airplane noise in foxhall village?

[Anonymous]

I lived under the flight path in Glen Echo for a couple of years. I definitely noticed outside, but inside I noticed traffic noise from Mass Ave way more. The buses were very loud and I noticed them more than the planes. There was also a lot of helicopter noise from Langley across the river. It was weird though if you stepped outside around 5:30 am, because the buses and flights start then and there is a major difference in noise level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about Foxhall village but Alexandria has become hell on earth with plane noise. Literally a 60-70dB noise every 1-2 minutes. I can’t imagine the amount of ultra fine particle pollution that we are all inhaling as residents of the DMV. Hopefully future generations can do better.

Thank you for saying this. Somebody on the thread referred to the change in departures in 2021 as just a minor change. It was like a slap in the face to many residents in Virginia.

You’re welcome, but I honestly think north flow arrivals are the worst. Departures are loud quickly but fade due to the steep angle of climbing, whereas the arrivals coming from the south stay loud all of the way up the river with many of the planes having this annoying idle engine noise. It’s amazing that in this country we just can’t have nice things, and when someone like you or I complain idiots will be like “you live in a major city, get over it”, but we are literally talking about getting cancer from breathing toxic fumes here, not just “city noise”. In this county, they put profits over human lives — after all, then can profit further when you get cancer and need Uncle Pharma to sell you all of these pills.

[Anonymous]

North flow operations are the worst for the communities north of the airport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The upcoming changes that FFA is implementing should improve the noise situation in Foxhall as they are moving one navigation point further west and will be discouraging planes arriving from the north from flying directly over the neighborhood. I don’t think anything changes about departures yet, but it seems to be on the agenda.

"The upcoming changes that FAA is implementing should improve the noise situation in Foxhall"

The new flight path will in fact be a little closer to Foxhall but its effect on noise is unknown because as far as I know nobody has ever asked for a noise analysis. The changes in arrival procedures the poster is referring to are being spearheaded by the Montgomery County members of this committee. https://www.flyreagan.com/sites/flyreagan.com/files/2023-10/Reagan%20National_Noise%20Working%20Group_Voting%20Members_Oct302023%20%281%29.pdf
As a result, beginning July 2024 arriving airplanes will no longer be descending solely over the Potomac community but over a wider area in Montgomery County. The FAA has been testing this procedure for the last couple of years. Once the airplanes reach the Potomac River they will be flying in a channelized manner just like they do right now.


"FAA will be discouraging planes arriving from the north from flying directly over the neighborhood."



The statement is misleading. The poster is referring to the so-called bad weather procedure which is separate from the regular arrival procedure. That's when in heavy rain or fog airplanes fly directly over neighborhoods. Indeed, the procedure will be used less, but it is irrelevant because the FAA is already working on a new bad weather procedure and has not yet shared any details with anyone. Therefore, nobody knows what impact it will have on Foxhall or any other community.


"I don’t think anything changes about departures yet, but it seems to be on the agenda."

Please show us the agenda. You know something nobody else knows. The FAA is not planning any further changes to northerly departures. They have just completed a multi-year project. Are the plans you are referencing being made and pushed through by some on the DCA Community Noise Working Group without any input from the public?

I was just citing what I read in a presentation that was linked in another thread here in DCUM. I think it was specifically about Bethesda.Too lazy to look it up for you but you can do it yourself if you are this invested in the topic.

More noise for Bethesda? Again? Why is Bethesda the dumping ground for all the noise these days?

It started when the MoCo delegation on the DCA Community Noise Working Group became dominated by residents from Potomac and Cabin John. That's when the priorities and the narrative changed dramatically. Here's an example of a request to the FAA to shift the airplanes heading north and east away from the Potomac River to create new flight paths, while the airplanes are still at very low altitudes, directly over communities of Westmoreland Hills, Glen Echo, Mohican Hills, Sumner, Somerset. On page 3 and 5 you will see MoCo group members asking the FAA for early "multiple jumping off points". There was never any outreach to the affected communities. The goal was to stop the flights from going further north.

https://www.flyreagan.com/sites/flyreagan.com/files/legacyfiles/final_reagan_national_working_group_reg_meeting_33_summary_27_jun_2019_revised.pdf

Lucky for those Bethesda residents, the FAA denied the request.

And if you complain you will be told that the change is minor and there will be no noise increase for anyone but no noise analysis will ever be shown to you. The blame will be placed on the FAA or on the entire DCA Noise Working Group for unanimously approving the action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived under the flight path in Glen Echo for a couple of years. I definitely noticed outside, but inside I noticed traffic noise from Mass Ave way more. The buses were very loud and I noticed them more than the planes. There was also a lot of helicopter noise from Langley across the river. It was weird though if you stepped outside around 5:30 am, because the buses and flights start then and there is a major difference in noise level.

