Where is airplane noise not a huge issue in DC metro? Does this place exist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 pages in and it's pretty clear that most places don't have airplane noise, OP.

So, it seems like bad luck? Or do the flight paths change frequently and we aren't doomed? I want to believe we won't forever be in the flight path, because sure enough it wasn't so when we bought the place.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What's the big deal? You get used to it. I live under a flight path (Brookmont) and I'm listening to a plane right now. It's not ruining my quality of life. People around here worry way too much about flight paths.

How many planes per minute do you hear all day long? It's incredibly disturbing, more so than the hum of the highway, which is more like white noise. I think it's the frequency that's making this so bad. I can tolerate a plane or a train every now and then, even once every 10 min would be ok for a plane to fly overhead. But 1-2 every single minute NON STOP, I cannot get used to this. Especially since I wanted to escape to a quite place and hear sounds of nature. I don't get bothered by construction noises, barking dogs, kids playing at a playground, even occasional sirens and helicopters. They go away, airplane traffic just never ceases whenever they have the days where every single plane is routed over our area.

You sound seriously crazy OP. And backwards.

You have clearly never lived directly under a flight path.

I live walking distance (maybe running distance) to National Airport. It's seriously no big deal.

Are you routinely directly under a flight path? It makes a big difference. I live near BWI and regularly tune out the airport noise. However, certain weather conditions or runway repairs can change the normal flight patterns making planes take off or land directly over our house. Takeoff is the worst. You cannot tune this out.

Yes, I am. I can FEEL the planes taking off if I truly focus on it.

But if I go about my business, it's like they're not even there. You get totally and completely used to it.

I honestly think those of you that are bothered by this are nuts or have some really odd kind of noise affliction. Or you live in someplace that is so insanely quiet that you can't *not* focus on it.

There are so many other sounds that are infinitely more annoying.

When you go about your day and you are indoors and your windows are closed it's easy to not notice it. But this certainly makes enjoying your outdoor space very difficult, because when you are trying to relax sitting on the deck you aren't really there to go about your business or focus on something else, you are there to enjoy nature around you and peace and quiet. Then you want to open the windows to air out the place, to breathe fresh air you moved to the burbs to have access to. Do you not really see the difference? This simple life's pleasure is denied to those of us who live directly under a flight path. We have planes flying at a distance, we can see them in the sky, and it's literally one plane after another, and it's landing, not taking off. Apparently, the landing flight path had been altered and now they fly closer inland (not over the river) which would affect a large stretch of residential areas from Arlington to Great falls that are maybe 1-2 miles from the river. It's one plane after another, I observed it last night. It was ok during the day, about every 5 min on avg and in the afternoon it was like every plane landing was flying over the area.

+2 There are many studies about the impacts of air traffic noise and health, including increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, not to mention sleep disruption.

If you google Next Gen noise pollution, you will see that in recent years, the FAA consolidated flight paths to make them more efficient and potentially more environmentally friendly. However, the tradeoff is that more aircraft fly lower over residential areas. Most of the aircraft traffic, which previously had been more scattered, follows a precise route, meaning that if you happen to live under that route, you are likely to experience a great increase in the amount of traffic and level of noise from lower flying aircraft. Some of these areas rarely had aircraft noise before NextGen was implemented and now have a steady stream of flyovers every five minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you said you get 30 seconds of peace between planes. Did you not hear it when you toured the home before purchasing?

No, it's the crazy thing, it wasn't nearly so bad when we bought. And we also remodeled, so we didn't live in it for a while, but I remember only occasional plane, not this constant flow of air traffic. Some days it's not that bad, planes aren't that frequent and you can even enjoy the deck. But these last few days had been terrible. It's not in the flight path, so what gives?

I looked at the Flight Aware app and there are no planes anywhere near McLean. Reston and Springfield are the closest areas with planes. It seems odd that you are hearing such frequent planes but they aren’t commercial airliners. And every 30 seconds seems unsafely close together.

