Airplane noise

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

What's with all these low-flying and extremely noisy planes today? It's one every 30 seconds! Who else can hear them?

Comments

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

omg lol

[ron_newman]

Arggh, not this again.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Final assault on Worcester. Should be all over soon.

[ifotismeni]

*gets out the popcorn, settles in for a while*

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

More seriously: Please read previous entries tagged "noise." It will at least prepare you for the way your inbox is going to get completely eaten by replies to your post.

It's different today!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

They are lower and NOISIER than ever. I swear! :)

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I couldn't hear the planes this morning over the lawnmowers and garbage trucks.

(actually true)

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Ya rly. Also, I just turn up my NPR if the din starts to overpower the rest of the noise in my house. ;-)

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

There is a strange atmospheric phenomenon (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/17/moon-doggies/) that melts the aluminum on plans flying at altitudes over 2000 feet. It happens every couple months. When it does Logan redirects flights over Somerville. It is nothing to worry about though. It usually doesn't last more than a day or two. =)

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It's the planes hitting your house that you really have to look out for.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Can we just delete this nonsense?

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Plz see icon.

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

Omg, I LOVE that icon! Can I steal it?

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

That is a HOOT. It's like...my love of Patrick O'Brien novels meets my love of the X-Files!

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Canada's invading. Don't worry, it happens all the time.

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

Actually, I live so far away now that I miss the airplane noises.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

When the air is dry (check, dewpoint 54F) plane noise is louder.

When the wind is from the Northwest the planes take off from a certain runway which puts their path over Somerville.

Woohoo!

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I just checked off another bingo square!

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

There was a super loud one at 5:30am, which woke me up.

http://www.massport.com/logan/airpo_noise_form.aspx

I heard Somerville was going to sue the airport. I like the sound of that, but I have no idea what that would accomplish. Would that stop the planes from flying over or just get the city of Somerville more tax money? Anyone know?

Curtatone should just create a force field

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Around Somerville. Like the one the alien ships had in Independence Day.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Didn't hear them. At all. Slept like a baby until 7, didn't hear any then either.

Some months ago, I called the city and told them I, personally, a regular voter, *strongly disapproved* of any lawsuit. Got very long story from Tom Champion (who is a very pleasant person to talk to, and gave me a very clear idea of What's Up With the Airplane Noise). No, I will not explain it-it was too long ago, I didn't take notes, and I'd get it wrong, with predictable consequences. Short version: It's Complicated. IIRC, I don't believe there is an active suit, but there is the threat of one, by several communities (not just Somerville). I may be wrong about this (see above-long time ago, no notes, etc.)

I still disapprove of a suit in general, but the sense I got was that there has been a lack of engagement with surrounding communities on the part of Massport and the FAA. That could stand to change; barring a (much hoped for by me) change in federal administration, it may take a suit to get that to happen.

Just one more airplane noise post...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

...and I win a free burrito! My card is almost full. How about you all?

If you're curious about what is going overhead, you can use FlightAware (http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KBOS):
*
We're KBOS.

You can get the specific aircraft and air carrier, and presumably a passenger list, whereby you can complain to those people directly instead of spamming the Davis Square LJ group.

* Size reduction fails to provide sufficient resolution. It's a spam thread anyways.

Re: Just one more airplane noise post...

[prog.livejournal.com]

Hey, this is neato. Thanks!

[dmcgettrick.livejournal.com]

Didn't you hear that the FAA has installed special noise makers on the airplanes that fly over Davis, COME ON!!!

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

I'm opposed to a lawsuit as well.

Out of my over 30 years here, an airplane has never woke me up. If a plane is waking someone up at night then it's the person with the problem of waking up to slight noises. Not the airports problem. Then again, maybe you just happened to wake at the same time a plane was flying over but the sound isn't what woke you. If it is waking some of you up, go to see a doctor or simply move away from the airport. Living so close to an airport means, you're going to hear airplanes.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard a thing, and I should have. Are you sure no neighbor has a recording of airplane noises and is pointing speakers at your home just to watch you post horror stories?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh.

some data on airplane noise

[davelew.livejournal.com]

A couple weeks ago, on August 26th, I sat outside on my front porch with a sound level meter to record the airplane noise.

Over a 40 minute period, from 7:20 to 8:00 in the evening, 23 planes flew overhead, and 15 cars drove by (I live on a quiet one-way street between Davis and Ball squares).

The background noise was mostly in the 45-50 dBa range. There were five intervals of one minute each when my meter didn't move above the minimum of 40 dBa.

When cars drove by, the sound level went up to 55-60 dBa.

When planes flew overhead, the sound level went up to at least 65 dBa, and in some cases significantly higher. There were three planes in the 75-80 dBa range (78 dBa at 7:32, 76 dBa at 7:52, and 79 dBa at 7:59). 75-80 dBa is really, really loud. OSHA regulations call for hearing protection for workers when the sound level is above 80 dBa.

Here's my analysis of the data: I live on a quiet street. My house was built for the noise level of a quiet street, without very good sound insulation. Many houses on quiet streets around Davis Square are similar. These houses were built before MassPort opened runway 33L at Logan and started routing planes up the Mystic River to turn left and bank over Davis Square. There are also noisy streets around Davis Square. Houses on noisy streets tend to have better sound insulation in the windows, doors and eaves. People who live in well-insulated houses don't understand why people in poorly insulated houses complain that suddenly there are 80 dBa noises that make it impossible to have a conversation indoors. People in poorly insulated houses are extremely mad at MassPort for lieing to Somerville about how often runway 33L would be used.

Re: some data on airplane noise

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

Now, I love it when someone answers with intelligence and data. This is a perfect analysis of the situation.

Isn't it amazing that the snark stopped dead right at this post?!