Free Response to Motion - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

Document 224-2

Filed 10/12/2006

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EXHIBIT A

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

Document 224-2

Filed 10/12/2006

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Herk Stokely Herk Stokely flew for the Navy for a single tour after graduation from college. He left the Navy in 1963, and in 1965 he went to work for the Naval Aviation Depot in Norfolk, Virginia as an aeronautical engineer. (Exhibit 2B, Stokely Deposition. p. 5-7). His primary responsibility as a civilian Navy employee was maintenance of Navy aircraft. He worked extensively on the F-8, the A-6 and the F-14. (id. p. 9). He and his family have lived at 1504 North Horseshoe Circle since 1967. His home is about two miles to the center of Oceana and about a mile and a half from its perimeter. (id. p. 910). After he left active duty he flew in the reserves and operated out of Oceana, mostly flying A-4s (id. p. 10-11). He is familiar with the flight paths and operational requirements at Oceana because he has flown them all and because they have changed very little since he flew there (id. p. 15, 22). Despite the fact that his house is well outside the stated flight patterns, planes fly directly over his house when they are using runway 5 and conducting FCLPs. If he is outside working in his garden he puts on "earmuff type" ear protection. He has a competent sound meter and has recorded decibel levels in his yard up to 117 dB for the F/A-18s. (id. p. 24-25). When the planes are conducting FCLPs he tries not to go to bed until after 11 which is when Oceana is supposed to stop operating. If he does go to bed before 11 p.m., it is difficult or even impossible to fall asleep. (id. p. 26). The only plaintiff that he knows in the case is Hal Levenson who was also active in CCAJN. He is familiar with Mr. Levenson's property because the CCAJN board met at Mr.

Exhibit 2A - Herk Stokely Deposition Summary - Page 1 of 5

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

Document 224-2

Filed 10/12/2006

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Levenson's house on occasion. From Mr. Stokely's observations the noise at the Levenson house is very similar to his own. The most dramatic noise events prior to the arrival of the F/A-18 was the preparation for the first Gulf War in 1991which involved A-6s and F-14s. It was very loud and constant but for a "relatively short period of time" however in 1991. (id. p. 30-33). Q. A. Q. A Would you say that your experience with the jet noise now is similar to 1991? At times, yes. What do you mean at times? Primarily when they are conducting FCLP operations, and when the wind is tending towards the east, which is the pattern that brings the planes over and around and near my home. When the planes are coming over or near your home, do you know which runway they are using at Oceana? Yes. That would be runway 5. Although other runways, particularly 32, brings them over my home on take off. But the FCLP pattern over my home is when they are using runway 5.

Q. A.

(id. p. 32)

He has performed sound readings at his home since CCAJN was formed prior to the arrival of the F/A-18s. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Have the sound readings stayed the same on average over the last nine years? No. No. Can you describe how they have changed over time? There are more single noise events that are louder. What do you mean by single noise event? That one airplane going overhead making its own noise. And can you give me a comparison of sound readings of a single noise event in '96 and a single noise event now? Before the F-18s came, it was very unusual to see a sound reading much over 100 decibels. After the F-18s came, it was quite common to experience sound readings at my house well above 100 decibels. How much above 100 decibels? The highest one I have read was 117. So they would fall in the range between 100 and 117.

Q. A.

Exhibit 2A - Herk Stokely Deposition Summary - Page 2 of 5

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

Document 224-2

Filed 10/12/2006

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(id. p. 42-43) Mr. Stokely is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit. He feels that because he had a career with the Navy, and he is a Navy annuitant, he has no desire to receive money from the Navy other than his retirement. (id. p. 45) Q. A. Q A. When did you -- from your home, when did you first notice that FCLPs were being flown at Oceana? The Navy flew FCLPs at Oceana on occasion the entire time that I have lived at my house. Why did you ask Captain Zobel, I believe, if they were moving FCLPs from Fentress to Oceana? I asked him that question because FCLPs at Oceana had been an exceptional event in the past. And at -- and in that time, which was between the two EIS, somewhere in there, FCLP at Oceana became routine almost. It seemed to me routine. They were there doing FCLPs very frequently; whereas, in the past it had been relatively infrequent.

