Pilots weigh in on Nimbus Wind Facility

There has been considerable local opposition to the proposed $300-million Scout Clean Energy Nimbus Wind Facility, and opponents have voiced concern about the lack of local and state government oversight for the project near Green Forest in rural Carroll County. Scout has said it doesn’t need a permit for the project from the Arkansas Public Service Commission because the facility will be a merchant power plant selling electricity out of state and, as such, is exempt from being regulated by the APSC.

There has also been support from property owners who have leased to Scout, which has said leaseholders stand to make $14 million over the life of the project and Carroll County would receive about $24 million in taxes. Proposed turbine setback regulations and a moratorium on wind and solar facilities failed before the Quorum Court. There has also been support from advocates of doing everything possible to combat climate change by producing renewable green energy.

Current applications to the FAA for the project are out for public comments, but public comments must be relevant to the effect the structures would have on aviation and provide sufficient detail to make a case.

Three local pilots contacted by the Eureka Springs Independent had different viewpoints about the Nimbus facility.

“I am a pilot retired from Delta Air Lines with more than sixty years of air experience,” Errol Severe said. He is president of the non-profit Aviation Cadet Museum Inc. located on Onyx Cave Road, which has a runway.

“These wind turbines are going to make pilots really mad,” Severe said. They are going to be a danger to pilots, aircraft, birds and anything else that flies in the air. In addition to that, one day these turbines will fall down and just be big piles of junk that someone else will have to clean up.”

Severe said issues for pilots include having to go around or higher than the turbines, which would be the tallest cluster of structures in Northwest Arkansas and some of the highest structures in the state.

“In times of low visibility, these could cause a problem,” Severe said. “If it is clear, you can see them and avoid them. If it is not clear, then pilots will have to do an instrument flight plan to get vectors. When you fly in weather where you can’t see the ground or towers, you depend on air traffic control to vector so you don’t hit these things. Instrument flying is a bit different. You better be good at it if you are going to do it. Not many local pilots have instrument ratings. It takes a long time to get good at it. You better follow the rules because if you don’t, you are probably going to get killed.”

Severe said there are also increasing numbers of communications towers. He said every time they put something up, a hazard is created.

Severe also questioned the need for the facility since Scout has not announced a customer for the energy and has said the power will be sold out-of-state. He also said the placement is ill-advised because if you look at the map for places that are good for wind power, this area is not included.

“Who gets the benefit of this power?” Severe asks. “It goes out of state. So, what is the incentive for having it here? What is the bottom line? It is always who is getting the money. In this case, it is the company that builds it and locals who lease to them. The bottom line is that most people who live here get zip. Wind turbines emit two frequencies, one you can hear and one you can’t. People have problems sleeping if they are anywhere near one of these wind turbines. We have large oil reserves and the largest natural gas supplies in the world, and natural gas power plants are much more efficient than wind turbines.”

                Walt Kenyon, a private pilot from Eureka Springs, doesn’t see the project being a significant hazard to air navigation. Kenyon volunteers for Angel Flights, which provides air transportation for people in need of medical transport, and Pilots-n-Paws, which transports sick animals.

“I am familiar with a lot of the wind farms because we fly to different areas of the country that have significant numbers of them,” Kenyon said. “One of the concerns among the pilot group here is we don’t like anything poking out of the ground that can be detrimental to the aviation community. By the same token, wind turbines are not much different than all the cell towers going up in the area.”

The FAA regulates wind farms, and Kenyon said the traditional general flying population is not overly affected by them. He said it can affect a certain flying segment, like crop dusters, because they fly close to the ground. For pilots, there is a concern that the increase in obstacle clearances over already high terrain where Nimbus is planned may affect flight patterns into nearby airports. Nearby airports might be affected depending on wind, which fluctuates.

Kenyon said there is no one solution to solve all the electric power needs.

 “We can’t rely totally on solar, wind or hydroelectric,” Kenyon said, who comes from an electric utility background. “We are still going to need fossil fuel plants and, in the long-term, maybe nuclear. Migratory birds can be caught in wind turbines. Solar takes up large amounts of land compared to more traditional fossil fuel plants, but the push by many is to remove those plants regardless of how efficient they have become. No one bullet is going to fix everything. It is going to take a mix of all these technologies for the foreseeable future.”

From a pilot’s standpoint, Kenyon does not believe there is great concern as long as the current airports and their associated patterns and approaches are not affected, and that aviation safety is not compromised.

Jay Trulove, a resident who recently retired as a pilot for a major airline, said he considers the proposed towers a danger to small planes and opposes tall towers that are that close to the Harrison and Berryville airports.

“Anything that sticks up 700 feet above the ground anywhere close to an airport is not good,” Trulove, who owns and flies small airplanes in the area, said. “There is a lot of small aircraft traffic in the area.”

Trulove has often flown over wind facilities, but they are not located around small airports. In addition to the airports in Berryville and Harrison, there are grass landing strips in the area.

The Berryville airport is 1,200 feet above sea level and the mountains where the wind turbines are planned are several hundred feet higher. Trulove said this means these turbine towers could be sticking up in the clouds a lot.

“They might be hard to see,” Trulove said. “The Berryville area is a non-radar environment at low altitudes. Air traffic control can’t see you. No one is looking out for you. In a bigger area, air traffic control will warn you about these things. On sunny days, the blades set off a flash. If it hits a pilot at the wrong time, it is something that could be distracting. To me, these wind turbines would be an aviation hazard.”

Trulove also objects to them as an eyesore, especially in a mountainous area known for beautiful scenery. He also said he is opposed the large number of bird deaths associated with turbines which can range from small birds to bald eagles.