At busy airports, planes can definitely take off every 30-60 seconds. But there’s no airport in this region that is that busy. A bit of an overreaction by OP

I should have videotaped it, there was a plane every minute. The reason why it's every 30 sec noise is because noise carries and you don't just hear it when the plane is directly over, but also when it's approaching and leaving, this is what 30 sec of peace means, it's when it quiet. It was 100% every minute a new plane (all planes landing in dca) went our way, every single one of them. Shocking, right? I would expect that there would be another way to approach dca from other directions, but it looked like every plane landed along the land stretch 1-2 miles from the Potomac, which would affect the wooded parts of GF, Mclean, Arlington. Maybe that's why those in Alexandria and dc no long hear them. I guess people lobbied and got the flight paths changed, so now we got all the traffic. Ugh. I hope this isn't forever

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What's the big deal? You get used to it. I live under a flight path (Brookmont) and I'm listening to a plane right now. It's not ruining my quality of life. People around here worry way too much about flight paths.

How many planes per minute do you hear all day long? It's incredibly disturbing, more so than the hum of the highway, which is more like white noise. I think it's the frequency that's making this so bad. I can tolerate a plane or a train every now and then, even once every 10 min would be ok for a plane to fly overhead. But 1-2 every single minute NON STOP, I cannot get used to this. Especially since I wanted to escape to a quite place and hear sounds of nature. I don't get bothered by construction noises, barking dogs, kids playing at a playground, even occasional sirens and helicopters. They go away, airplane traffic just never ceases whenever they have the days where every single plane is routed over our area.

You sound seriously crazy OP. And backwards.

You have clearly never lived directly under a flight path.

I live walking distance (maybe running distance) to National Airport. It's seriously no big deal.

Are you routinely directly under a flight path? It makes a big difference. I live near BWI and regularly tune out the airport noise. However, certain weather conditions or runway repairs can change the normal flight patterns making planes take off or land directly over our house. Takeoff is the worst. You cannot tune this out.

Yes, I am. I can FEEL the planes taking off if I truly focus on it.

But if I go about my business, it's like they're not even there. You get totally and completely used to it.

I honestly think those of you that are bothered by this are nuts or have some really odd kind of noise affliction. Or you live in someplace that is so insanely quiet that you can't *not* focus on it.

There are so many other sounds that are infinitely more annoying.

When you go about your day and you are indoors and your windows are closed it's easy to not notice it. But this certainly makes enjoying your outdoor space very difficult, because when you are trying to relax sitting on the deck you aren't really there to go about your business or focus on something else, you are there to enjoy nature around you and peace and quiet. Then you want to open the windows to air out the place, to breathe fresh air you moved to the burbs to have access to. Do you not really see the difference? This simple life's pleasure is denied to those of us who live directly under a flight path. We have planes flying at a distance, we can see them in the sky, and it's literally one plane after another, and it's landing, not taking off. Apparently, the landing flight path had been altered and now they fly closer inland (not over the river) which would affect a large stretch of residential areas from Arlington to Great falls that are maybe 1-2 miles from the river. It's one plane after another, I observed it last night. It was ok during the day, about every 5 min on avg and in the afternoon it was like every plane landing was flying over the area.

+2 There are many studies about the impacts of air traffic noise and health, including increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, not to mention sleep disruption.

If you google Next Gen noise pollution, you will see that in recent years, the FAA consolidated flight paths to make them more efficient and potentially more environmentally friendly. However, the tradeoff is that more aircraft fly lower over residential areas. Most of the aircraft traffic, which previously had been more scattered, follows a precise route, meaning that if you happen to live under that route, you are likely to experience a great increase in the amount of traffic and level of noise from lower flying aircraft. Some of these areas rarely had aircraft noise before NextGen was implemented and now have a steady stream of flyovers every five minutes.

