
Button offers instant gratification for those plagued by airplane noise - wallflower
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/button-offers-instant-gratification-for-those-plagued-by-airplane-noise/2018/12/29/c1035d32-02e1-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html
======
darkpuma
> _" Users sign up via the Airnoise website. With a free account, users can
> file up to 15 complaints a month; for $5 a month, they can file unlimited
> complaints."_

Commercialized NIMBY, that's damn clever.

~~~
eganist
It's a bit of a Kamikaze effort, really. Enough NIMBY automation and future
complaints will be as effective as no complaints at all.

~~~
signal11
Even before this, researchers have noticed that a few people generate a
disproportionate number of noise complaints (both links from 2016):

US: [https://www.mercatus.org/publications/airport-noise-
nimbyism](https://www.mercatus.org/publications/airport-noise-nimbyism)

UK: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
england-37803205](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37803205) (half of the
around 25,000 complaints were made by 10 people)

I wonder if these people are more susceptible to noise than others, or are
simply more tolerant of / more incentivized to navigating bureaucracy to file
complaints.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see how a "dash buttons" approach to
filing complaints affects these numbers.

~~~
Zanni
On the disproportionate number of noise complaints from a few people: I've
noticed in my own case that there was a _huge_ bar to making my first noise
complaint (I don't live under a flight path, but across from a beach park
where people like to party after hours and blast loud music). The first few
times I suffered through it. Eventually it was so bad, I went out at 3am to
ask, politely, for them to keep it down (the park closes at 10pm). I didn't
want to be "that guy" that calls the cops on a bunch of kids just looking to
have a good time. The guy who owned the car blasting the music was apologetic
and immediately complied, but one of his friends got in my face about it.
Another couple of incidents like that and, well, fuck it, I'm not going to
risk bodily harm to try to be cool for some total strangers. I called the
cops, who responded in minutes. Problem solved. Once I crossed that line, I
hear music blasting after midnight, I call the cops without hesitation. Aside
from my own peace of mind, I like to think I'm helping my neighbors who may be
still be in the suffering stage. I have no doubt that I make _many_ more noise
complaints than they do.

~~~
cm2187
Funny I had the opposite experience in the UK (London). Some 50-ish cars doing
a sort of illegal car tuning gathering under my windows in the middle of the
night (midnight). It wasn't the first time and I knew it could last for a
couple of hours. Making loud noise with their engines and sound systems. I
first went to speak to them and asked them to move around (they were also
obstructing the traffic). They just laughed. I then called the non emergency
police line, talked to a very nice and courteous officer, whose job seemed to
be providing reassuring words but did nothing about it.

~~~
eponeponepon
Yeah, the non-emergency number seems to be a placebo to me - I've never heard
of anyone getting any results by ringing it. I'm sure things were better when
one used to be able to ring the local station direct.

~~~
wjossey
In Los Angeles I’ve used the non emergency line a bunch due to homeless
individuals causing issues, and in every case I’ve had a cop come within the
hour. I know because they always give me a ring when they are at the location
to just walk through what I saw.

My experience doesn’t seem to mirror everyone’s though in LA, so it may have
just been the Wilshire division was all over it.

~~~
eponeponepon
Be thankful you aren't in a country where three successive governments have
been pushing "austerity" for a decade, then.

The current one has even had the temerity lately to outright deny that their
public sector cuts, which include policing, are in any way related to the
obvious rise in low-level crime and disorder here.

------
cyberferret
Just wondering if these devices are only issued to people who had houses in
that area before the airport was built. IMO if you knowingly purchase a
residence under a flight path, you lose any privilege of complaining about the
noise.

Modern aviation is already far quieter, and there are plenty of regulations in
place to minimise the noise footprint (e.g. modern fanjet engines are far
quieter than the older turbojets, most airports have curfew hours to prevent
late night/early morning noise, plus I know at our local airport, aircraft
cannot use reverse thrust braking when landing in the early morning hours
etc.).

~~~
Carpetsmoker
> if you knowingly purchase a residence under a flight path, you lose any
> privilege of complaining about the noise.

Honestly, this line really grinds my gears. Let me explain:

First, people don't always know. Actually I think people _frequently_ don't
know. It's not like estate/rental agents are known for their outstanding
honesty.

Also remember that the loudness and frequency of air travel can change _a
lot_. An airplane every few hours and none during the night? That's probably
okay. An airplane every 15 minutes for 24/7? Probably not.

