PLEASE Join and Volunteer!

      WHAT?  SMAAC needs more active Members!  We are planning a Forum on Aviation Public Health and Safety Risks here and across the USA. SMAAC must also maintain the NFP requirements and elect officers and Directors. Thanks to a few generous Contributors, SMAAC has money to get along until receiving Dues and Donations for 2026. Join now and help with the Forum. If you are a (2025) Member and contribute $15 or more your 2026 Membership is until December 2026 (Bylaw: Annual Membership is from November 1st to November 30th the next year so that the Annual Meeting can be any day in November.) Directors and Standing Committee Chairs pay dues for their Term. This time there are added Board Members (2) and 3 or 4 vacancies. How these elections are conducted will be set at the Annual  Meeting.                       

Please consider helping plan the upcoming SMAAC Forum.  The Forum Committee is planning a public survey (our 1,200-household email list) following up the Forum topics.  We need publicity, recruitment, and arrangement help now.

The Annual Meeting will follow the Forum. Donations of $15 a person at the Forum or earlier will be counted as 2026Dues.  Nominate a friend or yourself for Director after joining! 

       WHY? Protecting public health and safety --from Aviation safety risks and possible capacity changes at MAC Airports. In Metro Minnesota the cause is more than a decade of seldom noticed but deep policy changes. Across the Nation. the cause is the White House dismantling Federal roles, little understood but approved by Congress anyway. Every day almost an aviation crash  or near-miss is reported. Airlines are reacting to less air traffic control and airliner problems. Too often, the public interest is not well served economically, safely, or healthily.

    Forum Topic? It is little known what Airports are not doing. States and State Agencies sponsor or regulate airports.  An airport sponsor manages Terminals and maintains or enlarges Airfields.  Sponsors also make financial and operational agreements with FAA. In Metro Minnesota, until 2020, the Metropolitan Airports Commission acted as a kind of Port Authority and negotiated with users of 7 airports as to flight operations and restricted airspace. MAC's duties were set by law and included Long-Term Comprehensive Plans (LTCP) and State-approved budgets. Then, in 2019, the legislature, in a little discussed omnibus bill, retracted most of the MAC Charter Legislation! 

    A little history? The 2010 LTCP was not approved at the Public Hearing due to objections raised by SMAAC and Met Council. One part of the proposed LTCP was under discussion because there had been a September Near-Midair-Air- Collision under review. The NTSB and FAA were investigating, and MAC thought no changes would be needed that limited MSP Airport capacity. The MAC-Airline planners thought that quickly turning departures n the parallel runways would clear airspace for a safe Runway 35 aborted landing emergency. SMAAC disagreed because east-bound departures would be lower, slower. and nearer other MC airports. In 2019, FAA issued a Safey Order, MAC appealed, but FAA issued a rule requiring an "Arrival Window" for Runway 35 that decreased the Maximum Safe Operations Per Hour in Northwest Flow. When MAC's Charter changed (2020) a Task Force was assigned to clarify how MAC spending would be approved by an elected body as required by the State Constitution; no decision has been made or options listed.  

      Now What? It seems that State Constitutional requirements are overdue and that serious attention to safety is certainly needed!. The alternative --Air Traffic Control by National agencies limited by Executive Orders --is very risky. people have been killed since 2010 and the Metro Airspace is more crowded. Safe capacity issues remain here, with less noise and pollution relief. Since Daily Noise Levels (DNL) apply to ground areas, distributing flights on more routes reduces the flights per day ground with DNL greater than 60 to 70 decibels. That is, more flights at lower altitudes on more routes means more pollution and ground noise per flight and per day but fewer to no areas eligible for noise insulation and clean internal air. (In the first Trump term, 70 DNL limits were applied to routes --if an airport had the equipment. FAA had not renewed the MSP Airport Part 160 program in 2000 because the MAC Noise Committee did not  meet public input requirements. MAC has continued measuring DNL noise and reported no new areas were over DNL 60. MSP daily operations were not increased due to COVID, the Northwest Airline bankruptcy, the 2008 recession, and larger airliners (fewer daily flights).

      Do you think perhaps MAC, the Legislature, and Minnesota members of Congress should be more attentive to the issues established by SMAAC and reported in a Town Hall Forum?