Keeping It Down to Head Off Noise Complaints

"There are two more flight schools here," the presenter said. "The pattern is a lot busier, therefore noisier." The subtext was someone—most likely several someones—somewhere had complained, and now it was up to the pilots to make things better.

Does this sound like your airport? The busier an airport gets the more likely it is that noise abatement procedures will be created.

Noise abatement procedures have become an integral part of pilot training. Airports that were once out in the sticks—surrounded by orchards and cornfields—now have residential subdivisions and industrial parks at their borders. It's the homeowners that often complain the loudest—and don't try using the argument the airport was there first. While it is often true, it doesn't do much toward mollifying the person complaining.

According to the FAA, most noise transgressions at airports are caused by transient aircraft. Ignorance of the procedures does not excuse you from using them, as FAR 91.103 states, "each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight," and if the airport has noise abatement procedures, these are part of that available information. Fortunately, most airports have voluntary noise abatement procedures. Note the key word is voluntary. Noise abatement procedures should never compromise the safety of the flight.

As part of your training, you will be taught to look for and follow these procedures as long as they do not impact the safety of the flight. Many airports publish noise abatement procedures on websites or in paper brochures that contain annotated photographs with textual descriptions and cautions to observe over flying-noise-sensitive areas and to remain clear of certain airspace. There are often altitude restrictions, such as “do not descend lower than 2,000 feet over populated areas,” or cautioning the pilots to reduce power to lessen the noise signature as soon as possible. These are living procedures, in that they may be adjusted from time to time.

If there is a noise abatement departure, there will likely be a noise abatement arrival. They are often based on geographic landmarks that are easy to recognize, such as the Reservoir Arrival or Gravel Pit arrival. Expect to see altitude restrictions and advice to fly the PAPI (precision approach path indicator) or VASI (visual approach slope indicator).

In other cases, when a housing project, shopping mall, or other development is proposed near an airport, the developers work with the FAA and airport sponsor, such as the city or county, to come up with some noise mitigation. Those efforts could include creating a greenbelt that aircraft should overfly when they are in the pattern or adjusting the pattern slightly to avoid a specific noise sensitive area, such as a hospital. In the case of the latter, instead of flying a rectangular pattern, one end may look more like a slightly tweaked parallelogram.

The federal 1990 Airport Noise and Capacity Act requires that local noise abatement ordinances be approved by the FAA before enacted. If the noise abatement policy is enforced by a local ordinance and has been added to the city's municipal code, it is possible pilots who exceed noise limits or perform prohibited or restricted activities—such as touch-and-go landings or low approaches—can be cited.

First-time violations usually result in a warning letter being sent to the registered owner of the aircraft. Just because you are a renter and not the owner of the aircraft, don't expect to be off the hook for violating the noise rules. You may lose your rental privileges for willfully breaking the rules, especially when the flight school or the aircraft owner who put their on leaseback gets a poison pen letter from the airport sponsor.

Savvy airport groups try to work with their community, especially their elected officials, to stay ahead of potential noise issues that could impact the airport. These might be adjusting the power setting after reaching a particular altitude or agreeing not to do repeated touch and goes before noon on weekends.

The most challenging aspect of this is often fighting against the stigma that all pilots are rich and airplanes are expensive toys. To combat this trope, encourage the flight students and CFIs from the local schools to attend the meetings and speak up.

Sadly, it is not uncommon for noise complaints to come from a specific neighborhood, even a specific person, who often calls the airport manager with the enthusiasm of a teenager trying to win concert tickets from a radio station. There are people who make it their business to stalk airplanes. ADS-B and publicly available airplane-tracking applications, along with surveillance cameras, make it very easy to record airplanes. The anti-airport people will often take these screen captures and images to the FAA, local television stations, or social media and show the alleged bad behavior of the pilot.

Please note it is very difficult to determine the altitude of an airplane from a Ring camera or iPhone video, especially when the camera has zoomed in on the aircraft or the video is distorted by copying it from a TV or computer screen. The noise signature is also distorted in these cases. Yet there are pilots who find themselves having to answer to alleged infractions based on this “evidence.”

For pilots, noise abatement procedures can mean more planning. Google Earth makes it easy to study the pattern and approaches before you fly them. And there are times when you will adjust your flying technique as well, such as better planning of a descent so as not to “drag it in.”

When I was working on my commercial certificate, King County International Airport/Boeing Field (KBFI) had a curfew against repeated takeoffs and landings after 10 p.m. It was summer, and I was at the tail end of the five hours of night VFR as indicated in FAR 61.129. All I had left to do was seven takeoffs and landings, with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern at an airport with an operating control tower. I had done three already on a previous flight. I read the KBFI notice to air missions (NOTAM) advising the 10 p.m. curfew. I had approximately an hour and 20 minutes to get it done. I lurked west of KBFI until the timer went off in the cockpit, letting me know it was officially a loggable night. I made contact with the tower and was advised that the curfew would be kicking in shortly. I acknowledged this, and around the pattern I went. As I was lifting off after the last landing, the tower control announced the curfew was now in effect, then asked, "Did you get them all done?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good job!" he replied, then cleared me to the south.