Anonymous
11/27/2017 13:47
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
National should just be shut down altogether except for congressional or federal use. It's a security risk. Better it be closed down completely.
Anonymous
11/27/2017 11:55
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
There is a discussion group for DCA noise, you might try asking there:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DCA-Noise/info
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DCA-Noise/info
Anonymous
11/27/2017 08:26
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:You can see flight information for DCA here:
http://webtrak5.bksv.com/dca
You can set the time back to see flights from earlier in the day. If you set the speed up to 30x you can review pretty quickly.
Looking at a few minutes worth of flights it seems they're flying mostly over the river today and pretty high, relatively. They're mostly over 4,000 ft by Chain Bridge, when things are bad they'll be barely 1,000 ft over Chain Bridge. Some of the flights seem to be cutting the corner at Georgetown Reservoir but mostly they're staying away from occupied areas.
So I don't know why you're hearing it bad today. I'm in Palisades and it actually seemed relatively quiet today. Wind is out of the north which if anything should be pushing the noise away from you.
The limits introduced after September 11 have all been lifted.
There is no such thing as "the flight path" at DCA. There are currently nine approved departure procedures, you can read about them here:
https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/communityengagement/dc/media/KDCA%205%20Year%20North%20Flow%20Departure%20Analysis.pdf
All of the departure procedures require planes to either fly over the river, or on the Virginia side, at least until the Georgetown Reservoir. As the linked document shows, a significant number of flights stray by a significant distance from the approved procedure; the FAA doesn't seem to care when that happens.
OP here:
this is fantastic information, thanks so much for sharing.
Seeing as the winds were out of the north, now I understand why they were taking off toward the northwest. I think they've typically been landing from the north in recent weeks, so that's why we didn't notice it until yesterday.
Roughly, what percentage of time are planes taking off out of DCA toward the north vs. the south?
Anonymous
11/26/2017 21:01
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Glover Park. Today, the airplane engines started up at 6am and haven't stopped all day. This is the first time we noticed it since moving here a few weeks ago. We were shopping on Wisconsin Ave this morning and it's pretty clear that the planes are flying directly inland, rather than going up the Potomac River. I can visibly see them cutting inland.
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?
The flight path changed after 911. They usually start at 5:45 and can go till 11pm or later. Maybe you have your windows open? They fligh over NW DC because there is no congressional representation....so nothing you can do.
There's one main runway. The planes have to go somewhere, and the direction changes based on wind. Many parts of VA deal with noise as well.
This topic is so tiresome. You want to live in a major urban area? There will be noise!
Departures can be either northbound or southbound. Unless the wind is 10mph or greater from the north they fly southbound. That's the only change due to the wind. The ATC for DCA, IAD and BWI is coordinated, they prefer to have all three flying southbound because it's easier to coordinate.
None of the nine approved northbound departure procedures for DCA vary depending on the wind.
It's very hard to get information out of the FAA, but my hunch is they fly over neighborhoods when they want to boost throughput.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 20:50
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Glover Park. Today, the airplane engines started up at 6am and haven't stopped all day. This is the first time we noticed it since moving here a few weeks ago. We were shopping on Wisconsin Ave this morning and it's pretty clear that the planes are flying directly inland, rather than going up the Potomac River. I can visibly see them cutting inland.
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?
The flight path changed after 911. They usually start at 5:45 and can go till 11pm or later. Maybe you have your windows open? They fligh over NW DC because there is no congressional representation....so nothing you can do.
There's one main runway. The planes have to go somewhere, and the direction changes based on wind. Many parts of VA deal with noise as well.
This topic is so tiresome. You want to live in a major urban area? There will be noise!
The amount of aircraft noise varies tremendously depending upon how the airport is being operated.
The biggest determinant of how loud an aircraft sounds is how far away it is. There's two parts to that, where it's flying, and how high it flies. There are arrival and departure procedures for DCA that have the planes spend most of their time over unpopulated areas (mostly the river) and maintaining sufficient altitude so that they're not that loud for a ground observer. There are also procedures that run over inhabited neighborhoods at lower altitudes. The FAA refuses to discuss with its neighbors why the noisy procedures are used as much as they are; in fact, they won't even say who makes the decision over what procedure to use.
In addition, airlines often deviate from the approved procedures, and the FAA doesn't seem to care.
Aircraft noise at DCA could be mitigated substantially just by strictly enforcing existing procedures, but neither the FAA nor MWAA seems to care.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 19:44
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Glover Park. Today, the airplane engines started up at 6am and haven't stopped all day. This is the first time we noticed it since moving here a few weeks ago. We were shopping on Wisconsin Ave this morning and it's pretty clear that the planes are flying directly inland, rather than going up the Potomac River. I can visibly see them cutting inland.
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?
The flight path changed after 911. They usually start at 5:45 and can go till 11pm or later. Maybe you have your windows open? They fligh over NW DC because there is no congressional representation....so nothing you can do.
There's one main runway. The planes have to go somewhere, and the direction changes based on wind. Many parts of VA deal with noise as well.
