Complaints Bombard Van Nuys Airport : Aviation: Profits have plunged; neighbors are upset about noise; tenants also have problems.

From his office overlooking the runway at Van Nuys Airport, Ron Kochevar points to a helicopter flickering through the murky skies and shrugs.

“Here comes a sheriff’s helicopter,” the 46-year-old airport manager said with resignation. “All it’s doing is traversing the area, going from one point to another through the Valley. And now, we’ll get another complaint.”

If Kochevar sounds beleaguered these days, he has good reason.

Buffeted by noise complaints from San Fernando Valley residents, tough economic conditions and pressure from airport tenants such as billionaire David Murdock, who wants to expand, Van Nuys Airport is in a tailspin.

With 1,400 takeoffs and landings a day, the Los Angeles city-owned airport remains the busiest general aviation airfield in the nation. But the airport’s profits have been in a nose dive. Van Nuys Airport will lose money in the fiscal year that ends June 30, contrasted with a profit of $185,000 last year and $1.2 million in 1989.

Meanwhile, takeoffs and landings at the airport dropped last year and are down another 5% so far this year. Small planes continue to flee Van Nuys for other airports where tie-down rates are lower. The number of aircraft based at the 725-acre Van Nuys Airport stands at about 850, compared to more than 1,300 a decade ago.

There has been an increase in business jets garaged at Van Nuys, which boosted revenue in 1991 to a record $8.7 million, up 15% from 1987. However, with more jets have come a groundswell of noise protests. What’s more, aviation businesses at Van Nuys Airport complain that both the recession and airport policies are strangling them.

“It’s a constant worry and fight for anybody who works or has a business here,” said Clay Lacy, who has been involved with Van Nuys Airport as a pilot since 1952 and now runs a charter and aviation services company.

The airport’s problems partly reflect industrywide troubles. Many of the country’s 400 major general aviation airports are grappling with the same issues, analysts say.

However, many blame Van Nuys Airport’s troubles on the Department of Airports, saying the city agency has long neglected the airport while focusing on the moneymaking operations at Los Angeles International Airport.

Department officials say they’re not at fault. “What we’re trying to do is strike a balance between the community’s concerns and the concerns of airport operations,” said Clifton Moore, the department’s longtime executive director.

But airport users fault the Department of Airports for trying to parcel out pieces of the airport for non-aviation commercial development. “The airport has been run in a haphazard, plot-by-plot way,” said Phil Berg, president of the Van Nuys Airport Assn., which represents 200 airport tenants and users.

Under pressure, the Department of Airports agreed two months ago to begin work on a master plan that would for the first time detail the airport’s long-term plans. That plan will cover development issues, noise restrictions and rental rates. Airport officials agreed to halt any further development until the plan is finished.

Business leaders, however, think that a moratorium will only make matters worse. “You can’t kill an infant to get rid of the disease,” said Kipp Pritzlaff, chairman of the Mid-Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Airport Committee.

The problems facing Van Nuys Airport have been in the making for years. They involve the changing face of the airport, caused in large measure by the drop off in general aviation manufacturing and the corresponding growth of corporate jets that have moved in.

In 1979, U.S. manufacturers shipped more than 17,000 general aviation aircraft. But since then, sales have plummeted to slightly more than 1,000 last year, a trend experts attribute to spiraling increases in product liability insurance, price and maintenance costs.

During that same 12-year period, the number of jets based at Van Nuys Airport has grown fivefold. Aviation analysts say Southern California is home to about 235 business jets, and 100 of them are based at Van Nuys. Helicopters based at the airport have gone up from 21 in 1980 to about 55 today, and those caused resident complaints to rise last year.

Experts say corporations were drawn to Van Nuys because of its central location in the Valley, its long, 8,000-foot runway that is suited for jets, and the saturated conditions at Los Angeles International Airport, Burbank and other urban airfields.

But the arrival of the Jet Age at Van Nuys hasn’t set well with neighboring homeowners, who speak about rattled windows and interrupted sleep. The airport has some limitations on night flights, but not enough for some.

“I’d like to see them do away with night flying,” said Richard C. Seydell, who has lived near the airport for 45 years.

In past years, corporate tenants have kept a low profile. But privately they worry about getting caught in what they see as a no-win battle with residents. “We’re frustrated,” an official of one big corporation said. “Our business jet is very important to our operations. It’s not a perk or a toy for executives.”

The building moratorium is likely to halt development of several proposed projects, including one planned by Murdock.

The chairman of Dole Food Co. operates a Falcon 900 that is stored in a hangar owned by Murdock along the airport’s stretch of hangars that make up corporate row. But because the hangar is close to a residential area, Murdock can’t taxi in and out of the hangar--his plane must be towed to the runway. So he has proposed building a new hangar and an office building next to it.