Commuting by Spitfire

[Old Koreelah]

Why drive to work when you can fly?

[Akromaster]

45min drive? Seems hardly worth the discussion. It may be a 5min drive but how long does it take him to do a daily every day? 30-45 minutes for me each time I go flying.

 

 

[dlegg]

Landing fees at Cairns airport will soon change his mind, I believe they are north of $300

 

 

[kgwilson]

What an ugly looking Spitfire. The spinner is too small so it makes the nose look weird & the tail fin looks way of of proportion i.e. too small & a bit pointy as well.

 

 

[Jaba-who]

Landing fees at Cairns airport will soon change his mind, I believe they are north of $300

Already are. Have been for several years but that's for privately owned aircraft being used for recreational purposes. $385 between 10 an and 2 pm.

 

Otherwise $15 for business, commercial or private outside those hours. If his company owns the aircraft it's OK and if he flies in early it's OK

 

The point is that the road in question is a mountain range road, single lane, blocked by landslides, traffic accidents or similar about 4 or 5 times a week. Enough blockages that it has an SMS service which you can subscribe to which tells you when it's blocked and when the traffic is limited and when it clears. I subscribe to it as I have to take that road to my home airport.

 

The other ridiculousness about his case was that after the initial court case where the complainants said his noise would cause problems ( before he had even built it or landed there once. But after the outcome was formalised they then asked for him to be made to submit a log each month of take offs and landings. And when asked why they admitted they couldn't hear it well enough to know when he was taking off and they needed to be able to tell if he was following the rules.

 

 

[Oscar]

As 'replicas' go, it's not real flash, for sure. But probably a lot of fun in return for the years of work.

 

But there are some far more serious issues arising from this report.

 

The noise issue being raised as a serious objection, and apparently being taken seriously, is something that plagues Recreational Aviation. It seems to be a given, that any aircraft operation nearby is an intolerable noise source - we are 'guilty' even if we can PROVE innocence.

 

One take-off and landing a day, probably accounts for at a maximum, 5 minutes of noise over adjoining properties a day. The comment that 'it is like standing next to a jackhammer' - give me a break.

 

I've had a Thrush Commander on Fire-bombing duties lifting out from around 500 metres away, maybe at 60 feet over my house, fully laden and on FULL noise - and it shakes the shit out of you. But it's done in about 30 seconds; x maybe 10 sorties a day, is 5 minutes. The fire-bombing choppers might do 20 sorties a day, not a lot less noisy. The property opposite me, from where they fly, is a home to a heavy trucking company - serious B-doubles, low-loaders etc. I am awakened at all hours by them coming and going, on the jake-brake for a kilometer or so before turning in, up through the gears on leaving with 40-50 tonnes of load. But there is no point in complaining - after all, it may be noise, but it's commerce, right, so STFU and buy some ear-plugs.

 

We NEED, for our survival, to be conscious of the noise we make.

 

 

[Jaba-who]

The problem is the public perception. Can't do anything about or being aware of something you don't do. In this case there have been evidence that noise is not and never was a problem. It was the belief of people it would be a problem and now they still want to limit activity after it's been shown the problem didn't exist.

 

Often (usually) these complaints are completely based on unrealistic expectation.

 

We have had people stopped from setting up airstrips here where complainants have basically won on noise which proved essentially non-existent, the risk that sparks from aircraft engines might set cane fields on fire as they come in or take off over them and if an aircraft has an engine failure the pilot would lose control of the aircraft and crash into farm houses.

 

The biggest problem is humans tend to be for or against something on a non-evidential gut feeling and then move heaven and earth to find or manufacture evidence to support this entirely emotional feeling.

 

 

[johnm]

Spitfire pilot probably lives on rural land

 

A family with say 4 kids could ride all day on motorbikes ............ cause the noise of the devil and any neighbour would just have to grin and bear it (me thinks trail bike riding is a rural activity)

 

To then somehow suggest that an aeroplane is worse than that .......... is subjective

 

 

[turboplanner]

Already are. Have been for several years but that's for privately owned aircraft being used for recreational purposes. $385 between 10 an and 2 pm.Otherwise $15 for business, commercial or private outside those hours. If his company owns the aircraft it's OK and if he flies in early it's OK

The point is that the road in question is a mountain range road, single lane, blocked by landslides, traffic accidents or similar about 4 or 5 times a week. Enough blockages that it has an SMS service which you can subscribe to which tells you when it's blocked and when the traffic is limited and when it clears. I subscribe to it as I have to take that road to my home airport.

 

The other ridiculousness about his case was that after the initial court case where the complainants said his noise would cause problems ( before he had even built it or landed there once. But after the outcome was formalised they then asked for him to be made to submit a log each month of take offs and landings. And when asked why they admitted they couldn't hear it well enough to know when he was taking off and they needed to be able to tell if he was following the rules.

