Well Meaning Neighbors (minorly aviationish)

Gerhardt said:
I live in an average neighborhood where houses are in the $250-300K range. I built the first house in the hood 25 years ago and the original group was fantastic. We'd get together once a week and BBQ, kids played together, if someone was going to DQ they'd bring back ice cream for everyone. Over time they all moved off. It's a different atmosphere now.

1. The people on the right side of me use their back yard as a dumpster. Neither they nor the people on the left side of me have mowed in years, so I run over it twice a month just so it doesn't bother me as much. I was hoping other neighbors would jump in to help, but no. I've stopped mowing a few times hoping they'd start, but I don't think they even own mowers. They're incredibly nice people, just ...trashy.

2. A younger couple moved in down the street a few years ago. I stopped by to welcome them and they didn't say anything...it was awkward so I left. Last winter she rang the neighbor's bell at 2 a.m., holding her infant, saying her husband was beating her. He went to fetch her and claimed it was all PTSD from being deployed in the middle east. When you drive by they both just look the other way.

3. We had an ice storm last winter that left 1/2" of ice on the roads and no one could get anywhere. Except my son was stuck at school so I tied a rope to my truck and would brace myself against the light poles and pull the truck to get it to the main roads that were clear. A guy a few houses down walked out on his porch and watched me. I kept thinking he was a prick for not helping. But it got worse. When I got my truck in front of his house maybe half an hour later he yells over, "be careful to not hit my car!", which was parked on the street. That's the only thing he's said to me since he moved in 4 years ago.

I'd move, but I hear stories like this from people in every neighborhood in town. The only thing that gives me some relief is that at least they're not dumping used condoms on my lawn.

4. I'm the only person on the street who has their lawn treated for weeds.

5. I had a problem for years with people letting their dogs take a dump on my lawn while they're walking them. I put up security cameras several months ago and it stopped.
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I enjoyed reading this.
 
Gerhardt said:
I live in an average neighborhood where houses are in the $250-300K range. I built the first house in the hood 25 years ago and the original group was fantastic. We'd get together once a week and BBQ, kids played together, if someone was going to DQ they'd bring back ice cream for everyone. Over time they all moved off. It's a different atmosphere now.

4. I'm the only person on the street who has their lawn treated for weeds.
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Some people don't derive any value of having a weed-free lawn. No reason they should, unless an HOA stipulates such.
 
I live on an airpark. Non pilot neighbors live across the taxi-way. I can no longer open my hangar door. As soon as I do he is over to "help". We can no longer sit outside to watch the sunset lest we be invited over to drink.

I prefer invisible neighbors.
 
My next door neighbors are too busy with kids (and having more) to bother us. They now have eight kids, having just dropped twins a couple of weeks ago. They aren't totally reclusive, but do keep to themselve and the kids haven't been any problem and seem well behaved. Time will tell.

My wife was remarking a few days ago when a neighbor's house went up for sale that we are now the longest tenured residents in our short street/Cul-de-sac. That is a first for us having moved around in the Army until retiring and moving into current home of 15 years. Both daughter's have graduated college (though second is starting grad school locally and getting an apartment downtown) and one is married and living 3 hours away. We are talking about downsizing. All the other neighbors have young kids and we are now the "old folks." Maybe I can get them to start doing my heavy lifting for me too.
 
In the late 1980s we lived in a housing development in SoCal. (If you ever saw the movie "Poltergeist 2", that was our street -- our house is clearly seen during the opening credits.) The neighbors on the corner next door were pleasant enough, but husband & wife would often go away on the weekend and leave Junior home alone. Which meant posters announcing "PARTY!!!" went up at the local high school. Those were some pretty spectacular events.

Meanwhile, during those same years, President Reagan's two young grandchildren would sometimes stay overnight at our house (long story). This was shortly after the Libya bombing and Khaddafi's overt threats against Reagan's children and grandchildren, so the Secret Service was not playing games. When the kids were at our house there would be two unmarked Mercury station wagons parked at the curb in front of our house all night, and guys with mirrored sunglasses, earpieces and guns sitting in them. We had to leave our front door unlocked all night so they could use the bathroom.

