The Goodyear City Council held a work session in response to residents' complaints about noise and flight safety concerns surrounding a nearby aviation school at Phoenix Goodyear Airport, and officials cautioned against federal involvement.

The complaints and subsequent work session stem from public comments from Palm Valley residents, who happen to be pilots, that spoke to the city during Aug. 28 and Sept. 25 council sessions.

During those sessions, Goodyear resident Bryan McCarty told  council that United Aviate Academy could be practicing unsafe flight procedures in and around Palm Valley and the greater city area.

McCarthy said the flight school operates longer than regular hours, and some flight altitudes are well below safe and legal standards. He later called upon the city to see about adopting procedures to classify his area as a noise-sensitive residential neighborhood and establish mandatory noise abatement procedures.

On Monday, Jordan Feld, deputy director of aviation for Phoenix, responded by saying McCarty’s recommended flight safety controls were impractical.

“Anecdotally, the community members have suggested that we could either shift flight patterns or restrict flight patterns to certain times of day or limit the number of aircraft that are in the pattern at any one time. These are all logical ways to reduce noise,” he said. “Unfortunately, they're all illegal under current FAA rules. So those are the types of measures we can't really pursue.”

The city of Phoenix manages the airport in Goodyear.

Later, Feld conceded flight paths might not be ideal when pilots return north of Interstate 10 and that the flight school showed “honest” concern about it.

“The aircraft are generally trying not to fly north of I-10 when they're in the pattern and coming back to land. But if you can look back at those flight track maps, you can see it certainly does happen. So, that has been a big part of the conversation is what we can do to minimize the times planes are turning around north of 10. And to be honest, the flight schools have been very receptive.”

Despite the concern, representatives from United Aviate were not present at the work session on Monday.

In September, the Goodyear Independent went to the academy for a communications representative’s contact information. However, a security guard repeatedly questioned the reporter's credentials and asked him to stand outside for confirmation before escorting him off the premises.

Feld also said working with the federal government on flight path fixes would not be recommended.

“So I think again, back to what I was mentioning earlier that anytime you can work with the operators on a voluntary fix, it goes much smoother than trying to work with the federal government and I won't go into those details.”

The Goodyear Independent has requested records from the city of Phoenix and the Federal Aviation Administration as a response to the behavior of United Aviate Academy and its parent corporation, United Airlines.

Feld also addressed concerns about aircraft lower than the legally allowable threshold for safe altitudes.

“Because they're in the final approach and landing, it's the pilot's discretion as to how far they're off the ground,” he said. “The lowest I've seen through this area is around 800-900 feet. Generally, it's well above 1,000 feet. They will not only make an effort not to cross I-10. But we'll try to keep it above 1,000 feet above ground level.”

According to Goodyear resident and pilot Paul Wegeman, during public comments in August, he and his colleagues have documented planes routinely flying well north of McDowell Road, often dangerously below 1,000 feet above ground and as low as 500 to 600 feet.

Arizona’s ABC news affiliate reported on Oct. 15 that residents were irked by some of the noise, and the city was looking at implementing flight paths that may be conducive to reducing noise for nearby residents.

The Goodyear Independent is working with the FAA to document and report complaints and safety violations from the school.