(id. p. 45) [the First EIS was 1998; the Second was EIS 2002] He knows that the altitude during the FCLP is supposed to be 1,000 feet but many of the planes fly between 600 and 800 feet. (id. p. 49-50). Q. A. Q. A. Somewhere between 600 and 1,000? Yes. There are just enough of them that fly at 1,000 you can really tell. How can you tell the difference between 600, 800, or 1,000? Well, there are two ways. One is to use my experience as an observer. The other way is to, since you know how long the plane is, it's fairly easy to construct a small device which allows you to essentially measure the length of the aircraft, the apparent length of the aircraft when it's overhead to get a distance. Something about this big, at about 30 inches. Okay. We're going to have to describe what you are doing for the court reporter. Something that is about an inch long and about a distance close to 30 inches would represent an F-18 at about 1,000 feet if the plane fit between the markers. How do you know that? It's geometry. If the airplane is 60 feet long, for small angles it's just proportionate. So 3 feet or 1,000 feet it's just a simple proportion. So you would have to know how long an F/A-14 was or F/A-18 was to get that calculation? Yes.

Q. A.

Q. A. Q. A.

Exhibit 2A - Herk Stokely Deposition Summary - Page 3 of 5

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

Document 224-2

Filed 10/12/2006

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(id. p. 50-51) The planes at Oceana also fly over his house often when conducting touch and go operations. Q A If they are not flying FCLPs in or around your home, how are they flying around your home? Well, they still do landing practice. They do -- pilots returning from their training missions, if they have time in their schedule and sufficient fuel remaining, will often do a few touch and goes at the end of their flight. And Navy pilots, in essence, every landing is FCLP, but they only have a limited time and a limited amount of fuel, so they will make two or three or four and land. And it's not like grinding around the pattern for hours as it is when there's FCLP practice. When they are doing this landing practice, the planes are still flying in and around your home? Oh, yes. If they are using runway 5. **** Q. We were talking about the FCLPs and the landing practice in and around your home. Do you believe that an FCLP and a touch and go are essentially the same thing? Well, I think I made the statement that for a Navy pilot every landing is FCLP. Landing on a carrier in a high performance airplane is so demanding that nobody passes up an opportunity to practice a carrier landing. And the runway has the carrier landing device set up on it all the time. And if it's not operating, the pilots would consider it unusual and not a desirable situation. So the short answer to your question is, yes, they are essentially the same except for the duration and the intensity of the operation. However, with that said, generally when planes are coming back from an operational training flight, not FCLP, there are a smaller number of planes in the landing pattern, probably one or two, possibly maybe three at a time, and since the planes have to take their spacing off one another, they would tend to be further from my house because the pattern would not have expanded so dramatically beyond the one that's specified in the EIS. See, patterns in the EIS are no where near my home. But once you get more than a few planes in the pattern, and they have to take their interval off one another, the pattern expands and the next thing you know it's over my house. I have even seen them substantially beyond my house, especially at night. I have seen them flying directly over the Virginia Beach General Hospital. So do you believe the patterns in the EIS are not accurate? The pattern in the EIS is highly idealized, the pattern that would be flown by a single plane flown by an expert pilot who observed all the approach

Q. A

A.

Q. A.

Exhibit 2A - Herk Stokely Deposition Summary - Page 4 of 5

Case 1:01-cv-00201-VJW

Document 224-2

Filed 10/12/2006

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Q. A. Q. A.

speeds and that sort of thing. The way they are idealized makes it very unrealistic for real operations. However, it does make the noise zones much smaller on the map. Why do you say that? What? That the flight pattern in the EIS makes the noise zone smaller? Because the flight pattern is much smaller than the pattern that the Navy actually flies, and because of the fact that the noise zones are based on the pattern in the EIS, the patterns being smaller, thus the noise zones are smaller.

(id. p. 56-59) He knows that the Navy actually flies far outside the patterns because they are coming directly over his house, yet his house is more than a mile from the nearest flight pattern. Moreover, if the planes are a mile away from his house the noise level on his sound meter is far below that which he has recorded when they pass directly over his house (id. p. 59)

Q. A.

And I think you mentioned that there was ­ it just seemed like there was an increase in FCLPs. Do you remember when that occurred? Let me see how specific I can be about that. The first EIS, the one for the F-18 C and D coming from Cecil Field, the basis of that EIS was that only occasionally FCLP would be done at Oceana. And only when it was necessary for one of those exceptional reasons that I mentioned. There was actually a statement in the EIS that said that. And the number of FCLP operations that were estimated in that first EIS was something between 4 and 5,000 per year. 4,400, 4,500, something like that. At the time that I asked Captain Zobel that question, the intensity of FCLP at Oceana had increased dramatically. It prompted my question. The answer Captain Zobel gave us at that time was that in that particular year, over 20,000 had been conducted at Oceana.

(id. p. 62-63)

Exhibit 2A - Herk Stokely Deposition Summary - Page 5 of 5