One magical weekend the two events coincided. For some reason Junior's party next door was much more mellow and subdued than usual. Maybe the guys with sunglasses sitting out in the station wagons all night had something to do with it ... ? :)

When the neighbors returned a couple of days later they came to our door and asked delicately if we had called the police on their son. We smiled and said, in all sincerity, "No ... those were Federal agents." :p
 
Pilawt said:
In the late 1980s we lived in a housing development in SoCal. (If you ever saw the movie "Poltergeist 2", that was our street -- our house is clearly seen during the opening credits.) The neighbors on the corner next door were pleasant enough, but husband & wife would often go away on the weekend and leave Junior home alone. Which meant posters announcing "PARTY!!!" went up at the local high school. Those were some pretty spectacular events.

Meanwhile, during those same years, President Reagan's two young grandchildren would sometimes stay overnight at our house (long story). This was shortly after the Libya bombing and Khaddafi's overt threats against Reagan's children and grandchildren, so the Secret Service was not playing games. When the kids were at our house there would be two unmarked Mercury station wagons parked at the curb in front of our house all night, and guys with mirrored sunglasses, earpieces and guns sitting in them. We had to leave our front door unlocked all night so they could use the bathroom.

One magical weekend the two events coincided. For some reason Junior's party next door was much more mellow and subdued than usual. Maybe the guys with sunglasses sitting out in the station wagons all night had something to do with it ... ? :)

When the neighbors returned a couple of days later they came to our door and asked delicately if we had called the police on their son. We smiled and said, in all sincerity, "No ... those were Federal agents." :p
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OK. This is , officially, the best story this week, probably so far this month, and is in the running for best of the year.
 
Pilawt said:
... Secret Service was not playing games. When the kids were at our house there would be two unmarked Mercury station wagons parked at the curb in front of our house all night, and guys with mirrored sunglasses, earpieces and guns sitting in them. We had to leave our front door unlocked all night so they could use the bathroom.
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You don’t HAVE to, of course. It’s just polite. Cheney’s daughter hated her detail as much as her dad, and that’s how I got to meet one of the members of her detail in a volunteer fire house on top of a mountain where seeing someone in a suit, much less a suit with an obvious, large, holster bulge, wasn’t typical. I’m up there working on radio gear by myself one day, and the next I’m standing face to face with a very muscular guy and said suit and holster bulge. He’s headed for the bathroom.

Haha. Dude damn near scared me to death, other than I knew he had to be someone’s security detail. He, of course, never said who he was protecting, I knew that part by proximity to the house.

After I said it out loud (he never confirmed nor denied the protected’s name, but...) he said “she” wouldn’t let them use the restroom so they had to take shifts and drive to the firehouse. Fire chief had mercy on them and gave them the door code. :)
 
First off, nice story. Made me laugh. :)

Shepherd said:
According to my wife I need to be more sensitive ...
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Second of all, most wives say that. Mine does too. Often. Even some of my friends say that. But I take it like a man. Or morelike a guy.
And I assume you know the difference between a man and a guy. While a man doesn't care, a guy simply doesn't give a sh**.
I don't see a problem with that. *shrug*

But then again, I love to ride motorcycles, I love to shoot guns, I love to fly airplanes, I love to fly them upside down, with multiple Gs and in rolls and loops. And I like to jump out of moving airborne airplanes as well.
Say hi to Angela for me, please.
Or don't.
I don't give a sh**. ;)
 
One of my neighbors is a "vulture", but in a good way.

When I get the smoker started, usually around 630am, I can sometimes see her kitchen light come on as she starts puttering around and starts her day.

As the day goes on, I'll see her peek out her window. Late afternoon, as things are starting to come off the smoker, she'll come outside and lean on the fence and say, "Oh, I thought I saw you cooking out here! Here, I just happened to make (cake, pie, brownies, lemon bars, or some other pastry that takes all day) and I have some extra. Would you like a plate?"

Duh, of course. And she gets a healthy plate of BBQ in return. She knows how to play the game.

They are getting ready to move, I'm going to miss them.
 
