Constant Plane Noise This Morning

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

Let me say this first before you call me a whiner - watch the planes on this map for this morning of Friday 12/11: http://www4.passur.com/bos.html

You can replay any point in time with the menu bar at the top, you can even speed it up to 10X. Or you can watch "live" with a 10 minute delay.

Now, if those green planes dont go right over where you live, dont call the rest of us whiners. If they do go right over you, you know what I am talking about. My 5 month old daughter is constantly woken up by these planes and they can rattle the house.

Watch the flow of the planes coming off of runway 33L (the long one that points straight at Chelsea). The vast majority of them bank left and come straight over Davis Square almost every time. How about a little distribution over Harvard Sq, West Cambridge, etc?? Not to mention winds this morning are from the W/SW, not the Northwest.

Now, lets log complaints here: http://www.massport.com/logan/airpo_noise_compl.html

Comments

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I suspect it may be more important (comfortable, whatever) for planes to land into the wind than take off.

The word you're looking for is "safe." :-)

Are pilots flying on visual cues?

Big jets? No, they're following a series of radar beacons. There are predetermined routes they're following, based on weather conditions, etc. If they're following visual cues something has gone BADLY wrong!

[808.livejournal.com]

While most Boston area jets fly into logan under IFR (instrument flight rules), it is quite common for jets to also fly VFR (visual flight rules). But there is a difference in IFR also. Even if Boston is under IFR guidelines, if the weather prevents using VFR as a backup, then certain conditions are put into effect to increase safety (like increase distance between planes).

So, yeah, pilots of big commercial jets use visual cues in most conditions - but usually as a secondary source of info.

At my house, my big complaint is that when it rains road traffic is too loud to sleep with open windows. But I accept it as part of living next to a big street. It stinks, but is offset by having a bus stop 50 feet from my front door (especially nice in the Winter!).

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Well, I learned something today, I was pretty much told visual was only the primary way of navigating if everything else failed. Thanks!

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Seconded. Hence, as a non-driver, I look forward to the few days of the year when they close Broadway for foot races and parades. It's the only time out of the entire year when the sun is up AND I don't have to listen to road noise from my living room!

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

"Safe", thank you.

There was a period when flying to Upper Michigan from Detroit involved a substantial amount of flying to the northeast (even if you took off to the southwest, which is 95% of the time in Detroit) - until you could see the Pontiac Silverdome, then the pilot would bank and then fly northwest from that point. This would really piss off anyone alert enough to know where they were heading...

This would be comparable to taking off from Logan to the southwest over South Boston, doubling back to Cape Ann, and then flying northwest to Montreal.

We used to joke the pilot had to fly northeast until he got to I-75, so he could follow it north.