When all else fails look at the Planning Scheme applicable to the property. Curiously enough IT says what can and can't be done, yet time and time again, owners get sucked in to discussions with objectors who haven't done a stitch of research, the Council is called and someone who commutes from another town starts "negotiating a solution" and before you know it the owner has agreed in writing to conditions which have no basis in the Planning Scheme.

 

 

[Oscar]

Spitfire pilot probably lives on rural landA family with say 4 kids could ride all day on motorbikes ............ cause the noise of the devil and any neighbour would just have to grin and bear it (me thinks trail bike riding is a rural activity)

 

To then somehow suggest that an aeroplane is worse than that .......... is subjective

Try an amateur motocross track 1 KM away... with 8-10 hours per day in summer, of an unmuffled bike/bikes doing the 'throttle full open - throttle full closed - throttle full open' routine every 30 seconds for that whole time.

 

I had that until recently, and I got to very close to homicidal.. and I am a pretty ancient motorcycle rider. And a bit deaf - but nowhere near deaf enough..

 

 

[onetrack]

There's obviously no dropkick Harley riders, with their 120dB open exhausts on full blat in the area, then - so they have to pick on an IO-540 owner.

 

I find aircraft engines the least annoying of all the racket-makers out there - and they don't purposely give it full throttle, as they pass you.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

There's obviously no dropkick Harley riders, with their 120dB open exhausts

Everytime I come to Oz I still can not believe that is still not policed.

 

Take off and landings are not worse than your own washing machine running it's cycle.

 

Try an amateur motocross track 1 KM away...

Was the track ever there before the housing, or a new one?

 

I raced MX and many tracks (and race car tracks, and speedway, and airports, and Western Star Trucks, etc) that have been there for 50+ years and then housing gets built towards them, and then the new house owners complain, is contentious.

 

 

[facthunter]

I go to plenty of motocross and enduro events and If the bikes are original mufflers, (haven't seen any that aren't) they can hardly be heard at the turnoff on the nearest road where gravel trucks with compression brakes make much more noise going downhill. Nev

 

 

[ben87r]

45min drive? Seems hardly worth the discussion. It may be a 5min drive but how long does it take him to do a daily every day? 30-45 minutes for me each time I go flying.

Realy? Three quarters of an hour for a daily?

 

Landing fees at Cairns airport will soon change his mind, I believe they are north of $300

Not defending Cairns Airport in the slightest, but, you would be able to come to an agreement with the operator, as mentioned by JW it’s only for the ‘peak’ period and private (rec) ops only. If theAircraft is registered to a company, problem solved from my experience

 

 

[Oscar]

Everytime I come to Oz I still can not believe that is still not policed.Take off and landings are not worse than your own washing machine running it's cycle.

 

Rural properties, minimum 10 hectare blocks, most around 40-plus. We moved here in 1962, there were three homes within a 1km area, now about 8 or so. The obnoxious track was put in around 2014, place sold early this year, noise gone now.

 

There is a bikie club run past my place every Sunday morning at around 1030 hours, around 50 Harleys, a few Trumpies and maybe a Beeza or two... it's a rumble that lasts for 10 minutes, causes me no problems at all. We have several local Ducs commuting every week-day, and one guy who flogs the crap out of his VFR400, pulling around 12K rpm for every change - doesn't worry me. My own viffer 750 howls at the top end... with standard pipes. I excuse myself that, on the basis that I am come and gone rather quickly.

 

I go to plenty of motocross and enduro events and If the bikes are original mufflers, (haven't seen any that aren't) they can hardly be heard at the turnoff on the nearest road where gravel trucks with compression brakes make much more noise going downhill. Nev

Nev: these turkeys are running (if anything!) something like Supertrapps with most cones removed. (or is it the other way around, to make more noise?). but it's the endless 'light-switch' throttle movement that is the real problem. WFO-Close-WFO in about 5-second bursts, for 8 hours or more. They are utter wankers; I've only done a limited amount of dirt riding but even that taught me that just digging the rear wheel in everywhere is NOT the way to make decent progress. The pros get the power to the ground by graduated throttle control, wankers just spray dirt everywhere.

 

My place lies directly under the best track from Bankstown / Camden / The Oaks, to the South East. I get everything from ultralights from Mittagong (about 9k away) to Blackhawks heading for Nowra over my place. On a decent day, 5 - 10 movements. The only aircraft that come anywhere near the annoyance factor to the mx'ers ( or faux mx'ers being used as trail bikes) is Alan Friggin Jones's charter Jetranger blasting over at about 150 feet enroute to/from Mittagong, and a couple of times, what I think was an early Queen Air with augmenter exhausts. The local Warbird fraternity practicing formation aerobatics in their Yaks / Numchuckas nearby, are just a relaxing drone..

 

Ultralights passing overhead, are mostly done and gone from the first moment I hear them, before I can change my glasses from close work to distance, to check them out.

 

Trucks on the jake brake past my pace are WAY more disruptive.