July 2000
The following comments and questions have been received by the Regional Airport Authority and consultant team and appear unedited in their entirety.
Questions and comments received through the Project Information Line, Project Website, and/or Public Information Centers will be forwarded to the RAA and responded to by the consultant team at the next Study Group Meeting, and posted on this site.
E. Garrett
Louisville
July 2000
The aircraft are going over us and they are so low and loud. Why are they not taking off to the south?
Anonymous
July 2000
There was a loud, low plane out here near Hurstbourne and Shelbyville roads. We don’t usually get aircraft and this one sounded like a storm or thunder. We thought something might be going on.
Nottingham Parkway
Hurstbourne area
July 2000
About 3 p.m. today, I heard an extraordinary, deafening noise which sounded like an aircraft coming for my house. My children and I were outside and I thought it would hit us. It was obstructed by the clouds, so I could not see it. This rarely happens over our area. I’ve never heard anything like it before. We are usually very quiet for aircraft noise.
Audubon Parkway
Louisville, 40213
July 2000
It's a beautiful day - warm, sunny, dry. On-field and Internet weather sources have been reporting "variable" winds, at 3-6 knots, all afternoon. So why is it that departing aircraft are being directed north, over the most populated areas, in contravention to runway use policy?
Wildwood
Clarksville, 47129
July 2000
Fifteen planes have come over the top of our house in the last 20 minutes. Is something different today than over the last week? The planes are low and it’s a constant rumble and noise. I am quite involved in the Part 150. We have industrial thoroughfares to the east or west and I don’t understand why the planes can’t be directed to one of them instead of our house, which is 9 miles out.
Gilette Avenue
Louisvlle
July 2000
At 4:50 a.m. this morning, the aircraft started and did not stop until 12:25 p.m. It has been continuous and drowning out the sound. They are coming from the northwest. I just got another loud one. I just wanted to register my complaint.
Gillete Avenue
Louisville
July 2000
The winds are blowing from the east, but they are flying to the west, how come?
Anonymous
I am tired of planes flying over my house.
Iowa Avenue
Louisville, 40208
July 2000
In the last week there have been numerous, numerous, noisy planes flying overhead. Night and day they’re flying over. They’re really, really noisy, nosier than they normally are and they seem to be flying lower than they normally do. And I think some of them are flying from the north to the southeast and I think the other ones are probably flying from the south to the northeast, northwest. It’s really hard to tell because all of a sudden you’re just overwhelmed with this noise. Something needs to be done about the noise and also something needs to be done about the air pollution because we have to use reformulated gas because of the airport’s air pollution. Please comment on that also, how you plan on taking care of decreasing the amount of pollution in the air. Thank you
Melda Lane
Louisville, 40219
July 2000
Is there a noise study being done with the neighborhood just southeast of runway 29? I’m aware that’s it still being used because when they use it, it sounds like they’re about to land on top of our home. This has happened mostly at night and early morning. Had I known that you were still going to use this runway we would never had bought our home in this area. The noise and vibration is unbearable.
Iowa Avenue
Louisville, 40208
July 2000
In the last week there have been numerous, numerous, noisy planes flying overhead. Night and day they’re flying over. They’re really, really noisy, nosier than they normally are and they seem to be flying lower than they normally do. And I think some of them are flying from the north to the southeast and I think the other ones are probably flying from the south to the northeast, northwest. It’s really hard to tell because all of a sudden you’re just overwhelmed with this noise. Something needs to be done about the noise and also something needs to be done about the air pollution because we have to use reformulated gas because of the airport’s air pollution. Please comment on that also, how you plan on taking care of decreasing the amount of pollution in the air. Thank you.
Audubon Parkway
Louisville, 40213
July 2000
As I heard multiple aircraft departing to the north over the most heavily populated areas around the airport, I thought briefly I might be hallucinating. It's a cloudless, otherwise tranquil Sunday morning, and not a leaf is stirring in my neighborhood, just over a mile from the north end of the main runway. A series of readings from the automated on-field service gave consistent wind conditions between 320 and 340 degrees, 5 to 6 knots. Well within tolerances for preferred southbound operations. I happened to catch a television report during the hour that gave "NW, 5 mph". National Weather Service's hourly reading reported 320 degrees, 4 knots. This is what's called a weight of evidence. In some previous instances like this, you've cited an entirely different condition as the tower's reading at some point during the period at issue as justification for these highly intrusive operations. I hope you can appreciate that this doesn't solve the problem.
Highgrove Road
July 2000
At about 8:52 p.m.a very low flying private aircraft (#N7289J) flew very close to our house. So close, I told my children to go inside.
Southside Drive
Louisville,
July 2000
The aircraft noise is going continually – like something is running – from 11:36 p.m. until 11:57 p.m. I am having a constant noise from the airport and it is happening more often now. Why?
South Second Street
Louisville, 40208
July 2000
The planes are too noisy.
Anonymous
The aircraft noise is getting worse. I get off work at 4 p.m. and the noise is constant. I don’t know why it would be getting worse now.
