Data shows 15,000 Touch and Go maneuvers a year at Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport
- Mike Lednovich
- Mar 8
- 8 min read
By Mike Lednovich/Editor
Editor's Note: The Observer used three AI programs to analyze data from VirTower tracking aircraft operations at the Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport for 12 months. This is what the data showed.
Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport recorded nearly 15,000 touch-and-go aircraft maneuvers in a one-year period, negatively impacting adjacent communities almost on a daily basis.
Regional flight schools emphasize that, given the current national shortage of pilots, these maneuvers highlight the airport's crucial role in training future aviators. Industry projections indicate a potential shortfall of up to 24,000 pilots in the U.S. by the end of 2026.
Data from the municipal airport’s VirTower aircraft-tracking system shows 14,748 touch-and-go operations between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025, an average of about 40 practice landings per day. The system uses sensors and aircraft transponder signals to track runway activity and aircraft movements.
Touch-and-go operations occur when a pilot lands briefly on a runway and immediately takes off again without stopping. The maneuver is commonly used by student pilots and flight instructors to practice takeoffs and landings.
Overall airport activity during the same period totaled 52,537 operations, including 25,247 landings and 27,290 takeoffs, meaning touch-and-go training flights accounted for roughly 28% of all runway activity.
The tracking report indicates that most activity comes from small training aircraft. Among aircraft types recorded at the airport during the reporting period, Cessna 172s accounted for more than 29,000 operations, followed by Piper PA-28 trainers and other small single-engine planes typically used by flight schools.
The majority of those flight schools are based at Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport including ATP Flight Academy and Aerosim Flight Academy.
A Cessna 172 and Piper PA-28 engine generate about 80-to-90 decibels at 1,000 feet after takeoff, equivalent to the noise from a gas-powered lawnmower from three feet away.
Touch-and-go maneuvers were spread across the airport’s runways but concentrated on the Runway 13/31 alignment, which accounted for the largest share of training activity.
While training operations are routine at general aviation airports, the increase in flight-school activity has prompted complaints from residents living near the airport.
A city-commissioned/FAA airport survey earlier this year highlighted concerns about aircraft noise and increased flight activity, particularly from training flights repeatedly circling the airport to perform touch-and-go maneuvers.
“Without a doubt, it’s noise and it’s limiting flight schools and touch-and-go activity,” said Ryan Allen, FAA program manager and community planner at a meeting of local pilots and aviation related businesses last month in regard to revising the airport's master plan. "Touch and go activities from the piston aircraft creating the noise impact were the two biggest areas of feedback that we received from the public survey."
Residents have told city officials that aircraft sometimes circle continuously for extended periods, producing repeated bursts of engine noise as planes take off and climb. During an Airport Advisory Commission meeting last year, one resident said the noise from training flights had become “unbearable” at times and described multiple aircraft conducting repeated practice landings.
"If the flight schools are using the facilities without a fee for service this is also a problem. The City Manager should explore the legal options to force the flight schools to pay a fee for each landing and if they won’t pay, ban them from the airport. They have other options in NE Florida if they don’t want to support the airport they are abusing for no expense," said Charles Brown, in a post to The Observer.
Complaints about flight-school activity have also led to policy discussions at City Hall.
In April 2024, city officials explored whether automated landing fees could discourage excessive touch-and-go operations, particularly by flight schools based outside Nassau County that use the airport for training.
Airport officials said the idea was partly aimed at addressing noise concerns raised by residents who say the frequency of practice landings has increased in recent years.
The now disbanded city Airport Advisory Board heard a proposal from Vector Airport Systems on PlanePass, a company offering an automated system that would charge pilots a landing fee for operations at Fernandina Airport. The program would have generated $200,000 yearly in revenue, company officials said.
That proposal was met with opposition by the airport's primary fixed based operator Bent Wing Flight Services which detailed the negative impact of implementing PlanePass including:
The airport would lose transient air traffic which in turn would have a negative impact on such revenue as aircraft fuel sales.
Bent Wing would be forced to raise their fee structure because of the loss of customers.
Landing fees are a financial solution, but the airport has not identified a financial need.
The airport has not reviewed potential revenue options other than landing fees.
At that same meeting, Parkway North resident Vicki Somora told the board that she had measured the flight school activity.
"The noise (from flight schools) has gotten unbearable," Somora said. "I counted 20 takeoffs in one hour on runway 13. I fully support implementation of the landing fees if this cuts some of the noise."
Like many public airports that receive federal aviation funding, Fernandina Beach has limited authority to restrict aircraft operations. Federal rules generally require airports to remain open to all aviation users.
The city has adopted voluntary noise-abatement guidelines, asking pilots to use flight paths and runway configurations that minimize impacts on residential neighborhoods when possible. There are "touch and go" guidelines on the city's airport noise abatement website that states no more than "five touch and go's" without departing the pattern.
However, the guidelines cannot be enforced with penalties.
Airport officials say most pilots follow the recommendations, but compliance ultimately depends on individual operators.
