Ahhg! An airplane flew over my house!

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
Sometimes I feel like I’m in the year 1910 (except without the joyous admiration) when people respond to the presence of a nearby Flying Machine.

Have we failed to expose the public to airplanes and now when one passes by, is worthy of a minor mental meltdown?
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
Sometimes I feel like I’m in the year 1910 (except without the joyous admiration) when people respond to the presence of a nearby Flying Machine.

Have we failed to expose the public to airplanes and now when one passes by, is worthy of a minor mental meltdown?
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Nope-as a society we’ve adopted the notion “if something annoys me, it should cease, no matter what it means to anyone else, or who I might have annoyed with my own choices.”

Examples:
-moving in next door to an established noise source, then trying to shut it down
-moving in to a newly-constructed home, then complaining about others’ homes being built nearby
-making a career out of flying noisy jets, then retiring and filing noise complaints against the nearby GA airport
-running a powersports dealer whose primary business is motocross bikes, then joining the opposition to a motocross track
…etc

(All above personally witnessed by yours truly).
 
Isn't this what set off the Unabomber?
 
I live about a half-mile beyond the downwind leg for airplanes in the pattern. Yes, airplane noise affects me...sometimes I nearly break a leg, running to see what kind of airplane is passing by.... :)

Ron "Hey, it's Mike!" Wanttaja
 
Grew up under the approach to Offutt in the 60s and 70s. Now we live directly in line with RWY 12 at MLE, my home field. Not close in, but close enough to enjoy the show.
 
wanttaja said:
I live about a half-mile beyond the downwind leg for airplanes in the pattern. Yes, airplane noise affects me...sometimes I nearly break a leg, running to see what kind of airplane is passing by.... :)

Ron "Hey, it's Mike!" Wanttaja
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During one of my first few flights, last fall, I was sitting in the flight school's office with my instructor and another CFI that works there, doing a post-flight debrief. The window behind the CFI's desk overlooks the runway at an angle. Mid-sentence, a plane takes off from the runway, and the CFI stops talking and all three of us, in unison, turn our heads to see the plane taking off.

I knew that I was finally among like-minded people.

It reminded me of the time recently that I was digitizing home videos that my parents took in the 90s when we were children. There is one tape that my late father took of us playing a youth soccer game. (We played soccer on fields just on the other side of hangars at an Air Force base). In the video, there's a loud roar, followed by the camera swinging away from the soccer game to capture a couple of F-15s taking off. After they're out of sight, he calmly swings the camera back around to the soccer game.

On the label of the video tape, my mom's handwriting says "Kids soccer". Next to that, in my father's handwriting, is "F-15s".
 
Houses around airports should only be for sale for pilot certificate holders. That'll keep prices down, no one complains about noisy or smelly aircraft, everyone wins. There are some really nice neighbourhoods around our main airport in the area - houses well above my budget and I'm sure people there complain about planes, especially the little annoying ones (like mine lol). I'd take their house off of their hands at a 50% discount any day if life is unbearable for them hearing the noises and breathing that lead. What I won't do though is stop flying in and out of that airport.
 
wanttaja said:
I live about a half-mile beyond the downwind leg for airplanes in the pattern. Yes, airplane noise affects me...sometimes I nearly break a leg, running to see what kind of airplane is passing by.... :)

Ron "Hey, it's Mike!" Wanttaja
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I bought the lot I have because it allowed me to push my house up to the runway setbacks and use the taxiway that forms one side of my lot to get to my hangar. My wife tells everybody she wants them to do "Margy-compliant takeoffs." This means no more than 30AGL when you go past our living room windows.

We used to have a Beech 18 on field. We were coming back from a flyin and there were some non-resident airline pilots (the Beech-18 pilot flew for American) with us. The pilot did a low pass over the field. One of the non-residents asked if the neighbors get annoyed with that kind of behavior. I pointed out that we get annoyed when he doesn't. We like airplane noise. Even my parrot will make airplane noises, even if she sees one of her favorite planes parked in front of our house.

Of course, I spent a week at Boerne (pronounce Bernie) Texas. A mixed residential, public use airport. I found that they don't permit low passes or even much of anything that makes noise. I can't figure out why people would go to the expense of buying an airport lot if they were annoyed at airplane noise.