South Brook Street
Louisville
July 2000
I would like someone to come out and take a noise reading. The airplanes are causing me to go deaf.
Anonymous
The aircraft are flying over and banking out too soon for the flight path.
Audubon Parkway
Louisville, 40213
July 2000
Since it's such an otherwise beautiful day, aircraft noise outside prescribed patterns is especially annoying. Departing aircraft have been overflying heavily residential areas north of the airport all afternoon. Hourly spot checks of on-field reporting have successively cited winds from 340 degrees at 6 knots, "calm", 20 degrees at 7 knots, and 10 degrees at 7 knots. Only the last even approaches threshold value for non-preferred operations. Consistent readings are reported by the NWS, with few if any hourly readings qualifying for reversed operations. Once again I expect a citation of a contradictory reading from tower instruments, with time unspecified, which once again degrades the credibility of this kind of feedback. It's time to start looking for a way to convey real-time tower readings to the public on an ongoing basis, if we're to restore confidence in the process.
Audubon Parkway
Louisville, 40213
July 2000
Aircraft have been departing to the north at least since noon, with available weather reporting consistently giving wind readings that would suggest the opposite. On-field samples have given "360 degrees, 5 knots", and "10 degrees, 7 knots" upon spot checks. NWS hourly readings show "variable, 5 mph" since noon. Tower logs often report entirely different conditions from sources like these, thereby risking their credibility as decision tools. But readings even close to these would suggest that controllers are tending to err on the side of caution in directing traffic into the wind. And in isolation, the logic is powerful - caution is good. But, considering the impact of this practice on dense residential areas adjoining the airport, and considering that the published 7-knot tolerance for tailwind already has nearly a fifty percent margin of safety built into it (10 knots seems to be a commonly accepted manufacturers' standard), this degree of caution is simply misplaced. Try erring on the side of the community instead - that's what a margin of safety is really about.
Audubon Parkway
Louisville, 40213
July 2000
Date of noise event: 7/16/00. Time: 7-8:00 a.m.
As I heard multiple aircraft departing to the north over the most heavily populated areas around the airport, I thought briefly I might be hallucinating. It's a cloudless, otherwise tranquil Sunday morning, and not a leaf is stirring in my neighborhood, just over a mile from the north end of the main runway. A series of readings from the automated on-field service gave consistent wind conditions between 320 and 340 degrees, 5 to 6 knots. Well within tolerances for preferred southbound operations. I happened to catch a television report during the hour that gave "NW, 5 mph". National Weather Service's hourly reading reported 320 degrees, 4 knots. This is what's called a weight of evidence. In some previous instances like this, you've cited an entirely different condition as the tower's reading at some point during the period at issue as justification for these highly intrusive operations. I hope you can appreciate that this doesn't solve the problem.
Alma Lynn Drive
Fairdale, 40118
July 2000
Each weeknight since July 3rd starting at midnight airfcraft are flying very low to my home. I have aircraft lights coming into my house. This goes on for about one and a half hours.
South Second Street
Louisville, 40208
July 2000
The planes over Old Louisville are too loud. They have been landing from the north over the past few hours.
Highgrove Rd
July 2000
At about 8:52 p.m. a very low flying private aircraft flew very close to our home.
Alma Lynn Drive
Fairdale, 40118
July 2000
Each weeknight since July 3rd, starting at midnight aircraft are flying very low to my home. I have aircraft lights coming into my home.
Anonymous
There is a constant roar of aircraft, it used to be just on Thursday’s between 11:30 and midnight, it has now become arbitrary, sometimes several times a week. I am afraid it might become constant.
Audubon Parkway
Louisville, 40213
July 2000
Aircraft have been noisily departing to the north, contrary to preferred runway use, since at least late morning. With flags waving generally westward, checks seemed appropriate. The ASOS gave 70 degrees, 10 knots around noon, and 80 degrees, 12 knots, around 1 PM. NWS posted ENE (70 degrees), 12 mph at 1 PM, and uniformly lighter readings before that, but from the same general direction.
These conditions give not a scintilla of support to reversing runway operations to direct flow over the most densely populated areas around the airport. Yet that's what's happening. Can there be a logical explanation?
Anonymous
Indiana
July 2000
I’m calling from Indiana to report loud, low airplanes I’ve noticed off and on over the last couple of months. And I keep hoping the airport would get things under control and stop sending so much air traffic over to Southern Indiana but anyway. Nearly every Sunday morning near New Albany High School area and especially around 9:30 in the morning they fly really low through there. Then up at Floyds Knobs in the vicinity of St. Mary’s Church near Martin Road they’re turning and flying loud and low there but in the mornings between 9 and 11 the first few days of May I noticed them and then again on the 17th of May then also the same area near St. Mary’s Church. Again loud and low going over between 9:30 and 11:30 in the morning on June 13 and 14 and they’re especially a bother at night between 12 and 1 a.m. on the 15th and 16th of June. And UPS planes were flying so low you could clearly see them on June 20 from about 9 to 10:30 in the morning and then again on June 21st UPS 11 to 11:30 in the morning. Please take note of that. Thanks a lot.