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Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

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Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#151

Just wondering if these devices are only issued to people who had houses in that area before the airport was built. IMO if you knowingly purchase a residence under a flight path, you lose any privilege of complaining about the noise. Modern aviation is already far quieter, and there are plenty of regulations in place to minimise the noise footprint (e.g. modern fanjet engines are far quieter than the older turbojets,…

> if you knowingly purchase a residence under a flight path, you lose any privilege of complaining about the noise. Honestly, this line really grinds my gears. Let me explain: First, people don't always know. Actually I think people frequently don't know. It's not like estate/rental agents are known for their outstanding honesty. Also remember that the loudness and frequency of air travel can change a lot . An airpla…

The solution is to stop flying so ridiculously often. It's getting entirely out of hand, and if we want to stop climate change, we need to FLY LESS.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#152
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rented near a train line for which I was told stopped running in the evenings as it was a passenger line, and only special circumstances had cargo trains coming through. Shortly after I moved in the cargo trains started running full time between 1am to 5am when they gave way to passenger trains on the line. Another thing not mentioned is routine rail maintainence vehicles work at night and they are pretty loud too.…

I lived by a train line in Australia a few years back. Commuter trains during the weekdays, and freight trains during the night and weekends. I actually found the sound really relaxing and had some of the best sleeps ever. Though I presume not all train lines are alike.

It was a shame because I love the sound of trains as well, but this was on a bend and so it was just metal on metal screeching 10 meters from my bedroom wall for 15 minutes as it slowly navigated the hilly section I lived in (Australia too, we have hills I swear).

One of my favourite most visceral experiences in life so far was riding next to a freight train as it's two diesel engine cars slowly spooled up their enormous turbochargers, while I sprinted on the bike to keep pace. The sound was immense. I love infrastructure.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#153
An air traffic controller acquaintance of mine warned me that they were making changes and that planes on approach would be flying at lower altitudes as a result. Sure enough, jet noise has gotten ridiculous. They have them flying way too low way too far out. You can be 10 - 20 miles out and have a jet noise such that you have to yell to be heard.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#154

Where can hobbyists purchase hackable/programmable internet buttons such as this for a reasonable price? I've seen a few around the place but the costs are exorbitant for what they are, and hacking the Amazon buttons is too much effort (and they're hard to get outside the US)

Is the $15 AWS IoT Button[1] too expensive? [1] https://www.amazon.com/1st-Generation-AWS-IoT-Button/dp/B01C...

As said, doesn't ship outside US

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#155

In the UK Gatwick and Heathrow airports have been there for a generation. By this I mean that the vast majority of people moved to their noise-affected houses knowing the airport was there already. Do these people deserve our sympathy? Initially i find it hard to be charitable towards them. In my local town there is a pub that has been there for around 600 years. A particularly pushy person moved in next door, compla…

Both airports have massively increased the number of flights they operate in a generation, and the number of nighttime aircraft movements. This is justified as planes are quieter now, but lowering the total noise obviously wasn't the target.

You can the Heathrow noise maps [1].

Kew Gardens [2] is worth visiting, but the current approach to the north runway crosses the garden. In a 500-1000m-wide stretch, it can be difficult to have a conversation since planes are crossing overhead every 45-90 seconds [3].

The local residents may have known about the flight path. The house might be all they could afford, or they thought it wouldn't be so bad, or flight paths might have changed. Whatever the case, we need the 3 million overflown people to continually complain, otherwise there will be nothing pushing back against further expansion of Heathrow.

It is extremely poor planning on successive governments that Heathrow has become Europe's largest airport. London's other airports are to the north or south of nearby larger settlements, so the approach paths fly over far fewer people. Other major airports in Europe have been (or are being) moved to avoid overflying cities.

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... and https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/southwarkcans/pages/50...