But the most important point is that it's a bit of a discussion stopper; in
the end, no one really wants to live under a flight path, and we all have to
live on the same planet. I'm not saying we can always accommodate everyone,
but dismissing people's real daily struggles with this out-of-hand is probably
not great, especially as there are many important details missing.

I had a noise problem at my previous apartment. I lived about 20 metres from a
church repurposed as a "community and arts centre". Turns out, that this is
code for "we will do rave parties where we literally pump out 100dB of bass
until 5am every weekend during the winter season". I wouldn't have minded if
it was the occasional thing, or if it wasn't literally 100dB (that was their
limit, which by their own admission they also breached sometimes), or if it
wasn't every weekend. I complained but they were very dismissive about it.
It's one of the reasons I ended up moving.

My point is, there are many factors: loudness, frequency, time of day, etc. In
a lot of airports the total loudness may be less (I'll take your word for it),
but the frequency and time of day has definitely increased in many cases, as
people are flying much more.

~~~
c54
I appreciate your example especially since it’s something you couldn’t really
have looked up beforehand. Imagine searching “raves til 5am in my area”

But flight paths are a known known. Maps exist. Noise level maps exist.
Airport locations, runway directions, departing and arriving flight paths (and
altitudes!) all exist.

Caveat emptor, you got a “good deal” on a house because it’s in a loud area.
If you cared about the noise then you should’ve done your homework.

Or.. move somewhere else?

Again— all this only applies to people walking in to buying homes under
takeoff paths. If the airport did this to existing homeowners that’s a prolem,
and I think complaints are justified. (This case also runs into NIMBYism,
which is also a problem, and so on)

~~~
binarycrusader
Flight paths change sometimes. Airports expand, etc.

~~~
cyberferret
Airport expansion, or addition of new runways etc. are usually a tediously
long process, and usually with a lot of community feedback and approval etc.
(at least, here in Australia it is). Not something that can happen overnight
without anyone knowing.

Flight path changes are more common. But then again, those are usually
departure pathways. The worst noise issues are on final approach or on the
takeoff run on runway heading, which rarely change. Most turning points are
above 1000ft AGL where the noise levels are a lot less.

~~~
pongogogo
You would probably use the buttons as part of a campaign to prevent the
expansion of an airport further, to prove that aircraft noise is already
louder than the authorities say it is. I doubt the current measurement of
aircraft noise at ground level over wide areas and long periods is that great,
and airport operators have a heavy incentive to understate the levels of noise
pollution.

------
justinph
Wow, I had no idea this existed. I built a similar thing for my own personal
use for my local airport (Minneapolis/MSP). I looked at using an Amazon Dash
button, but the lifespan is not great and the convenience is not high.
Instead, I use SMS via Twilio and their cloud functions (source:
[https://github.com/justinph/macnoisebutton](https://github.com/justinph/macnoisebutton))

It's pretty handy to be able to say to my watch "Hey Siri, text complain to
Dan Boivin" to make a complaint. (Dan Boivin is the chair of the Minneapolis
Airport Commission, who I have entered into my contacts).

For those griping about people buying homes after airports existed, there are
a couple things to defray that argument. Yes, the airports existed, but the
traffic at airports have increased. Airlines are flying more smaller regional
jets, which means the frequency of flights have increased. The FAA recently
changed flight patterns (part of NextGen) that resulted in some areas seeing
much more air traffic than they had in the past. And, airlines are not doing
the steep takeoffs like they used to in an effort to conserve fuel, putting
planes closer to the ground for longer, resulting in more noise.

------
brankest
It's a neat idea, but it's not clear from the article what these complaints
accomplish. Are the airport administrators held accountable in any way? Are
they required to respond to the complaints? Maintain a low threshold? It seems
like this could just be a placebo button.

~~~
ilaksh
What are they supposed to do? They can't move the airport and if they change
the routing then someone else will complain.

~~~
runarberg
Sometimes you wonder if they could possible move the route a little to the
side. I live on an island close to Seattle, and airplains flying from
California will fly straight over the island, almost like it is on purpose.
You wonder why they couldn't move the route a little to the west or a little
to the east and fly over the sea instead.

[https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA1041](https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA1041)

~~~
btgeekboy
FlightAware on mobile isn’t letting me zoom in to see which island you’re on.
There’s a few pilots on HN; we can help you look it up. It’s probably not on
purpose as in “haha let’s fly over this guy’s house” but more likely to that
it keeps traffic in the busy Seattle area flowing smoothly. You can certainly
write to the local Flight Standards District Office and ask them to consider
using new waypoints and procedures, or ask them for an official explanation.