Omalley1537 said:
Should have sealed the deal with “well, how do you expect me to skydive if I don’t go to the plane?”
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:cool:

That would be my type of reply. ;)

Some coworkers think I'm nuts to begin with by flying. Then they find out I find in the clouds on purpose and they know I'm nuts. I'll look out the office windows on nice low overcast day and say, "Nice day for flying." At first they think I'm kidding, then I tell them why. :eek: Some of them really worry about me. :D
 
Coworkers are who got me into flying! :)
 
N3368K said:
My next door neighbors are too busy with kids (and having more) to bother us. They now have eight kids, having just dropped twins a couple of weeks ago. They aren't totally reclusive, but do keep to themselve and the kids haven't been any problem and seem well behaved. Time will tell.

My wife was remarking a few days ago when a neighbor's house went up for sale that we are now the longest tenured residents in our short street/Cul-de-sac. That is a first for us having moved around in the Army until retiring and moving into current home of 15 years. Both daughter's have graduated college (though second is starting grad school locally and getting an apartment downtown) and one is married and living 3 hours away. We are talking about downsizing. All the other neighbors have young kids and we are now the "old folks." Maybe I can get them to start doing my heavy lifting for me too.
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As a fellow "oldie", I found having some young kids around is a lot more fun than living in a place where everyone is at the same uniform stage of like.
 
Shepherd said:
A short video of my final landing after a day of horrifying my neighbors and terrorizing the people at GBR. :devil:

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Saturday I attended an EAA Fly-In at a friend's private strip. It is a pretty good place, but the runway is sloped a good amount south dropping to the north end. It wasn't that bad until his neighbors decided the airplanes were scaring all the deer and ruining his hunting so he built a 15' high earth berm and planted trees right at the property line. It has approximately 500' open area front north end and a tree line. Another tree line terminates at the northeast corner of the runway. It also has trees along each side within about 200'. Below 500' AGL, the runway pretty much disappears in the trees. On base, I'm flying parallel to a stand of trees, watching for the opening to turn final...and the opening isn't perfectly aligned with the runway, so you have to dogleg left as you cross the fence...and the uphill slope begin. Given the conditions, it is a one way in, one way out strip for many planes.

Landing downhill in a Cub/Champ, etc tends to result in a long float as the ground falls away at much the same rate the plane settles. It is quite doable, but is easier to come in the opposite direction and land uphill, which is also towards the hangars/parking area unless there is a good south wind. In the RV-4, which I was flying Saturday, landing to the south and uphill is preferable even with a tailwind...but the rising runway has to be taken into account more than the Cub. There were airplanes parked in front of hangars near the runway and along the end just north of the large berm, I wanted to make sure I didn't float so I was slowed to 70mph on base and final and crossed the fence about 65. I made the dogleg, clear the brushline at the threshold, rolled wings level and flared...as the ground rose up to meet me. I planted it, expecting to bounce given my firm arrival. Surprisingly, it stuck with a very short ground roll...and too a fair bit of power to taxi uphill to park.

All because of a PITA neighbor who doesn't like airplanes. My friends field isn't registered/listed so he doesn't have any protection as an airport because the county will not allow any private airports without a limitation of only one airplane permanently based there, even of the property owner owns multiple a/c. Since he owns several airplanes, he just deals with it and prick neighbors...

There were about 15-20 airplane including the owners planes. Something on the order of 6-7 RVs (4, 6, 8, 10), Maule, Cardinal, L-19 Bird Dog, three Aeroprakt A-22, PA-12 Super Cruiser, Cherokee, Kitfox, multiple S1S Pitts, two two place ultralight types, Chipmunk and a couple of others I likely forgot. There were 50+ folks too since there were hamburgers and hotdogs. No one seemed to have any problems getting in/out other than the Cardinal which made everyone cringe when he was leaving.

Yesterday, I went out and flew with my brother in his Maule at his farm strip he put in a few months go. It is 2000' but has no clear approach requiring a dogleg around some trees. It was interesting. I flew his Cub a few times to get a feel for it. Interesting slipping into the approach corridor and then turning about 20 degrees to align with the runway to flare and land. I plan on taking my RV-4 next.

It is pretty much a takeoff north land south due to houses/trees on south end. We try not flying over the neighbors to keep the noise at a minimum so no one gripes.
 
