V-plan backers say report supports their plan

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- A federal safety and airspace report on Orange

County’s planned airport for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station doesn’t

directly analyze the V-plan, but supporters of that alternate runway

alignment praised the report as a victory for their cause.

In the report released Oct. 9, the Federal Aviation Administration

analyzed the county’s plan for El Toro -- the departure and arrival

patterns, safety issues and effect on the already crowded airspace.

“This report supports the V-plan,� said Charles Griffin, the Newport

Beach engineer who developed the idea. Northerly arrivals “were the first

approach they preferred.�

Griffin’s plan, which could face a public vote late next year, would

realign the crossbar runways at the base to allow planes to arrive from

the north and depart to the southwest.

A new runway would be built off the northern edge of the existing

north-south runway to form a “V� pattern.

County airport planners have said they will send departing planes to

the north and east.

For planes to land from the north or take off to the south, as Griffin

hopes, they would need to use a network of satellite signals.

While the FAA is developing this global positioning system for use in

the future, it isn’t widely used now.

“To try to design an airport on a system that is still on the drawing

boards is pointed out in this report as a major problem,� Newport Beach

Councilman Gary Proctor said.

The report states that “not all aircraft carry the required

navigational equipment� to use the landing approach.

The report does analyze northerly arrivals and southerly departures

but not the V-plan itself, because it wasn’t submitted to the FAA by the

county.

Supporters of the alternate runway alignment said they have gathered

5,520 signatures so far to put the V-plan to a countywide vote.

Leaders of the New Millennium Group, which is sponsoring the campaign,

said they need to submit at least 71,206 valid names to the county clerk

by March 8 for the November 2002 ballot.