[2] http://www.kew.org/

[3] https://www.flightradar24.com/51.45,-0.32/12

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#156

A small part of my job (air force) is taking noise complaints. I find their rate has absolutely nothing to do with actual noise. It is all about time of day. A rainy tuesday afternoon: we can land on a roof without complaint from the owners. But on a sunny saturday evening, suddenly the same flight pattern we have flown for years without issue starts my phone ringing. Standard, honest, responses: 1) Civilian air traf…

> Did you see a big red star on the side of it? Ah the 'sound of freedom' dodge. What is the limit for that excuse? Broken windows from sonic boom? 20lb concrete practice bomb accidentally dropped through a roof? Cablecar knocked to the ground during low-level flyying training? All unfortunate but necessary to Maintain Freedom...

Yes.

But remember that civilian air traffic causes plenty of accidents and injuries too. Our helicopters (sar) each year save far more lives than all the accidents our airforce have ever caused.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#157
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even before this, researchers have noticed that a few people generate a disproportionate number of noise complaints (both links from 2016): US: https://www.mercatus.org/publications/airport-noise-nimbyism UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37803205 (half of the around 25,000 complaints were made by 10 people) I wonder if these people are more susceptible to noise than others, or are simply more tolerant of / m…

On the disproportionate number of noise complaints from a few people: I've noticed in my own case that there was a huge bar to making my first noise complaint (I don't live under a flight path, but across from a beach park where people like to party after hours and blast loud music). The first few times I suffered through it. Eventually it was so bad, I went out at 3am to ask, politely, for them to keep it down (the…

Funny I had the opposite experience in the UK (London). Some 50-ish cars doing a sort of illegal car tuning gathering under my windows in the middle of the night (midnight). It wasn't the first time and I knew it could last for a couple of hours. Making loud noise with their engines and sound systems. I first went to speak to them and asked them to move around (they were also obstructing the traffic). They just laughed. I then called the non emergency police line, talked to a very nice and courteous officer, whose job seemed to be providing reassuring words but did nothing about it.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#158
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit of a Kamikaze effort, really. Enough NIMBY automation and future complaints will be as effective as no complaints at all.

Even before this, researchers have noticed that a few people generate a disproportionate number of noise complaints (both links from 2016): US: https://www.mercatus.org/publications/airport-noise-nimbyism UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37803205 (half of the around 25,000 complaints were made by 10 people) I wonder if these people are more susceptible to noise than others, or are simply more tolerant of / m…

Or, more likely, they're NIMBY assholes (or, more accurately, fake-NIMBY assholes) who seek to boost their property values by destroying public airports and stealing from the rest of us.

See Santa Monica for a great example.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#159

Just wondering if these devices are only issued to people who had houses in that area before the airport was built. IMO if you knowingly purchase a residence under a flight path, you lose any privilege of complaining about the noise. Modern aviation is already far quieter, and there are plenty of regulations in place to minimise the noise footprint (e.g. modern fanjet engines are far quieter than the older turbojets,…

> if you knowingly purchase a residence under a flight path, you lose any privilege of complaining about the noise. Honestly, this line really grinds my gears. Let me explain: First, people don't always know. Actually I think people frequently don't know. It's not like estate/rental agents are known for their outstanding honesty. Also remember that the loudness and frequency of air travel can change a lot . An airpla…

If you somehow missed the fact that there's an airport in the area you're moving to, then that's your fault, not your realtor's.

"remember that the loudness and frequency of air travel can change a lot."

Great advice when moving into proximity of an airport.

No pilot WANTS to create noise; they don't like it either. But nobody should tolerate scumbags who want to have public airports destroyed for their own profit, which is what most of these fake NIMBYs are. As for the real NIMBYs... they have no case unless they moved there before the airport was built.

Re: Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise

#160
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the disproportionate number of noise complaints from a few people: I've noticed in my own case that there was a huge bar to making my first noise complaint (I don't live under a flight path, but across from a beach park where people like to party after hours and blast loud music). The first few times I suffered through it. Eventually it was so bad, I went out at 3am to ask, politely, for them to keep it down (the…

Your story is a great illustration of how accurate data can lead people to wrong conclusions. There’s no substitute for a qualitative understanding of the phenomenon being studied.

I’ve always preferred quantitative data, though the pros and cons of each were explained to me by a physicist who was hardly non-biased.
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