Thanks for the info, it might explain this... How horrible. So, what do we do now? WE need to organize and get together to have this changed, it's not fair that one stretch gets all the traffic, so all this super expensive desirable RE is now going to collapse? We need to sell now and I don't want to after all the effort we put into this place. I am sure we aren't alone, so many bought multi-million dollar homes, I am sure they aren't happy. I think it should be fair and dispersed, so that we get a plane maybe every 10 min and other areas get them too, not one area gets every single landing plane, this is the worst design ever and a disaster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you said you get 30 seconds of peace between planes. Did you not hear it when you toured the home before purchasing?

No, it's the crazy thing, it wasn't nearly so bad when we bought. And we also remodeled, so we didn't live in it for a while, but I remember only occasional plane, not this constant flow of air traffic. Some days it's not that bad, planes aren't that frequent and you can even enjoy the deck. But these last few days had been terrible. It's not in the flight path, so what gives?

I looked at the Flight Aware app and there are no planes anywhere near McLean. Reston and Springfield are the closest areas with planes. It seems odd that you are hearing such frequent planes but they aren’t commercial airliners. And every 30 seconds seems unsafely close together.

At busy airports, planes can definitely take off every 30-60 seconds. But there’s no airport in this region that is that busy. A bit of an overreaction by OP

I should have videotaped it, there was a plane every minute. The reason why it's every 30 sec noise is because noise carries and you don't just hear it when the plane is directly over, but also when it's approaching and leaving, this is what 30 sec of peace means, it's when it quiet. It was 100% every minute a new plane (all planes landing in dca) went our way, every single one of them. Shocking, right? I would expect that there would be another way to approach dca from other directions, but it looked like every plane landed along the land stretch 1-2 miles from the Potomac, which would affect the wooded parts of GF, Mclean, Arlington. Maybe that's why those in Alexandria and dc no long hear them. I guess people lobbied and got the flight paths changed, so now we got all the traffic. Ugh. I hope this isn't forever

I hope you do videotape it because I’d love to see the planes landing every minute at DCA with 100
Percent noise all day long. It would make it by far the busiest airport in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the info, it might explain this... How horrible. So, what do we do now? WE need to organize and get together to have this changed, it's not fair that one stretch gets all the traffic, so all this super expensive desirable RE is now going to collapse? We need to sell now and I don't want to after all the effort we put into this place. I am sure we aren't alone, so many bought multi-million dollar homes, I am sure they aren't happy. I think it should be fair and dispersed, so that we get a plane maybe every 10 min and other areas get them too, not one area gets every single landing plane, this is the worst design ever and a disaster

God you are awful.

Transportation is a public benefit and you are welcome to move from your multi-million dollar home if you want. Please do so and stop trying to get others to pay for your own mistake. Next time do your due diligence. You obviously did not.

MOVE!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What's the big deal? You get used to it. I live under a flight path (Brookmont) and I'm listening to a plane right now. It's not ruining my quality of life. People around here worry way too much about flight paths.

How many planes per minute do you hear all day long? It's incredibly disturbing, more so than the hum of the highway, which is more like white noise. I think it's the frequency that's making this so bad. I can tolerate a plane or a train every now and then, even once every 10 min would be ok for a plane to fly overhead. But 1-2 every single minute NON STOP, I cannot get used to this. Especially since I wanted to escape to a quite place and hear sounds of nature. I don't get bothered by construction noises, barking dogs, kids playing at a playground, even occasional sirens and helicopters. They go away, airplane traffic just never ceases whenever they have the days where every single plane is routed over our area.

You sound seriously crazy OP. And backwards.

You have clearly never lived directly under a flight path.

I live walking distance (maybe running distance) to National Airport. It's seriously no big deal.

Are you routinely directly under a flight path? It makes a big difference. I live near BWI and regularly tune out the airport noise. However, certain weather conditions or runway repairs can change the normal flight patterns making planes take off or land directly over our house. Takeoff is the worst. You cannot tune this out.

