Powering up then pulling the power back....
There's something comforting (to me) when the weather patterns dictate how and where a plane flies.
I got a text from a friend today...saying that she can't get to sleep at night because the jets are flying over her house. She wondered why are they doing that? I wonder if she even knows that I was a professional pilot.
My friend was questioning why the engines power up when the planes are landing, yet when you actually see them, that seems to be contrary to how we think.
My answer to her was because it keeps the passengers safe, the airplane safe, and the phrase 'have a happy landing' actually means something!
Yep, I was paid to fly gliders, small single engine land airplanes, and multi-engine planes. I didn't have a uniform, but those of us who flew these types of aircraft, usually wore jeans, t-shirts, heavy shoes, and very warm jackets.
If you live in a place close to airports (big and small), you can probably tell what the weather is outside, from the sounds inside. Most of us don't have totally soundproof houses/homes/apartments/condos/rooms/townhomes. But you can hear the engines of those planes (big and small).
In thinking about this, I often wonder why people start to get aggravated when they power up: to state how/why they feel a certain way. It seems so difficult to state how we feel, in a calm-like manner.
We need to re-learn not only how to speak, but how to listen with the intent to understand. As my mom told me many times..."It's not what you say, Marilyn, it's how you say it." argh.
These days, when I attend meetings (church meetings, Realtor meetings, client meetings, meetings over meals) I really try to listen. Yet, I also ask questions..and then wait for an answer. Filling the void with silence is good
while waiting for a thoughtful response. But it can be, and often is, just better to shut up.
Live richly, marilyn
I got a text from a friend today...saying that she can't get to sleep at night because the jets are flying over her house. She wondered why are they doing that? I wonder if she even knows that I was a professional pilot.
My friend was questioning why the engines power up when the planes are landing, yet when you actually see them, that seems to be contrary to how we think.
Yep, I was paid to fly gliders, small single engine land airplanes, and multi-engine planes. I didn't have a uniform, but those of us who flew these types of aircraft, usually wore jeans, t-shirts, heavy shoes, and very warm jackets.
If you live in a place close to airports (big and small), you can probably tell what the weather is outside, from the sounds inside. Most of us don't have totally soundproof houses/homes/apartments/condos/rooms/townhomes. But you can hear the engines of those planes (big and small).
In thinking about this, I often wonder why people start to get aggravated when they power up: to state how/why they feel a certain way. It seems so difficult to state how we feel, in a calm-like manner.
We need to re-learn not only how to speak, but how to listen with the intent to understand. As my mom told me many times..."It's not what you say, Marilyn, it's how you say it." argh.
These days, when I attend meetings (church meetings, Realtor meetings, client meetings, meetings over meals) I really try to listen. Yet, I also ask questions..and then wait for an answer. Filling the void with silence is good
while waiting for a thoughtful response. But it can be, and often is, just better to shut up.
Live richly, marilyn
Maybe you'd like to read my real estate blog...The Second Story
John Wayne airport
ReplyDeleteAs a youngster growing up in Newport Beach, California, we had the Santa Ana airport. Our house at the time was in upper Newport Bay just off the flight path of the airport. At the time the area was developing/redeveloping with a new university, industry replacing orange groves, and a sleepy little airport where they use to have drag races and guys like Paul Mantz would fly old war birds like the P 51 Mustang. When commercial airlines hit the airport, there were if I recall correctly two airlines. The first was Bonanza and the second was the local grown Air California which was started by local businessmen. These planes were of the multi-engine turboprop variety and had schedule to fly to limited destinations like LA and San Francisco. I think an Air Cal flight to the Bay Area was $24.95.
And the little airport and airlines grew and grew, and more flight and destinations were added and the turboprop were upgraded to jets. And jets are simply put, loud.
Let me give you an example of loud. The U.S. Coast Guard use to have light ships deployed in areas that were anchored in areas that had a lot of fog, like in San Francisco. These were manned by a crew Coasties and they would work shifts of two weeks on, one week off. Their job was to keep the navigation beacon going and to turn on the fog horn when the fog appeared. One of the things they had to adapt to is when the fog horn sounded every minute or so if they were having a conversation would need to pause when the horn would blast its warning. Now the byproduct of this repetition of pausing would be carried home when the Coasties had there week off. It was especially bad if the weather was foggy for the entire stay on the ship. They would get home and be having a conversation and stop mid sentence every minute.
Now, back to the airport. As I said, there were more and more flights being added, and heck it seemed like planes were taking off 24 hours a day. During the day, it was like the light ship boys in that any conversations needed to be paused while the jets took off. It was so bad that the residents took the problem to the County Board of Supervisors who were busy raising taxes (pre-proposition 13) to pay for things like a new jet port. There were threats and lawsuits and all kinds of wrangling to get the problem worked out with the county, the airlines and everybody else that had a stake it this. If I recall there were ban the jets bumper stickers (back then you made your point with bumper stickers) that were quite popular. So, eventually a basic compromise was worked out and adopted by the County and the Feds (oh yes, the FAA was in this quagmire as well.) It basically put into regulations that jets taking off would have a very fast assent with a sharp climb angle and when the jets hit a certain altitude, the pilots would throttle back (to reduce the noise).
So it always grated me when I would take off on a flight from John Wayne airport that the flight crew would come on the intercom explaining the take off procedures with the steep decent and throttle back, and have some jab like “because of the rich people of Newport Beach” thrown into the speech.
And to this day there are efforts to get these regulation lifted by airlines and businesses.
So the FAA is constantly doing noise studies to come up with different flight plans for air traffic, and most of these changes are implemented without the public even being aware.
And that’s the rest of the story.