We do have one neighbor on an island in the lake off our runway (departures/arrivals go right over his house). He likes the view.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
Houses around airports should only be for sale for pilot certificate holders.
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You got something against part 103 operators? :)

Let's see. As a kid my bedroom was 2,519 feet from the beacon at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile (now ONZ) - the beacon would flash on bedroom window shade at night. Used to hang out at the fence along 17/35 to watch the airplanes.
Summers, we would go "up north" - you could lay on the dock and watch the B52s rumble overhead on their way in and out of K.I.Sawyer.
Then, as an adult - last house - nothing would get me out of the house faster than hearing the Goodyear Blimp overhead heading for ONZ.
Current house, Yankee Air Museum B-17 used to fly over the house on a regular basis - yea, got me off my butt and outside to watch. Haven't seen it in the last few years. Bummer.
 
I was sitting in my office which was about on base leg for 19L at IAD. One day I watched AF1 (well SAM 28000 or 29000) go by my window. A few minutes later he goes by again, and again, what's he doing? Touch and goes? I grew up just north of Andrews so seeing the VC-137's fly over was pretty common.
 
I spent a summer in Juneau living in engineers cut. Engineers cut is where they actually cut the ridge line down to make more room for the planes to take off and land. Usually they landed going over my house.

3 times a day, early morning, around lunch time, and around 8pm, three heavies would come in to land a few minutes apart. Every day of the week. I mean I could have hit the planes with a rock when they passed over.

They were not quiet at all.
 
Some people hate airplane noise. They don't appreciate the miracle of flight at all.

The ones that fly on the airlines are actually a bit worse, I'd say. Some years ago I was sitting on an airliner, flying from Toronto to Calgary, and hearing the other passengers complain about the late flight (40 minutes IIRC), the awful coffee, the cheap food, the tight seating, the screaming kid a few rows back. I looked down at the ground six miles below, over the Canadian prairies, and remembered the history of the earliest settlers travelling from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) in about May, across that barren land to Alberta by October or so. A two-wheeled wooden Red River cart pulled by a single ox held everything they owned. They walked beside it, through the dust and mud and creeks and rivers and scratchy brush and rattlesnakes and flies and mosquitoes and sometimes hostile native folks. They endured thunderstorms and terrific wind and dust storms, snow at just about any time, and when they got to their land they had to quickly erect a hut made of prairie sod lest they soon freeze to death. Trees, and therefore firewood, was scarce. Many times the older or weaker folks died on the trail: grandparents, children, sometimes even healthy adults had accidents. Graves all along the trail.

And I sat in that airliner, in airconditioned and heated bug-free comfort, smooth ride, sipping coffee, and stopped grousing about all the "inconveniences" and "discomforts" I was enduring.

We don't teach history anymore, it seems.
 
The only time I ever got annoyed with aircraft noise was when I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It's the Corps' master F-18 base on the west coast and being in the San Diego area the windows are always open. Constant F-18 flights all hours of the day and night. Then 9/11 happened and it was eerily silent. Never complained about aircraft noise after that.

A few years ago, the Coast Guard sent me to Chincoteague, VA and the Coast Guard houses there are on NASA Wallops Island property. E-2 Hawkeyes conduct carrier landing training there nearly every day. They would fly right over my house about every 30 seconds (up to 5 in the pattern). Got used to it pretty quickly. Even the baby slept through it after a night or two of living there.

Edit: Just remembered...CQX, the airfield I took lessons out of is allegedly one of the first airfields in the country. The original hangar is still used today. Recently, a group of folks in Chatham tried to get the field closed even though it rakes in huge sums of money for the community. It's all about noise abatement. There's some very expensive houses on the hill under the approach path for 24/departure for 6. I was doing some ground school work with my instructor one day when a bizjet took off. As soon as they were wheels up the phone started ringing with noise complaints.
 
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Update - the Yankee Air force Museum B25 just flew by a bit south of my house.
My wife was thinking that she was talking to me as it went by.
 