Yes, I am. I can FEEL the planes taking off if I truly focus on it.

But if I go about my business, it's like they're not even there. You get totally and completely used to it.

I honestly think those of you that are bothered by this are nuts or have some really odd kind of noise affliction. Or you live in someplace that is so insanely quiet that you can't *not* focus on it.

There are so many other sounds that are infinitely more annoying.

When you go about your day and you are indoors and your windows are closed it's easy to not notice it. But this certainly makes enjoying your outdoor space very difficult, because when you are trying to relax sitting on the deck you aren't really there to go about your business or focus on something else, you are there to enjoy nature around you and peace and quiet. Then you want to open the windows to air out the place, to breathe fresh air you moved to the burbs to have access to. Do you not really see the difference? This simple life's pleasure is denied to those of us who live directly under a flight path. We have planes flying at a distance, we can see them in the sky, and it's literally one plane after another, and it's landing, not taking off. Apparently, the landing flight path had been altered and now they fly closer inland (not over the river) which would affect a large stretch of residential areas from Arlington to Great falls that are maybe 1-2 miles from the river. It's one plane after another, I observed it last night. It was ok during the day, about every 5 min on avg and in the afternoon it was like every plane landing was flying over the area.

+2 There are many studies about the impacts of air traffic noise and health, including increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, not to mention sleep disruption.

If you google Next Gen noise pollution, you will see that in recent years, the FAA consolidated flight paths to make them more efficient and potentially more environmentally friendly. However, the tradeoff is that more aircraft fly lower over residential areas. Most of the aircraft traffic, which previously had been more scattered, follows a precise route, meaning that if you happen to live under that route, you are likely to experience a great increase in the amount of traffic and level of noise from lower flying aircraft. Some of these areas rarely had aircraft noise before NextGen was implemented and now have a steady stream of flyovers every five minutes.

Thanks for the info, it might explain this... How horrible. So, what do we do now? WE need to organize and get together to have this changed, it's not fair that one stretch gets all the traffic, so all this super expensive desirable RE is now going to collapse? We need to sell now and I don't want to after all the effort we put into this place. I am sure we aren't alone, so many bought multi-million dollar homes, I am sure they aren't happy. I think it should be fair and dispersed, so that we get a plane maybe every 10 min and other areas get them too, not one area gets every single landing plane, this is the worst design ever and a disaster

Is the traffic from Dulles or National?

You can track the noise levels and departures on the websites

Dulles
https://webtrak.emsbk.com/iad

National
https://webtrak.emsbk.com/dca

You can also file noise complaints or make inquiries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP thinks that airplanes should only fly over poor neighborhoods.

It's not that they fly over poor neighborhoods, it's the fact that neighborhoods that are under the flight path with planes every minute become poor eventually. airplane noise is a deterrent to live in the area and RE prices collapse in areas directly under the flight path. It leads to disinvestment and deterioration and low prices. It is the reason why you want airports not to close to dense residential areas, DCA seems to be the exception here and they do need to rethink this one steady line of planes coming always from one direction. It's far less disruptive if planes come from different directions giving people in each area a break from noise. And honestly, some areas directly by the airport had always been either uninhabited, full of commercial buildings, transit hubs, warehouses, etc,. residential RE was always the cheapest and most rundown, with dca being an exception.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Where is this magical place in dc metro that doesn't have planes flying overhead? We thought we would be deep in and away from Potomac river, but it's getting unbearable here to open windows or use the deck. A very pricey area too, with multi million dollar homes, surprised how owners of these expensive homes don't complain. Is this normal or are there bad and good days? Seems like there is airplane noise every day, but some days it's like living on a landing strip with planes overhead every minute! I am fine with 1 plane per 10 min, to get some peace and finally hear the noises of nature (which is why we moved to the burbs), but it's never ending? Is there some traffic rerouting happening? We are in NOVA suburb near Mclean downtown which isn't close to Potomac at all.