"We ask pilots to voluntarily comply with those guidelines, but we have no enforcement powers," said Airport Manager Nathan Coyle. "We keep an eye on it when possible."
Fernandina Beach resident Doug August tracks airport operations using Flightaware.com a website that tracks airplane movements into and out of airports. August provided The Observer with an example of one pilot from Craig Field who conducted eight touch-and-goes at the Fernandina Airport last December.
"All one has to do is logon to flightaware.com on any day of the week (yes Sundays included) to see the blatant disregard for the touch and go guidelines and the constant abuse of noise sensitive areas around the airport," August said in an email to The Observer. "They should also know that the flight schools provide little to no positive economic benefit to the Fernandina Beach Airport. They fly in, they make their 10 or 15 loops and they fly back to Craig. I suspect they don't even purchase fuel, which is a primary revenue generator for an airport."
Supporters of aviation activity argue the airport provides significant economic value to the community through aviation services, business travel, tourism and pilot training.
"The Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport is one of more than 125 public-use airports in the state of Florida which, as a whole, according to an economic impact study in 2021, contribute an estimated $336 billion dollars to the state's economy. The airport in Fernandina Beach provides an annual economic impact of $219 million dollars while enabling convenient access for private and business aviation directly supporting tourism, local businesses, and emergency services," Airport Manager Coyle said.
The airport’s fixed-base operator - Bent Wing Flight Services - provides fuel, maintenance and passenger services for visiting aircraft, while flight schools help address what aviation officials said is a national pilot shortage.
"For 40 years I made my living flying in and out of small airport all over the country and Fernandina Beach has one of the best. The 84 airplanes that are based at our airport are not the problem, the airplanes that fly into Fernandina to vacation, invest in real estate, or have a shareholders/board meeting at one of the resorts or attend the Concours Car Show are not the problem," said Larry Westbrook in another post to The Observer. "The problem is the Flight Training airplanes from Jacksonville that use the infrastructure of the airport to conduct their commercial "for profit" business teaching their students how fly an airplane, using our asset. They don't buy gas, pay a fee, rent a car, eat at a restaurant, stay at a hotel, invest in real estate, contribute to charity or pay taxes in Nassau County."
Local aviation advocates have warned that policies aimed at limiting training flights could increase the cost of pilot education or drive activity to other regional airports.
The new data illustrates the scale of training activity at the airport and is likely to fuel continuing debate over how to balance aviation operations with neighborhood concerns.
For residents living beneath the airport’s traffic patterns, the numbers reinforce what they say they hear daily.
Residents concerned about aircraft noise have the option of filing complaints through the Federal Aviation Administration’s national noise reporting system, which allows the public to submit concerns directly to the agency.
The online portal — known as the FAA Noise Portal — collects reports from residents about aircraft noise events and routes them to the appropriate FAA office for review. The system is intended to help the agency track noise trends and identify potential operational issues at airports.
Complaints submitted through the portal typically include details such as the date and time of the aircraft noise, location of the person filing the complaint, and a description of the event. The FAA may use the information to compare with radar or ADS-B flight data to determine which aircraft were operating in the area at the time.
However, the FAA notes that filing a complaint does not necessarily result in enforcement action, particularly at airports such as Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport that do not have air traffic control towers and operate under standard federal aviation regulations.
In many cases, the information is used primarily to monitor patterns of noise concerns and provide feedback to airports and aviation operators.
City officials and aviation authorities often encourage residents to submit complaints through the FAA system because it creates a formal record of community noise concerns tied to specific aircraft activity.
Residents can file a report through the FAA’s online portal at: noise.faa.gov
Airport officials said they routinely receive "one or two" noise complaints per week.
As part of the ongoing update to the Airport Master Plan for Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport, city officials and aviation consultants are preparing a series of public outreach opportunities to gather community input. The planning process will include public meetings, surveys and workshops designed to allow residents, airport users and nearby property owners to comment on the airport’s future needs, potential improvements and operational issues.
City officials have said community feedback is an important part of the master plan update, which will guide airport development and priorities over the next 20 years.
Aircraft noise is expected to draw significant public input, particularly from training flights conducting repeated touch-and-go maneuvers at the airport. Previous coverage in the Fernandina Observer has documented complaints from residents living near the airport who say repeated training circuits creates extended periods of engine noise as aircraft land and immediately take off again during pilot training.
Frustrated residents have repeatedly asked the city to explore ways to reduce noise impacts. The master planning process is expected to include discussion of those concerns as well as possible operational practices or voluntary measures that could help balance airport activity with quality-of-life issues for nearby neighborhoods.
According to Allen from the FAA, the agency intends to hold two public sessions during the airport master plan revision process: the first around the midpoint of the schedule and the second as it approaches completion.
"We usually do it in an open house format where, you know, the public can come in, engage with us, ask us questions, submit questions via comment box, and provide feedback on alternatives and the master plan process as a whole," Allen said.
As city officials and the FAA continue reviewing airport policies, the question remains how Fernandina Beach will manage the competing priorities of economic activity, aviation access and quality of life for nearby neighborhoods.
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