machia Loc: NJ

Here in NJ , we have lost many airports in the past 50 years due to urban sprawl . The complaint ? NOISE .
The other day I took the day off to catch up on much needed painting on my house , repairs on roof etc .
What I noticed from 8 am to 6 pm was the constant sound of lawn mowers and leaf blowers . It was like being in an industrial hell ! LOL
All this for green lawns ?
People actually tolerate this over an occasional Cessna touching down ?
I was just wondering what the rest of my fellow photographers thought about this . Perhaps I need earplugs on my days off ? Or can landscape machinery be made quieter by use of mufflers ?
I'll take a Cessna or a Piper taking off or landing anyday !

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Agree with you on that - in suburbia, it would be nice if all the yard equipment was electric..

And it appears the airports didn't have the right answers in court or they owners were ready to sell out/retire/quit.

Some years ago, a housing development out west, tried to shut down a major airport because of the noise - they showed up in court with a slew of lawyers with noise measurements and studies to show how it was damaging the folks living in the development. The airport produced the general manager. The judge asked where all the lawyers were to represent the airport and the general manager said - don't need them - the housing development lawyers all laughed - the judge was skeptical but agreed to start the hearing. The opening statements by the housing development lawyers lasted quite a long time and the judge wanted to take a recess and continue after lunch - the general manager said, I only have a couple of words your honor - the judge agreed - the GM said " the airport invokes the grandfather clause" - the case was dismissed.
Since the airport was in place long before the housing developments built the houses, the people knew what they were buying and moving into. A lot of law suits came out of that ruling - all aimed at the realtors for not disclosing the proximity to the airport - not one was won as the planes flying over pretty much around the clock should have been enough of an indicator that an airport was nearby. Seems this judge had common sense.
Now, the airport is an international airport and it would be extremely difficult to shut it down...

machia Loc: NJ

What airport are you referring to ? Just curious .
I'm also in the flight path here of Newark International . But flights out of Newark using the left and right runways when flying due South are split between us and Staten Island , NY . So we only get aircraft overhead on 50 % of those takeoffs . With the newer class of jet engines it's hardly noticeable . I'd love to see the decibel readings on that compared to the noise of landscape equipment .
Further West and South many airports , mostly grass runways , were shut when the farmlands in the Southern counties were developed .
There is no way that these people can compare the sound of a light airplane overhead to the constant noise of machinery . But apparently for some reason the louder of the two is tolerable .
My day off really got me wondering about this .

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

San Jose International - was the talk of the town when I moved there in '80 - I don't have the exact date it happened but the development I was looking to move into was not building anymore and was filing for bankruptcy due to "legal issues"...

I stayed in Phoenix to care for my father and had a difficult time adjusting to 6:00 am leaf blowers in the condo complex - seems it gets too hot to work late mornings and afternoons...

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

I moved to Ft Myers, FL 3 1/2 years ago.

After moving in I noticed many small prop and jet planes on approach to an airport near me, Page Field.

I love it. Sitting on my Lanai I can see planes landing for about 10-12 seconds and a little less when they take off.

I actually move to see more of them. I love them and the sound *NOT NOISE* of their engines.

They don't fly 24 hours so I'm only happy during daylight hours.

I'm also not directly under a flight path but I wouldn't mind if I was.

I knew there was an airport nearby, I bought the house, I don't regret my decision and sure as hell would not want the airport to move now.

Same as people that build a house on the side of a sandy hill or sage grass hill and them complain about landslides or fires.

Get a brain folks.

Sarge69

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Man, you're right about that. The cacophony of landscapers all day long(and all year long down here) is much worse than any general aviation airport, but as a pilot I'm necessarily biased.

rustfarmer

Interestingly, the "grandfather" law has been adopted by statute in Tennessee and termed a pre existing condition and thus one is found to have "come to the nuisance", however the statute is in a section labelled "towns and municipalities". It has not been resolved (to the best of my knowledge) whether the statute applies in rural areas.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I agree completely. In East Haven Ct., there is an airport (Tweed Airport) that was the original airport used by Colt Firearms to develop guns for seaplanes prior to WW1. This airport was the "major" airport for New Haven CT and had passenger service via American, United etc. flying in multiple times a day using 727s and planes of that size. Over the years, since the main runway extended into the waters of Long Island Sound between East Haven and Long Island, residents moved in to surround the airport on the 3 land sides. Then after the resident having moved in, they complained about the aircraft noise and finally got the airport to all but shut down. I can't understand how these idiots got enough power considering that the airport was there year before they even broke ground to build houses. The same is true of Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Horsham near Philadelphia. The property was leased to the Navy in the early development of the airplane by Pitcairn in 1926 and has been constantly upgraded over the years. It's runways and taxiways were upgraded to accept the heaviest of the military planes. When the Navy decided to shut down the base, the township started planning to use the land for development. I'm not sure that they have figured out that the Pitcairn family LEASED the land to the government and didn't deed it to the township or the state. I figured that they should make the airport a 'private' airport for UPS FedEx and air freight use to take that traffic off of Philly International since both UPS and FedEx have large facilities up the road. But all of the people that bought multi-hundred thousand dollar houses around the Naval base are saying they don't want the noise of the "air traffic". go figure.

grillmaster5062

Just like all of the morons that keep moving further and further out in the sticks and then complain when a bear or other animal gets ahold of a child or the family pet. You're in the animals bedroom, he was there first.

rustfarmer

Just FWIW, in old English law, one who purchased land bought the air above it and the ground beneath to the center of the earth. Once airplanes were invented, this changed without any notice or payment to landowners "for the public good". Seems like a "taking without compensation" to me, in violation of the normal rule, but then what the heck do I know?

machia Loc: NJ

Mufflers for landscape equipment !
Afternoon off today , finishing up the roof and I get out of my car into a sea of noise ! LOL

GTinSoCal Loc: Palmdale, CA

We have a local city that banned gas landscape equipment.
Not that it's done any good, all the pros and most homeowners still use gas.

GT

machia Loc: NJ

Ok then .
So being a private pilot myself , of course I'm biased when it comes to land developers vs airports . But the driving complaint is NOISE . And the purpose of posting my thoughts is that noise from landscaping equipment is at least 6 days a week , sun up to sun down . There's no comparison . No airports make this sort of noise unless you are literally standing at the end of a commercial runway at a busy airport .
I find that people who go to town hall meetings to get civilian airports shut down but go home to the deafening noise of lawn equipment a curiosity to say the least !
Thanks for the input all , have a great weekend .

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

While that may be true in Old England, it doesn't apply in the United States. You may own the land but you may or may not own the minerals below your property and you are required by law to provide access to any owner or authorized agent of the owner to mine, or otherwise gain access to the minerals and or oil. The air over said property is unrestricted except by US Code (meaning that it is illegal to fly over controlled air space without permission of the controller of that air space (NASA, US Department of the Interior, FBI, Military, Secret Service, etc.

dave.speeking Loc: Brooklyn OH

I received a call from a city official complaining about the noise of a diesel locomotive parked by his house.
I told a city councilman to tell the guy that if we knew he was going to buy a house so close to the railroad
we wouldn't have built it a hundred years ago.