RANGELEY – About 30 people came to town hall Wednesday to hear a proposal that would bring Air Force fighter jets on training missions closer to Western Maine’s ground.

Support and appreciation for what the pilots from Air National Guard units in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York are training to do was countered by concerns that the abrupt and sudden appearance of high-powered military aircraft flying as low as 500 feet above the ground could create an unsafe and unnecessary disruption.

“We moved to Western Maine for peace and quiet,” said Tom Mazuka of Strong. An Air Force retiree, Mazuka bristled when one Federal Aviation Administration official suggested the noise of an F-15 fighter jet is only slightly louder than a motorized lawn mower. “I know how loud an F-15 is at 500 feet and it’s a lot louder than a lawn mower,” Mazuka said.

Mazuka’s concerns, he said, were not over the occasional aircraft buzzing low, as is common under existing rules for the Condor Military Operations Area, 5,000 square miles of airspace above parts of Franklin and Oxford counties. Mazuka said he was more concerned that once a lower flight floor was approved by the FAA it would be an open door for more and more military aircraft training in the region.

But several other people, including Gary Shaffer of Rangeley, said they were pleased and proud when they saw military aircraft training in the region.

“I support what you are trying to do and it is nice to see you fly by,” Shaffer said.

Float plane pilot Allan Haggan of Phillips said the proposal to allow fast-moving military aircraft to operate low anywhere in the training area could create risks for smaller planes. Haggan said current rules for the operations area are known to local pilots, and the few one-way routes where military aircraft are allowed to fly low are well-known to area pilots who pay attention to them.

“Maine is different,” Haggan said. Many of the region’s smaller lakes and ponds are float plane bases in the summer, and even in the winter, and he wondered if military aircraft would stay clear of small planes.

Tricia Quinn, a member of the Maine Army National Guard and a local forester, said concerns the training would disturb the tranquillity of the region were overblown when you consider the need for National Guard personnel to have adequate and appropriate training.

“For the few people that are seeing these planes go by it’s more of a thrill than a hindrance,” she said.

Officers from the Massachusetts Air National Guard did their best to convince people that high-tech radar and navigation systems on military aircraft made it possible for pilots to see smaller, slower-moving planes.

Col. L. Scott “Catfish” Rice, a commander and pilot with the Massachusetts Air Guard, said the military would be responsive to complaints of “hot dogging” pilots or to other concerns about planes disrupting residential life. Rice also said a hotline for complaints was established and air controllers would notify commanders of bad behavior or problems. Those areas would be quickly put off limits for training, he said.

“We will try our best and we want to give you a medium when we don’t,” Rice said. “We want to provide that to everybody.”

Rice said fewer fighter planes are going to be assigned to Northeast Guard units and while training exercises may be allowed closer to the ground, they would be more infrequent.

He also noted that existing training area rules were designed for missions that are outdated. Pilots need to train at lower altitudes in order to practice destroying improvised explosive devices, like those being employed by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The other mission that requires lower altitude training is aircraft interception, especially for rogue private planes that may mean harm to U.S. civilians. “That’s what we are looking to train for and use this airspace to train for,” Rice said.

At the request of Gov. John Baldacci, the public comment period on the proposal has been extended so more people could offer input, Rice said. Another hearing will be held in Moscow today and another is tentatively scheduled for Farmington in early July.

The officers also said that a reporting system, already in place, allows residents to phone in concerns about military planes. That number is 800-223-5612.

Lt. Col. Landon Jones, assigned to the Air National Guard headquarters at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, said the proposal was far from finalized and that part of the reason the military is meeting with the public is to gather information and concerns like those voiced by Mazuka and Haggan. The military has to provide a draft environmental assessment to the FAA. The final decision on an air floor is up to the FAA.

“The Air Force and the Air National Guard will not make the final decision on how this airspace will be modified,” he said. He also said it was important for the Guard to hear from residents. “We are you,” he said. “We are an extension of the American people and that matters to us.”

In some cases, off-limit bubbles would be marked around more populated areas or places with busy airports, including Rangeley, he said.

Dave Arthurs, a Vietnam Marine Corps vet, said warplanes saved his life and he appreciated them, but he also appreciated the concerns that the peace and quiet of the region could be disturbed. But Arthurs said the level of detailed answers provided and the promise that concerns would be addressed by the military eased many of his concerns.

Information that the planes would only occasionally be flying at the 500-foot level and that there was a plan to respond quickly to complaints was reassuring. “I understand people’s concerns,” Arthurs said. “But they need to be able to do this training, and I don’t want to be NIMBY either. I think (the military officers) answered a lot of my questions and I feel like I have a much better understanding of what’s being proposed.”