We are in McLean near Old Dominion -Chesterbrook areas and we only get occasional/very little airplane noise, but we do get helicopters several times a day and military fly overs more than once a month.

We aren't that far from there.. Hmm, how come you don't hear it? Do you keep your windows closed? Today it's really bad.. Do you not hear it?

We keep our windows open most days this time of year. We do not hear loud plane noise. You hear it as a low grade noise from time to time, but not like you are describing. We get helicopter noise. We are near Birch off of Old Dominion. The noises that bother me are the mowers.

[Anonymous]

I live in Arlington and rarely hear anything. You were posting on a very overcast day, and the clouds amplify the noise. Those are the only days I hear anything. Today is a clear day and there’s nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:What's the big deal? You get used to it. I live under a flight path (Brookmont) and I'm listening to a plane right now. It's not ruining my quality of life. People around here worry way too much about flight paths.

How many planes per minute do you hear all day long? It's incredibly disturbing, more so than the hum of the highway, which is more like white noise. I think it's the frequency that's making this so bad. I can tolerate a plane or a train every now and then, even once every 10 min would be ok for a plane to fly overhead. But 1-2 every single minute NON STOP, I cannot get used to this. Especially since I wanted to escape to a quite place and hear sounds of nature. I don't get bothered by construction noises, barking dogs, kids playing at a playground, even occasional sirens and helicopters. They go away, airplane traffic just never ceases whenever they have the days where every single plane is routed over our area.

You sound seriously crazy OP. And backwards.

You have clearly never lived directly under a flight path.

I live walking distance (maybe running distance) to National Airport. It's seriously no big deal.

Are you routinely directly under a flight path? It makes a big difference. I live near BWI and regularly tune out the airport noise. However, certain weather conditions or runway repairs can change the normal flight patterns making planes take off or land directly over our house. Takeoff is the worst. You cannot tune this out.

Yes, I am. I can FEEL the planes taking off if I truly focus on it.

But if I go about my business, it's like they're not even there. You get totally and completely used to it.

I honestly think those of you that are bothered by this are nuts or have some really odd kind of noise affliction. Or you live in someplace that is so insanely quiet that you can't *not* focus on it.

There are so many other sounds that are infinitely more annoying.

When you go about your day and you are indoors and your windows are closed it's easy to not notice it. But this certainly makes enjoying your outdoor space very difficult, because when you are trying to relax sitting on the deck you aren't really there to go about your business or focus on something else, you are there to enjoy nature around you and peace and quiet. Then you want to open the windows to air out the place, to breathe fresh air you moved to the burbs to have access to. Do you not really see the difference? This simple life's pleasure is denied to those of us who live directly under a flight path. We have planes flying at a distance, we can see them in the sky, and it's literally one plane after another, and it's landing, not taking off. Apparently, the landing flight path had been altered and now they fly closer inland (not over the river) which would affect a large stretch of residential areas from Arlington to Great falls that are maybe 1-2 miles from the river. It's one plane after another, I observed it last night. It was ok during the day, about every 5 min on avg and in the afternoon it was like every plane landing was flying over the area.

+2 There are many studies about the impacts of air traffic noise and health, including increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, not to mention sleep disruption.

If you google Next Gen noise pollution, you will see that in recent years, the FAA consolidated flight paths to make them more efficient and potentially more environmentally friendly. However, the tradeoff is that more aircraft fly lower over residential areas. Most of the aircraft traffic, which previously had been more scattered, follows a precise route, meaning that if you happen to live under that route, you are likely to experience a great increase in the amount of traffic and level of noise from lower flying aircraft. Some of these areas rarely had aircraft noise before NextGen was implemented and now have a steady stream of flyovers every five minutes.

