Flight path

[HoneyA]

Hiya, are we under a flight path here all of a sudden or has something to do with the flight paths changed recently? The noise levels from aeroplanes I feel have suddenly increase in frequency and loudness. Does anyone know anything?

[Spartacus]

It's all those pesky parents ans kids flying away on holiday 🤣

possibly due to reasons beyond us, we are back under a flight path again today

It happens then we're not 

[evilmanic]

The approaches that aircraft take to land are based on the prevailing wind, as the planes land 'into' oncoming wind.   

They can either land into Heathrow via an easterly or westerly approach - one of these goes over London

[Sue]

On 13/08/2023 at 07:36, HoneyA said:

Hiya, are we under a flight path here all of a sudden or has something to do with the flight paths changed recently? The noise levels from aeroplanes I feel have suddenly increase in frequency and loudness. Does anyone know anything?

I've noticed that the  noise has been particularly bad recently. The planes have seemed to be flying lower than usual.

[Rockets]

There was a long thread on the topic with a lot of detailed explanations but: with a westerly wind we get planes heading on approach to Heathrow and they will be somewhere near 4,000 ft above us and the noise will be dependent on a lot of factors like cloud base and how strong the wind is and whether they are transitioning flaps, have landing gear down (which would be unusual this far out) etc - most of the noise you hear is the air over the airframe of the plane as the engines are pretty much idle (unless it is blustery and the engines are spooling for additional power). When the wind is an easterly you will get planes heading into City airport and they will be much lower in their approach (they head from here and slingshot around the Shard for their approach into City) and often they are noisier as they are much lower and also more likely to be transitioning flaps (the old BAE 146 that used to be used a lot at City used to howl as the flaps transitioned with a very distinctive sound).

[teddyboy23]

Not to worry .another 2 weeks all planes will be non compliant because of the expanded ulez but look on the bright side you can get a peddlar cab for your family and luggage from all airports.drop you anywhere you want for about £600 

Edited August 14, 2023 by teddyboy23

[Sue Klein]

i think it's City Airport.  Because they are located inside the city, not very far from ED as the crow flies, the planes take off at a more vertical angle and very noisily and given how far it is from ED , they have not reached their full lift before passing over  ED, which means we get the noise and it seems to start at about 4 am sometimes. We will hear them slowing down as they approach city airport, but the biggest noise is when they are taking off

[paul*]

An interesting site is flightradar24. You can see exactly what is passing over ED and how close.

You can also do a timed replay of flights and speed it up.

I looked at this recently when considering a move to SW London as the noise there is just insane. You could look up at the belly of a jet literally every 90 seconds or so.

Today the flights are going into Heathrow in the reverse direction, as the poster above comments. Today has light winds from the east. 'Easterly operations' account for 30% of the year, Heathrow says (though it feels like less).

City airport can be an influence, I haven't checked their routes but would agree with the knowledgeable comments above. However, the volume of flights from City is far lower compared to others. What you are probably experiencing is Heathrow, which may be surprising given it feels quite far from us.

I often find the aircraft noise in Denmark Hill noticeable and annoying when in the garden. I was surprised to learn years ago it's the Heathrow landing path (rather than Gatwick) and at that point some of the various landing paths / spirals have converged, meaning many planes. Nobody would plan Heathrow like that now, you'd hope.

If you want cheering up zoom out on the flightradar24 map and see how many planes are over Europe or the world at any point. It is incredible. There really is no hope for the planet...

 

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by paul*

[Rockets]

Yup SW London is awful - could never understand why people thought some of the areas right under the approach were great places to live - once the flaps and gear get down fully the noise generated is increased massively.

 

And you're right, nowadays they would never allow an airport in an area of a city that required approaches over densely populated areas 70% of the time

[RichH]

All the commercial airliners you see (or hear!) flying low over ED are coming into land at either Heathrow or London City airports. As pointed out earlier, the City destined flights are lowest and take a wide route over ED towards NW London before banking and coming back Eastwards following the Thames over the city towards City Airport.  The City flights are all smaller aircraft, no big 747's or A380's.  I find that the City aircraft are much quieter than the Heathrow bound ones but it all depends on your precise location and your localised conditions... much like the perception of noise output from GALA!

But, it's much quieter now than it used to be.  No Concorde (the glorious roar from which I fondly miss) and no "Tridents" which I recall were especially noisy.  There are no long, black jet exhaust trails either!

[Sue]

55 minutes ago, Rockets said:

Yup SW London is awful - could never understand why people thought some of the areas right under the approach were great places to live - once the flaps and gear get down fully the noise generated is increased massively

I once lived on Richmond Green. Walking across the Green to the station was really scary when a plane came over.

But not as scary as when fighter planes came  over very low and (literally) out of the blue from (I think) Wales, when I lived in rural Herefordshire and was hanging out my washing 😬

[Rockets]

Did you happen to live near the farmer who wrote P**s Off RAF on his barn roof to signal his annoyance at being buzzed by jets which then became a new landmark for the pilots who made sure they buzzed him more frequently!? I must admit I do feel sorry for those who live in the Mach Loop in Wales - lovely for plane spotters less so for anyone who lives there!

[Sue]

2 minutes ago, Rockets said:

Did you happen to live near the farmer who wrote P**s Off RAF on his barn roof to signal his annoyance at being buzzed by jets which then became a new landmark for the pilots who made sure they buzzed him more frequently!? I must admit I do feel sorry for those who live in the Mach Loop in Wales - lovely for plane spotters less so for anyone who lives there!

I was living on a farm, but the farmers were far too nice to do that (and far too busy!)