ESTERO – Estero resident Alan Rodak has given the Southwest Florida International Airport feedback on the noise of the planes flying over his house for three years.

It seems that the airport is ready to listen.

The Lee County Port Authority hired ESA Airports to conduct a $781,515 FAR Part 150 Noise Study for the Southwest International Airport. The consultant will hold four identical workshops this week to present information on the Federal Aviation Regulation Part 150 Noise and Land Use Compatibility Study. Information will be presented on the flight operations at Southwest Florida International Airport, the noise process and the technical analyses completed to date.

According to the Port Authority’s website, the data collected will be used to correlate actual measurements of the Integrated Noise Model – a computer model that evaluates aircraft noise impacts in the vicinity of an airport.

“Our consultant will use the noise contours developed to further evaluate aircraft flight paths as well as provide the Lee County Port Authority with updated contours which will aid in land use planning,” according to the site.

But many residents wonder if it is going to make any difference to them.

During the last FAR Part 150 Noise Study prepared in 2006, the FAA concluded that Southwest Florida International Airport does not have a noise problem based on federal criteria, which considers aircraft noise levels around the airport over an FAA-determined analysis period, according to the Lee County Port Authority’s web site.

“I think it is a little late. I don’t understand the relevance of it,” said Rodak.

In September 2008, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) changed the arrival patterns for flights coming into Southwest Florida International Airport. The plan, called the Florida West Coast Airspace Redesign – or FLOWCAR, was developed after the airport experienced an increase in flights, which outpaced the air traffic control systems ability to absorb the traffic, which caused saturation of air traffic control sectors and increased flight delays, according to the FAA.

The plan also anticipated that the FAA would need to commission a new, 9,100-feet-long runway that paralleled the existing runway in 2015.

The change meant that neighborhoods that did not previously have planes flying overhead now had aircraft flying overhead every day.

“It’s frustrating to a lot of people in Estero,” Rodak said. “It has gotten better, but it is still rather noisy. And in season, when traffic picks up, it gets worse. … It is estimated that the increase in flights will grow 5 to 6 percent a year, … so the problem is going to continue to get worse unless changes are made.”

Rodak, who moved into his home in Meadowbrook about one week before the change, said he is particularly frustrated because he lived closer to the airport before the move and it was less noisy. Nick Batos, a member of the Estero Council of Community Leaders’ Airport Noise Committee, said the committee has been working to ensure that the change affects the least amount of people as possible. He said the committee has worked to get planes to fly higher over those Estero neighborhoods to help abate noise when they come in for a landing.

“It’s been a bit of a help,” he said. “We’re trying to get out the effort as best we can. We have sent out notices. We want people to come and talk about how they are affected by the noise.”

But changes will not come quickly. ESA Airports will also hold workshops in the fall of 2011 and the spring of 2012 to accommodate seasonal residents and Batos said the process could take the better part of two years to complete.