Thanks for the info, it might explain this... How horrible. So, what do we do now? WE need to organize and get together to have this changed, it's not fair that one stretch gets all the traffic, so all this super expensive desirable RE is now going to collapse? We need to sell now and I don't want to after all the effort we put into this place. I am sure we aren't alone, so many bought multi-million dollar homes, I am sure they aren't happy. I think it should be fair and dispersed, so that we get a plane maybe every 10 min and other areas get them too, not one area gets every single landing plane, this is the worst design ever and a disaster

Is the traffic from Dulles or National?

You can track the noise levels and departures on the websites

Dulles
https://webtrak.emsbk.com/iad

National
https://webtrak.emsbk.com/dca

You can also file noise complaints or make inquiries.

Thank you, I've looked at these websites and it seems like not all the flights are shown there, I hear a plane, but it's not over our area on the map, I think these aren't accurate. I need to go back to my spot where I could see all the planes heading in the direction of DCA, most likely landing. I doubt this is iad traffic, it seems too far out for us. I do see noise registered inland in little circles with decibel info and no actual planes shown, hmm. I just need to find out how to complain about this and organize others to do the same. I doubt all these people who invested into the expensive RE in these areas are happy to be right under a constant stream of planes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and rarely hear anything. You were posting on a very overcast day, and the clouds amplify the noise. Those are the only days I hear anything. Today is a clear day and there’s nothing.

It's not as bad here today, but I do still hear planes, seems like yesterday and today in the first half of hte day it's every 5 min, meaning they they aren't all flying over our area, but at night it may change. You must be far enough from the river or maybe your windows are closed. I keep mine open and I also like to spend some time on the deck. I can tolerate every 5 min, just not every 30 sec-1 min.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you said you get 30 seconds of peace between planes. Did you not hear it when you toured the home before purchasing?

No, it's the crazy thing, it wasn't nearly so bad when we bought. And we also remodeled, so we didn't live in it for a while, but I remember only occasional plane, not this constant flow of air traffic. Some days it's not that bad, planes aren't that frequent and you can even enjoy the deck. But these last few days had been terrible. It's not in the flight path, so what gives?

I looked at the Flight Aware app and there are no planes anywhere near McLean. Reston and Springfield are the closest areas with planes. It seems odd that you are hearing such frequent planes but they aren’t commercial airliners. And every 30 seconds seems unsafely close together.

At busy airports, planes can definitely take off every 30-60 seconds. But there’s no airport in this region that is that busy. A bit of an overreaction by OP

Real questions, I swear! Can they take off on the same direction? Or would they have to use a different runway going in a different direction? (And so wouldn’t be OP’s scenario of hearing them every 30 seconds unless they were super close to their airport.) And what airports are this busy?

Yes, most often they would use the same runway or two parallel runways. Depending on the airport, they may use runways that cross each other, but that's more unusual. They never will take off in opposite directions with that frequency - if they need to switch runway directions (due to wind direction), there is a pause in airport operations so facilitate this switch in a safe manner. Remember, there are planes in the air that sometimes line up hundreds of miles out so that all needs to be switched around and planned for accordingly.

You wouldn't hear a plane every 30 seconds unless you are very close to the takeoff or approach flight path at a major airport like Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Heathrow, etc. Or maybe a major military base. But even still, highly unlikely and you definitely would have been aware when your toured the house prior to purchasing. (Also, just look at a map).

Planes fly every minute, the noise carries, so it's only quiet for 30 sec, otherwise it would be constant. It's a flight path, it's a literal line of planes, you sometimes can see 2 at the same time, one behind another, saw this last night from DT mclean parking lot when shopping. It's not as audible in the parking lot but if you go more towards Potomac, these areas are under that path and stretch of land is large, it flies over GF, Mclean and Arlington (closer to mclean).

[Anonymous]

I live in McLean, close to where Balls Hill Rd crosses Georgetown Pike. Never hear airplanes (or the Beltway). Lots of helicopters and lawnmowers. I think it's odd that the OP hears so many airplanes.

[Anonymous]

Lived in falls church, sterling and Vienna- no airplanes. Ashburn yes. In sterling I see airplanes but don’t hear them, especially inside.