You are 49 years old? Aren't you just a tad mature (in years) to be acting
like a whack-job?

Tom

"Skylune" wrote in message
lkaboutaviation.com...
I'll think about the C-150 thing. That's the little plane I did some
training in about 15 years back (or was it a 152, i don't recall). I'm
going on 49: is that to late to pick up where I left off? I think not,
especially since I did training and can probably progress to the stall
stuff pretty fast. Anyway, what's to lose?

What this is all about: I and my family have owned properties in a
certain area of southern New Hampshire for years, with intent to retire
there. Over the years, the local airport (about five miles away) has
gotten busier and busier. Last summer, the noise was just out of control.
Low flights all hours of the day and night. A certain Mooney and Bonanza
were the worst offenders: low (well under 1000 feet), loud, and frequent
(constant on sunny weekends). I called the airport manager two or three
times, and got push back, so I stopped calling. Calling people at the FAA
was a complete waste of time, even when I spotted the N-number, which is
damned hard from the ground. They demand "proof," which they make
impossible to provide, and they refuse to investigate.

Then, to make matters worse, I find out the local airport, which is purely
GA and already has a 5000 ft runway, towered, the works, wants to do
"saftey improvements." Well, the "improvements" involve building another
runway and/or lengthening the existing runway to 5500 feet. All in the
name of "safety." Well, I may be crazy, but I am not stupid. No GA prop
plane needs that much asphalt to land safely. I know an expansion plan
disguised as safety project (to make it seem more politically palitable)
when I see it.

I attended the public info session on the "safety improvements". It was
obvious that the meeting was really just another bum rush. The only
people there were the presenters, interested (financially) parties, and
people upset about the noise. Armed with my research, I asked many
specific questions that they were not ready to answer. It was quite clear
that they simply wanted to check off the box required to get the 95% FAA
grant. Since the FAA and the airport gave us the bum rush already, I did
a bunch of additional research, and went the political/editorial route.

Then I uncovered dirt (admitted EPA violations by an FBO, a long expired
Part 150 study, key parts of which were never implemented and simply
shelved, requests to the sponsoring city for operating subsidies when the
city was already experiencing a budget crunch, etc.) I publicized it to
elected officials, government agencies (e.g EPA) and the press.

This used to be a pretty quiet area, but the airport has turned into a
major nuisance. Now, we are thinking of selling a property we recently
acquired and seriously thinking about moving somewhere else. To be honest
the noise levels have dropped considerably -- just a few a-holes now. Not
sure why: I don't bother calling the stupid airport anymore. Their
credibility registers as zero on my meter.

Anyway, the expansion project is on hold way due to environmental issues
(mainly water, as the airport unfortunately sits directly atop the
acquifer for the entire area). All we want is the airport to make a
better effort to enforce its existing noise abatement procedures, which
are routinely ignored by a small minority of fliers.