~~~
333c
It looks like Vashon Island (from Google Maps).

~~~
btgeekboy
That one’s easy then - to the west, and you’re on the approach path to JBLM.
To the east, you’re too close to SEA to properly intercept the final approach
course. Vashon Island is also far less populated than the land to the east of
SEA.

~~~
chihuahua
For those not familiar with the Seattle area, JBLM is Joint Base Lewis-
McChord, where McChord is an air force base.

------
yawaramin
A button would be great to have for cars that run red lights and try to muscle
in on pedestrians crossing while the walk sign is on. It would need a camera
to catch the license plate, to be effective, though. Probably would be simpler
as a phone app, just with a fast (or instant) camera. There's been a rash of
pedestrian fatalities where I live recently and seemingly little by way of
enforcement; it would be good to have some way to push back.

~~~
gruez
hook it up to a dashcam, and have it send the last 30s of footage.

------
sandworm101
A small part of my job (air force) is taking noise complaints. I find their
rate has absolutely nothing to do with actual noise. It is all about time of
day. A rainy tuesday afternoon: we can land on a roof without complaint from
the owners. But on a sunny saturday evening, suddenly the same flight pattern
we have flown for _years_ without issue starts my phone ringing.

Standard, honest, responses:

1) Civilian air traffic control dictate our airport approach. If our
helicopter was flying low it was probably because a 737 was on approach above
it.

2) Helicopters have to land. They cannot hover down from 5000 feet directly
onto the pad. They have to fly over someone's house somewhere to come home.

3) Sorry ma'am, but there was this boat on fire and a man was hurt. The strait
line between the boat and hospital was directly over your house. Our bad. Ill
ask the pilots to take the long way next time.

What AF personnel want to say:

4) Big helicopter? Did you see a big red star on the side of it? No? You're
welcome. _click_

~~~
dingaling
> Did you see a big red star on the side of it?

Ah the 'sound of freedom' dodge.

What is the limit for that excuse? Broken windows from sonic boom? 20lb
concrete practice bomb accidentally dropped through a roof? Cablecar knocked
to the ground during low-level flyying training? All unfortunate but necessary
to Maintain Freedom...

~~~
sandworm101
Yes.

But remember that civilian air traffic causes plenty of accidents and injuries
too. Our helicopters (sar) each year save far more lives than all the
accidents our airforce have ever caused.

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
>That’s because with one click, Deckert has done what could have taken her
hours to do a few months ago — she has filed a noise complaint with officials
at the Maryland Aviation Administration.

One thing though is that the very ease diminishes how much attention the
officials actually pay. Same as when you contact your officials, a hand
written letter or phone call is much more effective than an email template or
a retweet. When they got a noise complaint in the past, they would have
thought: this bothered them enough to spend an hour filling out a noise
complaint. Now, they can think: this bothered them enough to spend half a
second to push a conveniently located button or use an app.

~~~
floatingatoll
The officials already made clear that passenger comfort isn’t a priority; they
could have mandated that airlines install noise sensors and file monthly
reports with their data, but instead they chose to require passengers to risk
suffering and then have to file complaints to seek recompense for it.

~~~
orf
Assuming you only read the title of the post I can understand your reply, but
I would suggest a cursory glance at articles before replying.

The noise complaints are coming from people under the flight path, not from
within the cabin.

~~~
floatingatoll
Ah, nuts, I misread before the “You’ve read too much” cutoff kicked in on the
site. Oh well.

I miss the plane noise from my prior home. A bit odd to me that people object
to it, so I’ll stay out of it.

------
ilaksh
In San Diego the airport is right downtown. Many people are pretty much
gauranteed to be dealing with airplane noise regardless of the routes taken to
land.

Of course La Jolla is probably the most expensive area in San Diego. Should we
route the airplanes around them? Lol.

I mean you can't move the airports and most people can't move their houses so
it feels like this is mostly a structural issue. And to me more direct routing
based on satellites seems safer than radar based.

I think the buttons are a great idea though. Hopefully they will make buttons
for more practical complaints like muggings or burglary. Or just fix reporting
processes to be more efficient in the first place. Although that may not be
the best example because if you need a button to press everytime you get
robbed you probably need to just move to a better neighborhood.