KE5BM said:
some very expensive houses on the hill under the approach path for 24/departure for 6. I was doing some ground school work with my instructor one day when a bizjet took off. As soon as they were wheels up the phone started ringing with noise complaints.
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some time ago, a JointSTARS was scheduled to arrive KBED but the flight was canceled. But, sure enough, noise complaints were made right at the time the E-8 was originally scheduled to arrive

Oh btw, the E-8 never got the quieter engines
 
Bob Noel said:
some time ago, a JointSTARS was scheduled to arrive KBED but the flight was canceled. But, sure enough, noise complaints were made right at the time the E-8 was originally scheduled to arrive

Oh btw, the E-8 never got the quieter engines
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No, they didn't. They do evening/night circuits at Dobbins ARB, which is 2 miles from my house. We're well inside the pattern for the JStars and the dogs howl when they come over. Those things are LOUD. I can understand folks near major airports who were PO'd when airlines and the military switched from pistons to the first and second generation jets. Now, when we get C-17's and C-5M's, those are quiet by comparison.
 
I grew up(1960s) under the ILS approach to 18L at CVG just a few miles from the airport. We had a in ground swimming pool that I had to vacuum just about everyday because of the jet exhaust fall out according to my Father?

I still live under the same approach in a different home and I am used to them flying over. Todays Jets are quieter and cleaner running than when I was a kid. Although I still think I suffer from exhaust fall out judging by my awnings and roofs?
 
kyleb said:
No, they didn't. They do evening/night circuits at Dobbins ARB, which is 2 miles from my house. We're well inside the pattern for the JStars and the dogs howl when they come over. Those things are LOUD. I can understand folks near major airports who were PO'd when airlines and the military switched from pistons to the first and second generation jets. Now, when we get C-17's and C-5M's, those are quiet by comparison.
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I thought they only used T-1 as the bounce bird and didn’t use up the regular E-8s for T&Gs
 
mandm said:
More annoying is semi truck and highway noise at night.
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For sure...many campgrounds are near highways, ever notice?
We have found and made notes which rest stops out west are best to stop at to sleep based on highway noise at night. There are rest areas out west that are better and quieter than full blown campgrounds back east. And it is free to stay one night to rest. Some have hiking areas and scenic look outs. Most are beautiful.
 
OMFG...don't get me started...we are not in any regular flight paths so if anything other than the occasional putput plane flies over our area all the nut jobs start freakin out online...and helicopter is like they saw a UFO with demands of knowing what is going on and if there are any military planes that fly under 10,000' people are scared they are gonna crash into their houses...I wish I was kidding...

I get the curiosity of the unusual but I am truly worried about the success of the human species if some of these people are permitted to have and raise offspring.

If it is a rant about a military plane I simply respond with..."it is the sound of freedom...why do you hate America?"
 
Shawn said:
OMFG...don't get me started...we are not in any regular flight paths so if anything other than the occasional putput plane flies over our area all the nut jobs start freakin out online...and helicopter is like they saw a UFO with demands of knowing what is going on and if there are any military planes that fly under 10,000' people are scared they are gonna crash into their houses...I wish I was kidding...

I get the curiosity of the unusual but I am truly worried about the success of the human species if some of these people are permitted to have and raise offspring.

If it is a rant about a military plane I simply respond with..."it is the sound of freedom...why do you hate America?"
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LOL, in my area, they often fly a low helicopter to spray for mosquito control...people lose their minds! "THEY ARE SPRAYING MIND CONTROLLING POISONS ON ALL OF US!!!"
I explain its just pyrethrins (a substance extracted from, get this, flowers...chrysanthemums actually). People then tell me its TOXIC!!! I explain I'm a doctor, and I know they'll be fine. They then say the internet tells them otherwise...sigh.
 
Shawn said:
OMFG...don't get me started...we are not in any regular flight paths so if anything other than the occasional putput plane flies over our area all the nut jobs start freakin out online...and helicopter is like they saw a UFO with demands of knowing what is going on and if there are any military planes that fly under 10,000' people are scared they are gonna crash into their houses...I wish I was kidding...

I get the curiosity of the unusual but I am truly worried about the success of the human species if some of these people are permitted to have and raise offspring.

