Section 1-1 Microsoft Word document. Size:135K

Section 1-1 Introduction: OCX-V-Plan History

Section 1-1.1 Purpose of Introducing V-Plan Alternative
Section 1-1.2 County’s Reluctance to Allow FAA to Study OCX-V-Plan
Section 1-1.3 OCRAA'S Recent Support
Section 1-1.4 ALPA'S Recent Support
Section 1-1.5 FAA SOCAL TRACON’S Support
Section 1-1.6 Growing Countywide Support

Section 1-1.1 Purpose of Introducing El Toro OCX V-Plan Alternative

In January of 1999, the founding partners of Russell Niewiarowski of Santa Ana Heights and Charles E. Griffin of Newport Beach founded The New Millennium Group (TNMG). TNMG, through the leadership of Mr. Griffin, a retired registered professional Control System Engineer with 47 years of automatic flight control systems experience, authored the OCX-V-Plan (Wildlands Ranch Alternative Runway Layout Plan) which became the final alternative included in the County’s EIR 573 for the reuse of MCAS El Toro in May 1999.

TNMG introduced this alternative to the Orange County LRA for two reasons: The first being to provide a modern, safer and more efficient Airport Layout Plan to bring the 56-year old air station up to 21 century standards, and while doing so, to second, better mitigate adverse noise impacts to surrounding communities by utilizing nearly 30,000 acres of undeveloped Orange County Natural Communities Conservation Program (NCCP) Open Space Reserves contiguous with MCAS El Toro to the north and to the southwest for proposed flight paths which compliments, not conflicts with the existing Southern California airspace use.

Also in 1999, a group of local commercial airline pilots headed by Captain Robert McGowan, United Airlines, Retired, formed the Airline Pilots for a Safer El Toro Airport (ALPSEA) group for the purpose of exploring a safer, more reasonable alternative airport plan for El Toro to resolve much of the controversial issues involving the county’s proposed airport plan. ALPSEA devised the " Pilots Plan" alternative, similar to the V-Plan’s Phase 1.

TNMG continues to assist the LRA in providing new information and studies as it pertains to the reuse of MCAS El Toro and the feasibility of the OCX-V-Plan in hopes of convincing the LRA to bring the best possible MCAS El Toro reuse plan forward which benefits Orange County, Southern California, and the nation.

We recognize that the best reuse plan for MCAS El Toro is a commercial airport, yet we have long realized that the County’s current Preferred Project, based on the original 56-year old double-crossing east/west runways contains the wrong Airport Layout Plan (ALP) for OCX. Most of the cities in Orange County, both pro and anti-airport recognize this, hence opposition to the County’s Preferred Plan continues to grow steadily. In addition to several South County anti-airport cities who are threatened by the reality of over flights from OCX, many North County cities are now equally concerned with the potential of over flights and are contemplating withdrawing their support from the 14-City pro-airport Orange County Regional Airport Authority (OCRAA), currently headed by retired USMC Brigadier General Art Bloomer.

Most of the opposition for OCX stems from safety and noise issues, compounded by the fact that the County continues to regularly change their proposed Airport Operating Plan which creates more uncertainty which instills less confidence in the County LRA. In a July 7, 2001 letter to the FAA, LRA Executive Director Gary Simon announced yet another new departure procedure for OCX involving a right turn for departures from Runways 35 to avoid conflicting with the congested airspace north of OCX. Originally in EIR 563, there was a proposed northerly departure that would make a left turn over heavily populated north county residents. Then in EIR 573, the County proposed a straight out north departure. Subsequently, a draft airspace analysis MITRE report submitted to the FAA confirmed that the County’s proposed straight-out northerly departures off Runways 35 would not be possible. Simon refers to the new proposed 40+ mile U-turn (right turn) departure procedure out to the Pacific Ocean as " efficient".

Section 1-1.2 County’s Reluctance to Allow FAA to Study OCX-V-Plan

The County LRA under the leadership of Supervisor Charles Smith continues to object to a full feasibility study of the OCX-V-Plan alternative. To date, the county has provided virtually no documentation of noise contours nor detailed ALP’s for the OCX-V-Plan to the public or within their EIR 573. The information that has been provided in EIR 573 on the plan is an informal review by means of negative comments slanted against the plan and claims that it would be less efficient than the Preferred Plan and would adversely impact more homes.

The original V-Plan submitted to the County in 1999 has been substantially refined and more completely defined in public comments submitted to the county in response to EIR 573’s Supplemental Analysis. Surprisingly though, the County has failed to acknowledge any of our recent Technical Reports, TERPS Studies and revised ALP’s which address and answer each and every negative comment in EIR 573 on the V-Plan.

The complete and current OCX-V-Plan Technical Reports and Graphics were submitted to the county’s El Toro Master Development Program in response to the county’s Supplemental Analysis to Draft Environmental Impact Report 573, and were published and circulated in Volume 15, Section I594, pages 02695 to 02830.

The County LRA has responded to the media on several occasions recently, stating that they would be willing to look at aviation alternatives in depth once the MCAS El Toro property has been transferred and the EIR 573 has been certified, but not until then. The way we see it, the County’s EIR 573 remains incomplete because they did not adequately address the OCX-V-Plan, and as such, we feel they will be faced with endless litigation by South County until the county changes their ALP to accommodate the less threatening and safer OCX-V-Plan.

Section 1-1.3 OCRAA’S Recent Support

In April of 2001, the majority of OCRAA Member cities stressed their interest in the V-Plan, and a derivative, the Pilots Plan, authored by OCRAA Member and retired commercial pilot Captain McGowan, Council Member for the city of Villa Park. Shortly thereafter, Villa Park announced their decision to withdraw from OCRAA after Supervisor Smith repeatedly disapproved of allowing any aviation alternatives to be studied. Other OCRAA Members stressed their support for Villa Park’s actions and sent a letter to the County LRA to encourage them to allow the FAA to study the OCX-V-Plan/Pilots Plan alternatives. OCRAA Executive Director Art Bloomer sent the following letter to Mr. McGowan and Mr. Griffin:

Section 1-1.4 ALPA'S Recent Support

ALPA Headquarters in Virginia sent the following e-mail to Mr. Griffin, distributed to the County LRA and OCRAA Members on June 13, 2001:

Section 1-1.5 FAA SOCAL TRACON’S Support

In April 2000 The New Millennium Group was invited to make a formal presentation of the V-Plan to the Airspace Users Working Group in Long Beach. The presentation was well received, and four months latter, the following internal e-mail was circulated within FAA:

Section 1-1.6 Growing Countywide Support

In mid July 2001, Robert McGowan announced his interest in joining The New Millennium Group as a Director and to assist in lobbying efforts. In a relatively short time, we have gained support from several Orange County cities for our OCX-V-Plan and continue to schedule meetings and presentations with interested cities and Homeowners Association groups.

Compiled 08/10/01 The New Millennium Group
Written by: Charles E. Griffin and Russell Niewiarowski

The entire Engineering Section containing all section, is available on CD-ROM.

c_e_griffin@msn.com for a CD-ROM copy
Next: Section 1-2 OCX-V-Plan Operating Plan Summary

the Pilots V-Plan: intro overview  comparisons  review  engineering

page last updated 6/23/05