I feel like this demonstrates the gap between where technology is and where
government is.

~~~
p_l
Sats have wild accuracy shifts and depend heavily on the plane being fully
operational. Ultimately what you end up with sats anyway is list of waypoints,
not anything dynamic, and it can be done with radar as well.

~~~
darkpuma
Then why are airports trending towards satellite navigation? Do they not
realize something that you do?

~~~
p_l
No, they do realize exactly that, which is why quite often the paths didn't
change as much as they could and why aviation community tends to rebuke ideas
like "remove SSR and PSR because GPS and Mode S + ADS-B is enough".

Sats provide good "happy path" when everything is ok and allow greater
density. But approach and departure routes are going to be designed for safety
as well, including when those features fail.

------
chacha102
Why only complain about something when you remember to press a button?

At some point, someone is just going to hook up a decibel meter and
automatically press the button when it hits a threshold. It might file a
couple of bad complaints, but if the noise difference is significant, you
could definitely increase your throughput.

~~~
sgustard
My neighborhood has car alarms which serve a similar function (to warn of
excessive noise or vibration by emitting louder noise.)

------
jimnotgym
In the UK Gatwick and Heathrow airports have been there for a generation. By
this I mean that the vast majority of people moved to their noise-affected
houses knowing the airport was there already.

Do these people deserve our sympathy? Initially i find it hard to be
charitable towards them.

In my local town there is a pub that has been there for around 600 years. A
particularly pushy person moved in next door, complained about the noise and
successfully got the licensing people to add a condition that the beer garden
must be closed after a certain time. Same question again, surely they knew
what to expect when they moved in?

~~~
cowsandmilk
Sure, an airport may have been there, but, in Boston at least, technology
changes have made it so that if you are in the flight path, you have a much
higher frequency of planes overhead.

See the traffic from runway 33L at Logan airport as an example:
[https://www.universalhub.com/comment/559152#comment-559152](https://www.universalhub.com/comment/559152#comment-559152)

Basically, flights used to have diverse paths, so you would hear a plane
occasionally. And so would everyone else around. But now, if you are directly
under the path, you will hear flights consistently every 90 seconds for hours
on end. That is a major change, and a recent one at that.

~~~
clubm8
How recent? (Ex last year, last decade?)

~~~
xianb
> The green lines are flight paths from before the implementation of the new
> technology (January 2013). The red lines are flight paths from after the
> implementation of the new technology (January 2015).

------
mschuster91
The problem is IMHO not the airplane noise. As many others have written, the
actual noise has gone down over the decades.

The real problem is a perceived lack of democratic participation / a
government that _cares_ about its people. The interviewed people actually said
so: "It makes you feel like you can make a difference", compared to manually
filling out complex forms.

This actually is valid also for other countries: in Munich, there is a
constant battle for the expansion of the airport with a new runway. For now,
the project is set on hold, but who knows how the situation will look like in
5 years w/ the then-new government in Bavaria. This was also decided above the
heads of the affected population (who would have lost their homes or be
affected by massive increases in noise) without including them, and
politicians didn't do flying f..k and tell the affected people that the state
cares for them, their well-being or whatever. For new rail tracks or those
where usage exploded over decades, people had to _sue_ the rail company for
installation of noise-protection.

Personal bet: Complaints about "NIMBY", endless and expensive judicial battles
(as are hinted in the article), noise, playing kids, _anything_ would go down
to decent manageable levels if governments would care to meaningfully involve
affected residents and give them the feeling that their voice matters for the
government. The other way is to continue as usual and watch them fall to
various radicals and their "the state doesn't care about you, only about
<insert minority/marginalized group here>" message.

------
Puer
Not that there's anything wrong with reporting on the same topic by multiple
publications, but this article just seems like a poor copy of this WSJ article
published in August:

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/airplane-noise-complaints-
are-s...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/airplane-noise-complaints-are-
skyrocketing-i-start-pushing-that-button-at-6-33-a-m-1535121271)

[https://outline.com/Kp3HcG](https://outline.com/Kp3HcG)

Out of curiosity, are there journalistic guidelines about publishing duplicate
articles when there are seemingly no new pertinent developments? I haven't
seen anything like this before.

~~~
jachee
Could be the author drumming up the attention, a la celebrities giving
basically the same interview on the late-night circuit to promote their newest
reboot/sequel.

------
markbnj
I don't know, sort of feels like this thing really isn't helping anyone other
than perhaps the entity collecting the $5. These folks would probably be
better served by speaking with some experts to find out whether there are any
feasible short term things that can even be done, and if there are then
organizing to lobby officials as a group. Punching the button every time a
plane flies over is probably just going to limit the effectiveness of the
complaints.

