On Tuesday, Oct. 12, the Santa Fe Board of Community Commissioners unanimously voted on a resolution opposing the new Low Altitude Tactical Navigation plan for Cannon Air Force Base, joining both Taos and Los Alamos in its opposition. ---
The LATN is an enormous demarcation of land encompassing large parts of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in which C-130 Herculeses (gargantuan cargo planes) and CV-22 Ospreys (crazy hybrid flying machines) would fly around at altitudes of around 200 feet—and, Santa Fe County says, piss everyone off, including the animals.
Here's what the proposed plan is right now:
If there's enough public kerfuffle, here's the USAF's next shot:
And if such pandemonium ensues that the USAF is forced to scrap the plan altogether, it'll keep its current routes around Albuquerque, which it argues is too flat to train pilots in a representative environment.
That pandemonium (or at least something equally effective) isn't impossible: There has been such public response that the USAF extended its deadline for public input from October 5 to November 14.
In that linked FAQ, the Air Force argues that the disturbance would be negligible: There would be three flights a day distributed over a pretty wide area, and that "Air Force regulations require aircraft utilizing the LATN area to avoid airfields, towns, noise sensitive areas and wilderness areas...to the extent practicable." Plus, no weapons would be on the flying machines, which seems better than having weapons on the flying machines.
