Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

Just saw a Board of Supervisors meeting on the county channel, and once again, the neighbors of the airport are griping about noise.

Our small local airport has been humming right along for years. Planes come in. Planes go out. Just like any other airport.

Folks who happen to live under the approach or departure paths have taken to complaining about the aircraft noise in hopes of having the airport closed. There was even talk amongst the supervisors of closing it a year or two ago.

This doesn't just piss me off because I'm a pilot. It pisses me off on a basic level. So much so that I found myself hollering at the television again.

THE AIRPORT WAS THERE FIRST! You idiots knew the airport was there when you moved in. Nothing has changed. There are thousands of people who would love to live in your house so close to the airport. Hey, matter of fact, I'll pay you "fair market value" for your house near the field.

That would be the State's definition of fair market value though, which is substantially less than what it's really worth...

This goes for the people who moved in near firing ranges, train tracks, freeways, amusement parks or other obviously noisy environments as well.

And yes, I really do yell at the television. This HDTV looks so real, it's almost like you're really there.

You should try it sometime...

11 comments:

AccidentalWords said...

We had the same thing happen in Colorado when they put in DIA. Shiny, brand new airport (all the messes with the construction aside), followed by new hotels, car lots, restaurants, major US postal service way-station, etc. Then came the houses, which people bought since it was so nice and close to the airport. Then they started complaining about the noise.

How do you miss this fine point of home buying? If you buy a house next to a major international airport, and all the little things around it that make everything work, there will be heavier traffic and noise than you'd get in a normal suburb. It's like buying a house next to a school then complaining about the number of kids that walk by.

Just another example of how common sense is not so common anymore.

Meadowlark said...

Wait! Wait!! We have one!

This moron who bought a house NEAR THE RAILROAD TRACKS who is trying to get the train to stop blowing it's whistle at the crossings. Because, ya know, it's interfering with her sleep. At her house. That she bought. NEAR THE FRICKIN' TRACKS!!!!

Don't get me started on how they ran the trap club outta town.

GRRRRRRRRRR.

Meadowlark said...

PS. I'm not allowed to watch tv in the morning because I yell at the news while it's supposed to be peaceful. ;)

911 and the Randomness.. said...

Love it and oh so true. In Townsville it't the guy who lives near the high school and calls to complain that the marching band is playing to loud!

Unknown said...

When I was stationed in San Diego, we used to get people bitching about the same thing. They would bitch about the helo's flying from Miramar to Camp Pendleton. Before that, at El Toro MCAS, they used to complain that the F/A-18's were too loud as well.

When you move in right near an airport or military base (that was there LONG before you moved in) you tend to hear things like, oh, I don't know, airplanes taking off and landing.

Fucking geniuses.

Texas Ghostrider said...

I agree with you, The noise makers were there first then the developers build subdivisions and want to close down the noise makers. I say tough shit, buy ear plugs, and yeah I scream at the tv too....

Anonymous said...

I love yelling at the television whether it's HDTV or not. I'm also a big fan of yelling at the radio and the newspaper.

I happen to live by an active military base. Maybe we can invite the whiners out to my place during artillery practice when the ground is shaking for days. It'll make the airplane traffic seem like nothing. And guess what? I was aware of the area I was moving in to. Guess what else? We don't trouble the local police department with noise complaints they CANNOT FIX. Go figure.

Beat And Release said...

Gotta love those C-17's flying a few hundred feet above my house on approach. Especially when the are practicing touch and go landings. Same with the fighters. It always assures me knowing we have the best trained military in the world.

C. Strong said...

I like it when we get complaints about the noise at the bar I work at. We don't have amplified music, and we don't stay open past 1am. Yet I get complaints all the time about the noise. Which usually has nothing to do with us.

Best one yet was someone complaining about how we were making "car noises, and horn honking noises" from the bar. I asked them if they thought those might of been coming from the public road that both my bar and their apartment are on, to which the guy said "I doubt it".

Yeah, the drunk guy in back, he was making honking and squealing his tires noises, it was the Honda out front in the street that was rambling about how the cardinals should be in the world series.

Officer "Smith" said...

B&R,

We stayed a week in a hotel about a quarter mile off the approach end of McChord AFB a few years ago. C-17's galore. I loved it. Most people didn't though.

What the heck is the matter with them anyway?

Black Ice said...

I think 'what's the matter with them' is that they're all-too-common products of how we've been raising kids for the past three or four decades. The high points of modern childrearing:

1) You're a special little snowflake. The rest of the world has to appreciate that, and avoid hurting your feelings or disturbing you in any way.

2) There is no such thing as cause and effect. Things just happen at complete random, and the fact that there are large numbers of airplanes around airports is a total coincidence.

3) Thinking hurts. Don't bother to figure things out for yourself(like, maybe there is some vague connection between train tracks and trains), we'll just feed you the answers. After all, if you think of the wrong answer, it might destroy your self-esteem.

4) The concept of "common sense" is elitist, oppresive, patriarchal, individualistic and probably even republican. No one can know everything, and therefore, you should remember point three. Don't think! It's the responsibility of the rest of the world to protect you from your own bad decisions, or compensate you when they fail to do so.

I think that's it. Or maybe al-Qaida poisoned our water supply with some sort of dumbshit juice. Who knows?