The airplane noise increases significantly with each small increment closer to the river; it's generally worse along Sangamore than Mass Ave., and by the time you reach Waukesha/Wissioming you are in airplane noise hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about Foxhall village but Alexandria has become hell on earth with plane noise. Literally a 60-70dB noise every 1-2 minutes. I can’t imagine the amount of ultra fine particle pollution that we are all inhaling as residents of the DMV. Hopefully future generations can do better.

Thank you for saying this. Somebody on the thread referred to the change in departures in 2021 as just a minor change. It was like a slap in the face to many residents in Virginia.

Agree- thankfully we can only hear the airplanes in our house as "white noise." I really only notice it when I'm the first one awake in the morning, or when I'm rocking my baby. It's barely there, but it was never there at all before 2021. When I take walks to neighborhoods closer to the river, it sounds like a 747 is about to land on my head. I cannot imagine how horrible it must be to live there.

[Anonymous]

It’s become completely unbearable. Not to mention unhealthy. I don’t think anybody in the Palisades is immune

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about Foxhall village but Alexandria has become hell on earth with plane noise. Literally a 60-70dB noise every 1-2 minutes. I can’t imagine the amount of ultra fine particle pollution that we are all inhaling as residents of the DMV. Hopefully future generations can do better.

Thank you for saying this. Somebody on the thread referred to the change in departures in 2021 as just a minor change. It was like a slap in the face to many residents in Virginia.

Agree- thankfully we can only hear the airplanes in our house as "white noise." I really only notice it when I'm the first one awake in the morning, or when I'm rocking my baby. It's barely there, but it was never there at all before 2021. When I take walks to neighborhoods closer to the river, it sounds like a 747 is about to land on my head. I cannot imagine how horrible it must be to live there.

Where do you live? The change in 2021 involved north flow departures only. It was a two part process. 1. At the request of the Secret Service the FAA shifted the departures from Georgetown/Foxhall towards Virginia, 2. At the request of the Montgomery County delegation on the DCA Noise Working Group, the FAA shifted the same flight path from Avenel to Carderock and also closer to the neighborhoods by the river i.e. Westmoreland Hills, Sumner, Brookmont, Mohican Hills.

[Anonymous]

The quarterly meetings of the DCA Community Noise Working Group can be watched online. The next one is on Thursday, April 25 at 6 pm. You can see your representatives from VA, DC and MD in action.

https://www.flyreagan.com/about-airport/aircraft-noise-information/dca-reagan-national-community-working-group

[Anonymous]

It has been relatively quiet for the last two days with airplanes arriving from the north. We should have days like this more often so everybody living along the Potomac River in Foxhall, Palisades, Arlington and Bethesda can get some rest.

[Anonymous]

Planes change paths depending on weather, wind, etc, and there are several flight paths they use, many are veering off the river into VA and there noise everywhere. You cannot avoid it anywhere in DC metro even National Mall. With flight paths changing even deeper in neighborhoods miles from the river are effected. We get a fair amount of noise sometimes when every plane seems to fly along the same path over residential homes. They also fly low even though we are far from the airports. It's all over VA, Alexandria, Arlington, Mclean, even Great Falls. I suppose same is true for some parts of DC and MD. DCA while convenient isn't really suitable for having so many flights given how dense the area all around had become, it's literally smack in the middle of a busy metro area and hard to avoid any airplane noise regardless where you live, not to mention there is no guarantee flight paths won't appear above you.

The only thing you should do is avoid areas where planes fly in a line low enough for hours on end every day and every minute. when this happens to us it's truly disturbing to one's peace even if you are indoors. It's constant noise that doesn't abate. Being outdoors is horrible, being indoors you still hear it. People don't complain enough, and apparently there is a bill to add more flights to this already busy airport not reduce them.

[Anonymous]

I believe it has pretty much been decided that more long haul flights will be added. I hope Delta will not be one of those airlines.

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2024/05/17/dca-new-flights-long-distance

[Anonymous]

And another? Ahhh.

[Anonymous]

Can somebody educate me on how the winds affect the direction of flights? The winds have been from the south all morning and yet the airplanes are landing from the south and taking off to the north. Should it not be the other way around for safety?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody educate me on how the winds affect the direction of flights? The winds have been from the south all morning and yet the airplanes are landing from the south and taking off to the north. Should it not be the other way around for safety?

Storms or storm potential is also a factor.