PlasticPilot.net

I’m usually sensitive to other’s problems, so when I saw a brave Lady, almost crying on TV, I listened to what her problem was. Sleep disorder. Bad. Caused by aircraft noise at night. Oops. I felt somehow gulty. I dislike being deprived of good sleep (to answer a previous comment, yes, I continue to sleep, even with a wife, 2-yr kid, job, and this blog), and the idea that aviation was making that to someone else was not exactly a pleasant idea. The French Lady in question is living in Gonesse. The name sounds familiar ? This is where the Air-France Concorde crashed (visit the air-accidents page to read the report, and see additional charts). Gonesse is 8 kilometers to the west of Paris Charles-de-Gaulle - one of the busiest European airport - , and 800 meters of Paris Le Bourget ! Gonesse is the red pentagon on the picture below. Commercial operations started in Le Bourget in 1919, and the planning of Charles-de-Gaulle began in 1966, so they’re not exactly recent constructions.

The next big step in my life is to buy a house, together with Mrs. PlasticPilot, in the region between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. Frankfurt is a very busy airport, and many departures use runway 18, flying over the Darmstadt area. And this includes many Airbus 340 and Boeing 747, which don’t have the world’s best climb ratios. We know that aircraft noise could (will ?) be an issue. Not that much as in Gonesse, but being 17 kilometers away, under the departures path, we expect some noise. This is also why we will visite the house and the neigborhood several times, at different times of day. Frankfurt is linked to the entire world, so there is the typical departures wave to North America in late morning, and a second one to Asia and Middle-east in the evening - all using heavy aircraft types.

We also know that arrival and departures route can change, and make the quantity of noise we would get daily really different. We discussed it, and it will be a factor in our decision. No hidden things, no surprises. But we would certainly NOT buy a house located 800 meters from an airport. Even one which is closed at night. Local regulations can evolve, and assuming that a night or week-end ban will last for ever is simply wrong. Even if someone promised me that there would soon be a ban, the same would apply. So why do some people live so close to airports ? Why do they not move to another place ?

Could that be a question of money ? Well… houses or flats located is so noisy areas are notoriously cheap to buy. And if the unlucky buyer does not want to sell at a lower price, it has no chance to sell. The prices can only get lower and lower, thus annihilating the possibility for owners to sell their house and get another one somewhere else - except by injecting extra cash in the operation, which is not always possible. However, buying such a house seems to me like a serious lack of common sense. I don’t know if people who did it visited the place on days where the airports were on strike, or if they simply not noticed the noise. This seems simply impossible… Or were there naive enough to think that there would never be night traffic ?

This is a sad situation, but what to do ? Is it normal to allow real-estate developers to build so close to airports ? Probably not. Shall the authorities ban night traffic ? This would endanger local economy, destroy jobs, and reduce local communities income. Shall the state pay for the relocation of the concerned persons in a quieter area ? Well, being silly is not illegal, and do not create right for compensation by the state… Imagine what refunding all silly persons around would cost !

I admit it, this post was driven by an unnerving situation, and is may be a bit severe… but it was so good to say it. This was not my first post about airport neighbors, check the links below for more.

Airport neighbors are our friends

How a modern aviation policy should be

Don’t say that to my aero-medical examiner (hello Dr. D), but I’m schyzophrenic, with a double personality. On one side, I’m a private pilot, and on the other side I’m an airport neighboor - hey, who said the dark side ?

When we were leaving in Geneva, our address was something like “ILS Runway 23, 2 miles final, slightly north of the localizer, ground level”. Now, depending on how Frankfurt airport is operating, we are under downind, or base. I’m probably one of the seldom airport neighboors enjoying being one…

Saying that tensions do exist between airport user and airport neighboors is slightly below the truth. Some neigboors associations achieved to turn themselves in powerful lobbies and play serious roles when it comes to defining airport operating procedures and rules.

These groups try to restrict traffic for various reasons, mostly noise, which I can understand. Most airports have neighboors really close-by, and this is the true source of the problem (click here to read more about it), but this won’t be solved easily nor rapidly.

Needless to say, general and light aviation is the easier target for these group, as they see our activity as “leisure” and don’t perceive the economical benefits, non-talking about the educational aspect. I already posted about how to explain what flying brings to the community here, and there. However there is more than talking - as pilots we can take some actions to make the live of our friends (you know, the airport neighboors) better.

1. Fly high - The higher we fly, the lower the noise. As far as airport restrictions and safe descent management permits, we should not fly low over crowded areas.
2. Fly continuous descents - Flying approaches as continuous descents allows for lower power setting, thus reducing noise. Combined with tip number one, it also lowers our fuel consumption.
3. Respect published flying procedures - This can seem obvious, but when it comes to noise management, procedure design is one of the best tools. The location of circuit patterns and VRPs are not dicted (solely) by luck. If there are no safety concerns, fly as published.
4. Respect published airport procedures - What is good in the air is also good on ground. For very close neighboors, the worst phases of our activity are take-off (very noisy) and run-up checks (noisy). We should always make sure that we do the run-up at the proper place on the airport, and position the plane to minimise noise in direction of neighboors. Here again, as long as there are no safety concerns, keep run-ups as short as possible.

Last but not least, use common sense. In Switzerland, there are many restrictions regarding flying on Saturdays afternoons and Sundays. This can range from no circuits, to no flying at all, depending the places. If you’re in a country where you can fly more freely, the swiss-case can teach you something.

Do you REALLY need to fly circuits, on a Sunday morning, at 7 am ? Can’t you fly something different, possibly not over a populated or touristic area ? And please, don’t tell me you fly that… just because you can.

My point is not to ban Sunday morning flying (nor any other kind of flying), but to remind you, fellow pilots, that it’s up to us to make our cohabitation with airport neighboors as good as possible. If we fail at doing that, the we’ll see more and more restrictive regulations… including swiss-like Sunday morning bans.

PS: Did I mention that TDI engines are less noisy ?

One of the benefits of our new house is my office. It’s located in the attic, and is my all my own space, filled with plane books, models, photograps, plus my computer. No TV, no radio, no distractions. Much more focused than the previous one.

This new office has two major drawbacks: roof windows. My desk is directly below one of them, so I just have to raise my head to look at the sky, clouds, planes tracks. Best of all, depending of how Frankfurt airport operates, I can see planes lining-up on the ILS. As they are still flying high there is no noise issue, but I could spend hours looking at them. Not exactly productive.

As I was driving around the area to explore it, I suddenly was in front of an Airbus 319, ready for landing. Flaps and gear down, landing light on, opposite direction, few hundred feet higher ! A later look on Google Earth make it obvious: this section of motorway is exactly aligned with one of Frankurt Airport’s runways. It looks impressive, and here again I had hard times remaining concentrated on driving (and yes, it’s one of these portions of German motorways which have no speed restrictions). I’ll try to get a picture of that later.

I don’t know if raising the nose each and every time a planes pass by is an ability or a disability, but it is common to all aviation enthusiasts. Next time you hear a plane, look for people around you with nose up, and you’ll have identified all aviation fans in the are. Granted.

This works so well that I even used it, years ago, as a test when recruiting new collaborators. I always arranged interviews in a conference room from which the tarmac was visible, or a short drive around the airport. Candidates that did not gave a single look to an airliner taking-off or landing were not having good marks.

Over years, I discovered this also works the other way round. When new colleagues or managers join the company, it’s easy to see which are looking at planes and which are not. Usually, those not looking don’t stay for long. It’s still a business for passionate persons, and I hope it will stay so for years. I start my new job tomorrow (writing time, not publishing time), and hope many colleagues will be nose-up !