After years of resistance, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has altered how its planes and helicopters fly over Tucson. These changes are overdue, but welcome.

The timing of the announcement, however, created confusion as Tucsonans read reports about the altitude changes while being buzzed by loud jets getting ready for the air show at D-M this weekend.

The new D-M wing commander, Col. Kent Laughbaum, announced Thursday that, during the day, jets will fly over the city at an altitude of 2,000 feet above ground level instead of 1,500 feet. The jet flight path will not change, but Laughbaum said the increased altitude over the city center will reduce noise by 4.5 decibels. This is good news for people who live in the flight path — which includes large swaths of Tucson.

D-M helicopters, including the HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters, will increase their daytime altitudes from 500 to 800 feet as they depart and approach the base from the east, which should reduce noise. And departing helicopters will change their daytime flight path to run along Interstate 10 to the west of town. This, too, is a welcome change.

The base averages 80 flights per day, and D-M is the main training center for A-10 jets, which are used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The flight changes stem from recommendations issued by the Military Community Compatibility Committee, or MC3 for short. Laughbaum stressed during a meeting with the Star on Wednesday that these changes won't be the last to come from the MC3 report. "I don't want to oversell this — this is an incremental step in the right direction," he said.

Laughbaum said these are the best changes he can make to how jets and helicopters fly to and from the base without compromising the safety of the pilots or those on the ground. No one wants to jeopardize safety, of course. He said base leadership has been considering the changes for about two months and pilots have been testing the approaches on and off for the past month. The new approach worked, so the changes began officially on Wednesday.

This begs a question, however: Why did it take so many years for D-M leadership to come to make these changes? Laughbaum took command at D-M in August and within months changes have been made. This is encouraging and it shows responsiveness to the MC3 recommendations.

But we wonder why, if these changes seem as doable and logical as Laughbaum explained, they weren't made years ago to help alleviate noise pollution that affects Tucsonans. Complaints about aircraft noise from the base aren't new.

Laughbaum said D-M is moving forward with other recommendations, including improved communications, by organizing a standing committee that will deal specifically with residents and local governments. He's also creating a new "community initiatives team" at D-M that will reach out to the community at large through town hall meetings and similar tactics.

D-M and Tucson are so intertwined it's vital that the base leadership understand the importance of that relationship, as it appears Laughbaum does.

These first moves by D-M under Laughbaum's command are encouraging. The timing of the announcement could have been better, true, but the real test will come next week, after the air show leaves town. These changes won't fix all the concerns about noise coming from D-M, but the good news is that Laughbaum doesn't pretend that they will. And at the same time, he promises that these won't be the only changes made to improve base-community relations.

Tucson must now hold D-M to that promise.