NIMBY: "Not In My Back Yard!" or "Negatively Informed Morons Belching Yarns"

The Valkaria Airport Creed Hear the Valkaria Airport community's response to NIMBYs: MP3 or WAV

Sadly, at a great many airports throughout the country, a small (but invariably disproportionately vocal) portion of society believes that moving next to an active airport that's been in place and operational for decades gives them the "right" to dictate how the facility operates, or demand that it be shut down. Not once in recorded human history has an airport just popped up out of the ground in the middle of the night in a subdivision, yet to hear a NIMBY tell it, they "never expected" to hear aircraft operating despite living a mile off the end of a runway!

Sadly, we can't fix the fact that some people live in an alternate reality... a bizarre and frightening world, where people truly believe that their personal desires (and in the case of Valkaria Airport, paranoid delusions and vicious personal vendettas persisting for decades) should trump the rights of society to enjoy the many benefits the local airport brings to the entire community. To these self-centered and resource-draining miscreants which make up the uglier fringe of our communities, we can only shake our heads in wonder and pity. It's hard for pilots to understand how fellow human beings can get to such an empty place in their lives that they would waste their short time on earth pursuing little airplanes and their pilots, trying to shut down the activities to which the NIMBYs would never dare to dream, much less attain. Are they so timid, so afraid to live a real life in the real world, that they must seek to conform the real world to their own warped and narrow concept of how life should be? Where they raised to reject the basic concept that we all have to give a little bit, for the greater good of everyone including ourselves? Or are they merely focusing all their personal internal miseries and failures on what they perceive as an "easy target" so they can attempt to feel better through bringing others down... others who have had the perseverance and drive to achieved the noble dream of breaking free of the mundane bounds of gravity on occasion?

It's hard to say what the average aviation NIMBY's real problems stem from... we're pilots, not psychologists. One thing, however, remains crystal clear... the truth and the NIMBY's hysterical nonsense are never one and the same! How come NIMBYs continuously scream about non-existent "noise" and "safety" problems, proven countless times not to exist (or at worst, to be extremely exaggerated by a couple of complainers)... yet these same folks never show one iota of concern about loud car stereos or the traffic carnage that happens on the very streets they live and drive on every day? Strange folks, these anti-airport types. And they always seem to live NEAR an airport!

Come On... Don't Tell Us That Airports Are Always Perfect!

Obviously, sometimes there are very legitimate community concerns involving airports and aircraft operations. Sometimes, operations at an airport will expand, or procedures will be modified and aircraft will begin to fly over different places than before. Or a new facility might open and bring additional traffic, or new types of aircraft. Or there will be an accident that will raise questions about the public's safety. These are certainly very important and legitimate areas of concern, and the pilot community certainly is aware that public opinion affects what they do.

Fortunately, the pilot community is made up of normal, local, taxpaying citizens too... folks who are your neighbors, friends, and co-workers, who just happen to love to fly. If many folks are concerned about something, often the pilots are just as concerned about it... if for no other reason than they understand that they have a personal stake in resolving any problems which do exist. Pilots take seriously their efforts to avoid perceptions about their activities being "unsafe" or "problematic", and pilots exhibiting unsafe behavior are simply not tolerated or welcomed within the aviation community. However, what non-aviators often perceive as "unsafe" is vastly different than what is actually unsafe, and in fact some very normal flight maneuvers for which every pilot receives thorough training and repetitive testing can appear to be quite radical to untrained observers.

In fact, many standard aviation procedures are in place which are designed solely to minimize conflicts with, impacts upon, and incorrect perceptions of the non-flying public, even though they impose additional burdens upon the aviation community. There is a strong ethic in place throughout the flying world to avoid causing problems to the public, whether real or perceived. And quite often, what non-aviators may perceive to be a potential problem makes perfect sense once all the reasoning and relevant facts are presented.

As with any community issue, when a legitimate issue or concern arises surrounding an airport or aviation, the best resolution is always open and honest discussion based on the facts. There are countless cases where a potential problem or concern of residents has been resolved simply by the affected folks and the pilot community arranging to have a friendly chat.

There once was a time when someone who was concerned about something associated with their local airfield (such as "Why is is that landing airplanes always turn right over my house?") would be expected to do the obvious thing... just call up the local airport to ask. Someone kind soul at the airport office would happily explain it and answer any questions they had as best they could, and maybe even invite the caller out to see for themselves. 99% of the time, the problem was solved right then and there. It was simply a matter of giving an understanding of the relevant facts to someone who didn't yet know them. When people learn the facts about a subject they aren't familiar with, such as aviation, generally the fear and puzzlement evaporates. Even if learning the facts doesn't immediately resolve all the issues, having a working knowledge of the relevant facts is the crucial foundation upon which the best solution will be built.