------
socialist_coder
Another aspect to this problem is that the vast majority of houses in the US
are made as cheaply as possible, and that means walls with very little mass
and sound absorption.

If you had something like concrete walls like is typical for Germany, the
plane noise would barely register.

~~~
Johnny555
Houses in close proxmity airports can be designed to help minimize the noise
-- I know someone that built a house in the flight path for SFO, so he used
triple pane glass windows, clay roof tiles instead of the more typical asphalt
shingles, some sort of soundproofing insulation in the attic, heavy solid wood
exterior doors (with tight weatherstripping) among other things. Apparently
the home builders in that area know what they need to do.

It works, you can barely hear the planes go by from within the house, but
outside, they are loud enough to make it hard to carry on a conversation.

I think most people just get used to the noise, I used to live close to a
train line - close enough that not only could I hear the train horns at the
crossing, but also could hear the rumbling train cars go by and could feel the
vibrations in the house.

It was super annoying for the first month or so, and then I forgot about it
and never really noticed it until I had a house guest that complained about
the late night noise.

~~~
chihuahua
I once stayed at an airport hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, and I was amazed
that while there was a direct view of the runway from the room, you could not
tell there was a plane taking off a few hundred meters away. I didn't think it
was possible.

------
anonytrary
I am curious why this wasn't just an app. What's the point of having a
physical button other than for aesthetic gratification? If you had an app,
it'd be more than just one click, but it'd only be like three "clicks" or
steps. You'd have to unlock your phone, open the app, and click a button.
Three steps instead of one. Not sure if that warrants a physical button.

Edit: I get why pressing a physical button is therapeutic, but even an app
could play some audio when you pressed the button. These people are pretty
pissed off when they click these buttons, because nobody is happy when they're
complaining about noise pollution. An app could even play a voice-acted "fuck
you, <name of airport>" when you click the button in the app. There are about
15,000 airports in the US. You could pay 150 people $10 each to say "fuck you
<airport_i>" in an angry, cathartic voice. Each person would only have to say
100 lines.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
It seems like a lot of users are clicking that button dozens of times a day. I
suppose they might consider the extra convenience worth it, particularly at
night.

------
csours
I used to live directly west of DFW (Euless). I heard the jets maybe 3 or 4
times from inside my apartment; I heard them much more often outside, but it
was never disturbing to the point I would have complained.

Two things help DFW: 1. It has a huge amount of land. 2. The main
landing/takeoff pattern is North/South and there are roads and businesses to
the North and South and not houses.

Now I live right near the landing pattern of ABIA - Austin, but way north. The
only thing that bugs me is that the planes directly overfly the office and
I've watched too many crash videos.
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLPA0Dhi1VXQDGbkXwjDUzQ/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLPA0Dhi1VXQDGbkXwjDUzQ/videos)

------
BurningFrog
One of my pet genius ideas that will never happen is to reserve prime housing
areas near airports for the deaf.

~~~
chihuahua
Your idea is correct: According to mainstream economic theory, the invisible
hand of the free market has already resulted in areas near airports being
inhabited exclusively by the deaf.

------
ams6110
I thought I was going to read about a home-sized noise cancelling system that
you could activate by pressing a button when you heard an airplane overhead.

~~~
zhoujianfu
Me too! I’d just been thinking a few days ago how amazing an invention like
that would be... no more concerns about neighbors or trains or airplanes or
drones... lots of property values would increase and zoning laws would become
obsolete if such a thing existed.

------
tristor
I wish this would also work with military flights. There's a lot of people
here talking about NIMBYism and how you should know before you buy your house
and what-not. I agree with most of that, except I don't think it fairly
applies here in many cases. Take myself as an anecdote. I bought a house in a
nice, quiet, neighborhood 7 years ago. I also live in a city with multiple
active military bases, including two Air Force bases which do training
flights. At the time it was established practice to limit training flights to
daytime if they were overflying residential areas, I worked night-shift so it
was annoying, but what can you do?

Now I work days, and multiple times per day and into the late night (stops
around Midnight/1AM) there will be military training flights over my
neighborhood. These are not high-altitude flyovers with some noise, these are
young Air Force pilots in training flying over low, and sometimes breaking the
sound barrier over my neighborhood (but at least high enough altitude that
it's not breaking windows). I've adapted by basically shifting my sleep
schedule so I go to bed around Midnight when it stops. What else can I do?