N3368K said:
Saturday I attended an EAA Fly-In at a friend's private strip. It is a pretty good place, but the runway is sloped a good amount south dropping to the north end. It wasn't that bad until his neighbors decided the airplanes were scaring all the deer and ruining his hunting so he built a 15' high earth berm and planted trees right at the property line. It has approximately 500' open area front north end and a tree line. Another tree line terminates at the northeast corner of the runway. It also has trees along each side within about 200'. Below 500' AGL, the runway pretty much disappears in the trees. On base, I'm flying parallel to a stand of trees, watching for the opening to turn final...and the opening isn't perfectly aligned with the runway, so you have to dogleg left as you cross the fence...and the uphill slope begin. Given the conditions, it is a one way in, one way out strip for many planes.

Landing downhill in a Cub/Champ, etc tends to result in a long float as the ground falls away at much the same rate the plane settles. It is quite doable, but is easier to come in the opposite direction and land uphill, which is also towards the hangars/parking area unless there is a good south wind. In the RV-4, which I was flying Saturday, landing to the south and uphill is preferable even with a tailwind...but the rising runway has to be taken into account more than the Cub. There were airplanes parked in front of hangars near the runway and along the end just north of the large berm, I wanted to make sure I didn't float so I was slowed to 70mph on base and final and crossed the fence about 65. I made the dogleg, clear the brushline at the threshold, rolled wings level and flared...as the ground rose up to meet me. I planted it, expecting to bounce given my firm arrival. Surprisingly, it stuck with a very short ground roll...and too a fair bit of power to taxi uphill to park.

All because of a PITA neighbor who doesn't like airplanes. My friends field isn't registered/listed so he doesn't have any protection as an airport because the county will not allow any private airports without a limitation of only one airplane permanently based there, even of the property owner owns multiple a/c. Since he owns several airplanes, he just deals with it and prick neighbors...

There were about 15-20 airplane including the owners planes. Something on the order of 6-7 RVs (4, 6, 8, 10), Maule, Cardinal, L-19 Bird Dog, three Aeroprakt A-22, PA-12 Super Cruiser, Cherokee, Kitfox, multiple S1S Pitts, two two place ultralight types, Chipmunk and a couple of others I likely forgot. There were 50+ folks too since there were hamburgers and hotdogs. No one seemed to have any problems getting in/out other than the Cardinal which made everyone cringe when he was leaving.

Yesterday, I went out and flew with my brother in his Maule at his farm strip he put in a few months go. It is 2000' but has no clear approach requiring a dogleg around some trees. It was interesting. I flew his Cub a few times to get a feel for it. Interesting slipping into the approach corridor and then turning about 20 degrees to align with the runway to flare and land. I plan on taking my RV-4 next.

It is pretty much a takeoff north land south due to houses/trees on south end. We try not flying over the neighbors to keep the noise at a minimum so no one gripes.
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A pilot near here has a similar deal. Prick neighbor piles hay bales on his property but he just ignores it as he says he can turn out way before the bales. Think he said 5-6 bales high so not much really. I'd be tempted to drop a match lol.
 
Brush and weed killer.
Agent Orange if you are a really vindictive S.O.B.
(The recipe is on-line, if you need it.)
 
mscard88 said:
A pilot near here has a similar deal. Prick neighbor piles hay bales on his property but he just ignores it as he says he can turn out way before the bales. Think he said 5-6 bales high so not much really. I'd be tempted to drop a match lol.
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bad precedence to set up an adverse possession action, I believe, for him to just ignore it. There was a lawsuit a while back around here where a property owner lost some ground because a neighbor began cutting across his property and turned it into a hiking trail, and somehow gained control over that property by repeated use with no contest from the owner ... or something like that.
 
Next time up it a bit - tell her you are going skydiving after your ride your bike to the airport and fly. If that does not work maybe add some base jumping in for good measure.
 
Just reporting that I haven’t met the new neighbors yet, pants or no pants.

But they arrived with friends who had loaded all their stuff into horse trailers, plus their own horse trailer and an almost identical fifth wheel to the one we bought and then sold (bad planning on our part for amount of use, sell it before it depreciates even more or gets destroyed by hail damage where we live), and there’s only pickup trucks in the driveway so far...

So I’m sure we’ll get along. They also came with a good recommendation from the previous neighbors which is about as close as one will ever get to a warranty on such things. :)
 
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