilian pilots might encourage jet jocks to keep their power down and thus noise levels while flying over populated areas or until "feet wet"... tallyho.