Short of using my personal connections locally to find out who their CO is and
calling them on the phone directly, there is basically no process for me to
complain. I'm also pretty certain that generating sonic booms over a
neighborhood at night is probably against their training orders, and they'd
get disciplined, but since I have no pathway to complain and it's something
that could not reasonably be expected, I'm just stuck with it unless I want to
move.

It's not a daily occurrence, but probably happens at least 3-4 times per week
after 9PM.

There's a reason the pricing for homes is lower next to the airport or next to
the Air Force base vs in my previously quiet neighborhood which is in a suburb
more than 5 miles from both.

------
lovemenot
Could there ever be such a thing as domestic noise cancelation?

Presumably it would need precise location of ear-drums, such as by wearing a
RF reflective stud on the ear lobe. And multiple time-of-flight receivers for
triangulation.

I guess, if it were possible such a system would be much better when two or
more people are not in the same room together.

------
askvictor
Where can hobbyists purchase hackable/programmable internet buttons such as
this for a reasonable price? I've seen a few around the place but the costs
are exorbitant for what they are, and hacking the Amazon buttons is too much
effort (and they're hard to get outside the US)

~~~
aaron-santos
Is the $15 AWS IoT Button[1] too expensive?

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/1st-Generation-AWS-IoT-
Button/dp/B01C...](https://www.amazon.com/1st-Generation-AWS-IoT-
Button/dp/B01C7WE5WM/)

~~~
cdolan
For a fun side project probably not, no. Anything past that (even a small
scale beta) and yes $15 is quite expensive for what you are getting.

------
_archon_
I have just figured out the perfect IoT device to solve this problem:

Push a button when local infrastructure makes you angry. The device figures
out your location from GPS and user input on setup. The device then searches
for a local realtor, and sends them an email saying that the device's owner
wants to move. The realtor handles it from there.

If flight paths are changing, the housing market will adjust. If you don't
want to be subject to the vagaries of metropolitan infrastructure, buy land in
the middle of nowhere.

------
exabrial
Do you also complain about thunder and lightning to the NWS?

~~~
darkpuma
They should make a button to file noise complaints about city buses. This
would be very useful for people living in low-level apartments located on busy
city streets.

~~~
dylan604
Or maybe the trains in Chicago or New York?

------
tomohawk
An air traffic controller acquaintance of mine warned me that they were making
changes and that planes on approach would be flying at lower altitudes as a
result. Sure enough, jet noise has gotten ridiculous. They have them flying
way too low way too far out. You can be 10 - 20 miles out and have a jet noise
such that you have to yell to be heard.

------
nealmueller
Does a noise abatement complaint service like this exist for garbage trucks
that come in the middle of the night?

------
mhb
Looking forward to the one for leaf blowers.

~~~
dylan604
I knew an individual that lived in a neighborhood frequently used for film
shoots. “Coincidentally”, these shoots were always on days when he was
planning on doing yard work. Inevitibly, some PA would come offer him some
cash to convince him to postpone his yard work.

------
bhickey
You can take this one step further. After manually flagging when you hear a
plane, generate the next complaint automatically.

------
onetimemanytime
Airports aren't going away.

Engine makers aren't making them any quieter, laws of physics _and_ time
(airplanes in service for decades)

Airplanes have to follow a certain path and certain procedures, for example
they can't land like helicopters from 30,000 feet.

So for the people that bought cheaper homes near an airports, it sucks, but
get used to it (other than a rare case when the plane deviated from standard
procedure). Maybe they'll make complaint filing manual.

~~~
sokoloff
Engine makers have dramatically reduced engine noise and continue to do so.
Some aircraft have “hush kits” developed and installed.

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diogenescynic
Someone should do the same thing for filing complaints about homeless camps in
San Francisco.

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ddingus
My first house had airplane noise.

Was minor league, mostly Southwest airline approaches. (I never inquired why)

Then, for a while, I got ultra intense! Was only for a couple months. And only
intense on occasion. Maybe people complained.

I had never really experienced that kind of noise. It was bone rattling.
Basic, like "oh fuck, this is LOUD"

Kind of liked it. I would not have had it continued.

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morpheuskafka
As someone who lives near an airport (2.4mi) and under flight paths, I
honestly don't care. It's the sound of valuable commerce passing through my
community and it's not worth wasting official's time with excessive
complaints.