If it is a rant about a military plane I simply respond with..."it is the sound of freedom...why do you hate America?"
Click to expand...
I was in patrol one afternoon, cruising along East Cliff, watching the waves, and a Moffett C-130 dropping PJs in the bay. And then was dispatched to a report of a large black airplane on fire, with smoke coming from the engines and the crew jumping out. Another time dispatch put out an “info only” of a large jet flying so low it almost hit trees above Boulder Creek. I happened to see that one, too. Another C-130, although this one was at about 2500 AGL.
 
ateamer said:
I was in patrol one afternoon, cruising along East Cliff, watching the waves, and a Moffett C-130 dropping PJs in the bay. And then was dispatched to a report of a large black airplane on fire, with smoke coming from the engines and the crew jumping out. Another time dispatch put out an “info only” of a large jet flying so low it almost hit trees above Boulder Creek. I happened to see that one, too. Another C-130, although this one was at about 2500 AGL.
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I truly feel sorry for 911 dispatchers these days...
 
The Canadian Snowbirds used to stop by once a year for fuel while going to a show. They would arrive in their usual style, from all directions crossing over the middle of the airport, trailing red or white or blue smoke.

The airport would always get several calls about a jet going over their house and on fire...followed up by a call from 911 inquiring about the calls they are getting about airplanes on fire...
 
Ya'll ain't heard nuttin' yet. I had a flight of four Osprey come over the house. I heard them comming 10 minutes out. Talk about "rattle the rafters"! It was awsome! :D Then the day two F16 came by. They were dodging the tall trees, and singing the short ones.
They made two passes. Low enough that were it not for the mask, I would be able to see their faces in detail. Scared the spit out of the horses. It was awsome. :D
 
My house is right in the flight path of one of @Velocity173 ’s MedEvac routes. I’ve heard ‘em fly over my house in the wee hours of the morning on a regular basis.
 
Baked Potato said:
During one of my first few flights, last fall, I was sitting in the flight school's office with my instructor and another CFI that works there, doing a post-flight debrief. The window behind the CFI's desk overlooks the runway at an angle. Mid-sentence, a plane takes off from the runway, and the CFI stops talking and all three of us, in unison, turn our heads to see the plane taking off.

I knew that I was finally among like-minded people.

It reminded me of the time recently that I was digitizing home videos that my parents took in the 90s when we were children. There is one tape that my late father took of us playing a youth soccer game. (We played soccer on fields just on the other side of hangars at an Air Force base). In the video, there's a loud roar, followed by the camera swinging away from the soccer game to capture a couple of F-15s taking off. After they're out of sight, he calmly swings the camera back around to the soccer game.

On the label of the video tape, my mom's handwriting says "Kids soccer". Next to that, in my father's handwriting, is "F-15s".
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I can relate.
in 2019 I visited the Paris Air Show on a non-public day, just a schmuck among all of the diplomatic dignitaries, Air Force Commanders, and a few actual National Leaders in attendance.

When a Jet started an unannounced demonstration overhead with lots of money noise, almost every head stopped whatever they were doing and turned to the sky To watch until they were finished.

It reinforced the idea that Airplane People are the same, no matter where they come from.
 
RyanB said:
My house is right in the flight path of one of @Velocity173 ’s MedEvac routes. I’ve heard ‘em fly over my house in the wee hours of the morning on a regular basis.
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Not me. I always select “whisper mode” when flying over your house.
 
Some years back there was a crash near Thun Field WA. The news lady was interviewing a resident, asking if they weren't worried about living in the flight path. The camera tilted up and caught me as I flew overhead.
 
pmanton said:
Some years back there was a crash near Thun Field WA. The news lady was interviewing a resident, asking if they weren't worried about living in the flight path. The camera tilted up and caught me as I flew overhead.
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You did crash into the house, right.??
 
Aircraft in your airspace? Aw gee! My house is in the middle of KPNS Class C. The nearby USN Primary RW base has a new (this year) Outlying Landing Field less than 10 miles to my north. They also are taking deliveries on new RW trainers. The Leonardo TH-73 (Agusta Koala) has more than twice the power of the old Jet Ranger TH-57B & Cs. They repo to and from over my house at about 1,000 Feet. Day, and night. Past midnight. Must be doing NVGs. I'm getting used to it, and that's scary.
 
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