This topic is so tiresome. You want to live in a major urban area? There will be noise!
Anonymous
11/26/2017 19:36
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
You can see flight information for DCA here:
http://webtrak5.bksv.com/dca
You can set the time back to see flights from earlier in the day. If you set the speed up to 30x you can review pretty quickly.
Looking at a few minutes worth of flights it seems they're flying mostly over the river today and pretty high, relatively. They're mostly over 4,000 ft by Chain Bridge, when things are bad they'll be barely 1,000 ft over Chain Bridge. Some of the flights seem to be cutting the corner at Georgetown Reservoir but mostly they're staying away from occupied areas.
So I don't know why you're hearing it bad today. I'm in Palisades and it actually seemed relatively quiet today. Wind is out of the north which if anything should be pushing the noise away from you.
The limits introduced after September 11 have all been lifted.
There is no such thing as "the flight path" at DCA. There are currently nine approved departure procedures, you can read about them here:
https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/communityengagement/dc/media/KDCA%205%20Year%20North%20Flow%20Departure%20Analysis.pdf
All of the departure procedures require planes to either fly over the river, or on the Virginia side, at least until the Georgetown Reservoir. As the linked document shows, a significant number of flights stray by a significant distance from the approved procedure; the FAA doesn't seem to care when that happens.
http://webtrak5.bksv.com/dca
You can set the time back to see flights from earlier in the day. If you set the speed up to 30x you can review pretty quickly.
Looking at a few minutes worth of flights it seems they're flying mostly over the river today and pretty high, relatively. They're mostly over 4,000 ft by Chain Bridge, when things are bad they'll be barely 1,000 ft over Chain Bridge. Some of the flights seem to be cutting the corner at Georgetown Reservoir but mostly they're staying away from occupied areas.
So I don't know why you're hearing it bad today. I'm in Palisades and it actually seemed relatively quiet today. Wind is out of the north which if anything should be pushing the noise away from you.
The limits introduced after September 11 have all been lifted.
There is no such thing as "the flight path" at DCA. There are currently nine approved departure procedures, you can read about them here:
https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/communityengagement/dc/media/KDCA%205%20Year%20North%20Flow%20Departure%20Analysis.pdf
All of the departure procedures require planes to either fly over the river, or on the Virginia side, at least until the Georgetown Reservoir. As the linked document shows, a significant number of flights stray by a significant distance from the approved procedure; the FAA doesn't seem to care when that happens.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 17:41
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Winds are out of the northwest. Planes take off into the wind. It's a heavy travel weekend
Deal
Deal
Anonymous
11/26/2017 17:27
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
The takeoffs rarely go north early in the morning. I’m guessing that’s what made them noticeable.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 15:34
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm in Arlington and I noticed that it was louder than usual last night. Maybe because the leaves are gone so they don't buffer the noise?
OP here:
Maybe because of the busy holiday travel they are trying to cram in more flights than usual? So perhaps they are allowing flights to cut in over land to open up more landing and take-off approaches. There is literally a flight taking off every 60 to 90 seconds. It's kind of nuts.
No it’s normal traffic. It’s a busy airport.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 15:18
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Glover Park. Today, the airplane engines started up at 6am and haven't stopped all day. This is the first time we noticed it since moving here a few weeks ago. We were shopping on Wisconsin Ave this morning and it's pretty clear that the planes are flying directly inland, rather than going up the Potomac River. I can visibly see them cutting inland.
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?
Another liberal scared of a few airplanes.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 14:18
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:I'm in Arlington and I noticed that it was louder than usual last night. Maybe because the leaves are gone so they don't buffer the noise?
OP here:
Maybe because of the busy holiday travel they are trying to cram in more flights than usual? So perhaps they are allowing flights to cut in over land to open up more landing and take-off approaches. There is literally a flight taking off every 60 to 90 seconds. It's kind of nuts.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 13:50
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
I'm in Arlington and I noticed that it was louder than usual last night. Maybe because the leaves are gone so they don't buffer the noise?
Anonymous
11/26/2017 13:10
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Glover Park. Today, the airplane engines started up at 6am and haven't stopped all day. This is the first time we noticed it since moving here a few weeks ago. We were shopping on Wisconsin Ave this morning and it's pretty clear that the planes are flying directly inland, rather than going up the Potomac River. I can visibly see them cutting inland.
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?
The flight path changed after 911. They usually start at 5:45 and can go till 11pm or later. Maybe you have your windows open? They fligh over NW DC because there is no congressional representation....so nothing you can do.
Anonymous
11/26/2017 12:26
Subject: Airplane noise - worse than usual today (Sunday Nov 26)?
We recently moved to Glover Park. Today, the airplane engines started up at 6am and haven't stopped all day. This is the first time we noticed it since moving here a few weeks ago. We were shopping on Wisconsin Ave this morning and it's pretty clear that the planes are flying directly inland, rather than going up the Potomac River. I can visibly see them cutting inland.
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?
What the heck is going on? Is there some sort security issue that they've changed the flight path? Does it seem worse than usual?