In contrast, the NIMBYs never seem to deal with ALL the facts, or to want others to know them. They just pick and choose the things that will bolster their complaints (generally, their "facts" are out of context and/or little more than unprovable opinions), while conveniently glossing over and ignoring relevant factors that cover the other side of the coin. They often throw in a copious amount of unrelated information as a diversion, and to lend an air of credibility to their own position. Beware of people like this... they're trying to sell you something that you neither need nor want!

Unfortunately, injecting hysteria, exaggerations, and outright lies is a standard tactic of airport NIMBYs everywhere. Way too often, it works for at least a little while. Of course, this NEVER helps to resolve an issue, and it's common for the NIMBY to create fear and doubt over issues that simply don't even exist! Sadly, today it seems that the anti-aviation NIMBYs have poisoned the waters in some communities (including Grant-Valkaria and Malabar) to the point that some misguided folks actually believe that every pilot around is actually out to annoy and harass them personally! Nothing is further from the truth, of course, but it seems that the basic concept of finding out the actual facts about things before forming an opinion and grabbing a pitchfork is becoming more rare by the day.

We can only hope that anyone with a concern or question about their local airport will have the common sense to find out what's happening and why from folks who actually know what they're talking about. Call the airport to start with. Check out other pages on this website, or visit some of the websites specifically set up to help non-pilots understand aviation... we particularly recommend GAServingAmerica.com as an excellent overview of many common topics of concern to folks living near an airport. But please, whatever you do... don't assume that a so-called "expert" with no aviation credentials has the whole story, or is even telling the truth! NIMBYs (especially a few well-known at X59) too often sound really "good" to someone without knowledge of the facts -- even while spouting out nothing but absolute lies and severely twisted versions of the truth intended to create a negative opinion of the airport and aviators. (With Valkaria Airport in particular, be very wary of locally-produced "community newsletters", as their "journalism" is even more yellow and cowardly than the paper they're usually printed on! Don't wrap up any fish bait in these rags either, we've found that it contaminates dead fish with a most horrible stench.)

What Do The Authorities Think About NIBMYs?

Once in a while, the government has a sudden outbreak of common sense, and the local NIMBY's non-stop hysterics and lies finally caught up with them. In August 2011, the FAA held a meeting with the local town, the airport owner, and the state DOT, and informed them that after extensive investigation, NOT ONE of the blizzard of complaints and reports from the NIMBYs could be substantiated, and in fact extensive (and very expensive) additional investigations proved only that Valkaria aviators are doing NOTHING wrong and operating completely legally.

THE FAA HAS OFFICIALLY DECREED THAT NO FURTHER COMPLAINTS CONCERNING VALKARIA AIRPORT WOULD BE TAKEN, INVESTIGATED, OR OTHERWISE CONSIDERED... PERIOD!!!

In essence, the NIMBYs cried "wolf" so often that they lost their voice for good with the one organization that really matters. So in the end, they did us all a big favor... just by being who they are!

We have posted details of the FAA's policy on X59 complaints, see the meeting presentation, and hear some interesting commentary on it here.

Sound Familiar? NIMBYs have been around a very, very long time...

On a related note, it's interesting to note that the opposition to airplanes and airports by local NIMBYs (who invariably moved next to the airport many years or decades after it began operation) is in many ways very similar to the opposition once faced by railroads. A great many of the statements made by anti-airport activists during the 2007 Master Plan process would have been right at home in the following statement. It describes the hysteria surrounding the introduction of a bill in Parliament in 1825, proposing to build a railroad from Manchester to Liverpool, England. Laughable? Yes, but this was closely mirrored by the NIMBYs such as the "Valkaria Neighborhood Association" during the Master Plan process, and many times since then. Substitute "airport master plan" and "runway lights" for the words "railway" and "locomotives" and you'd be hard-pressed to differentiate between the two sets of propaganda!

"...pamphlets were written and newspapers were hired to revile the railway. It was declared that its formation would prevent cows grazing and hens laying. The poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they flew over them, and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer possible. Householders adjoining the projected line were told that their houses would be burnt up by the fire thrown from the engine-chimneys, while the air around would be polluted by clouds of smoke. There would no longer be any use for horses; and if railways extended, the species would become extinguished, and oats and hay unsalable commodities. Traveling by road would be rendered highly dangerous, and country inns would be ruined. Boilers would burst and blow passengers to atoms. But there was always this consolation to wind up with -- that the weight of the locomotive would completely prevent its moving, and that railways, even if made, could never be worked by steam-power!"

Source: Smiles, Samuel. The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer. Columbus, Ohio, Follett, Foster, and Company, 1859. p. 205.

It just goes to prove that the more things change, the more they stay the same!