Keeping out the idiots...of the air...

[ray66v]

I've always been told that you should take off and land into the wind. Most airstrips are laid out this way. Why is he not following this practice?
Butch

You always want the wind in your face when you take off, or land. However, if there are light winds, sometimes you may prefer to take a different runway because of obstacles you may have to clear when you take off on the other runway, (i.e. trees).

Don't forget about subwoofers crammed in the back of an Impala.

Yea, they can be annoying too.

 

[atgreene]

Good luck to you on this fight. I am fortunate not to have this issue, although I have a neighbor who is building a landing strip for his ultralite and a small plane he is building himself. I run a small business on my 11 acres, tractors, excavators and trucks come and go (on a small scale) all day and he is kind enough to put up with me, so I don't intend to bother him on his projects.

On the other hand, you were there first, you have plenty of acreage and don't bother your neighbors, you should be repaid in-kind. Unfortuately, common scence is in short supply sometimes. Some people just like to annoy others and we sometimes have to live with it. If he truley is a renegade pilot he may renagade himself right into a dark spot on the ground. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but I have seen a few incidents and stupidity usually plays a large part.

Hopefully he grows out of his childish behavior, legal or otherwise. You can't fix stupid.

 

[linearxs]

I'd like to see this on Google earth as well. What's the Lat/Long.

 

[Ford850]

Westcliffe01:

Apparently the neighbor seldom takes off over the OP's home - must be wind based. Why then his approach is low over the OP is not clear to me, and normally it is possible to execute this part of the flight without bothering anyone.

The days he flies are always, to my knowledge, fair weather days. I will take more notice of the winds.

He has never, that anyone here has seen, taken off over my house.

ray66v:

or now that he knows your unhappy about the noise, is simply a jerk.

Finger on my nose and pointing the other hand at you....BINGO!

If you think he is doing this to annoy you now that he knows you are unhappy with the noise, why was he doing it BEFORE you went to talk to him. There seems to be something missing from this story.

 

[ray66v]

If you think he is doing this to annoy you now that he knows you are unhappy with the noise, why was he doing it BEFORE you went to talk to him. There seems to be something missing from this story.

I am willing to accept that there are possibly details to this besides what we know.

However, the answer to your question is potentially simple. Before when the pilot was just having a good time, not paying attention to anything except flying, he may not have even noticed his preferred path may have been over the O.P.'s house, or even though about it. Now that he knows there is a problem, there are several things he can do differently to change his routine, and thus avoid the rattling the O.P.'s house, (at least most of the time). According to the O.P., he has apparently not done so.

Yes, the next question is why?

I would expect to find that the pilot feels the way he is landing is necessary, and simply does not have the willingness to change it. It is very difficult for some to change old habits. Especially, if their stuck on stupid, because of the way they were previously taught.

Another possibility is the fact that there are bullies in the world, who derive joy out of upsetting people. I hope that is not the case here. But, we can't rule it out yet.

 

[MNBobcat]

Yes, the next question is why?

I would expect to find that the pilot feels the way he is landing is necessary, and simply does not have the willingness to change it. It is very difficult for some to change old habits. Especially, if their stuck on stupid, because of the way they were previously taught.

Another possibility is the fact that there are bullies in the world, who derive joy out of upsetting people. I hope that is not the case here. But, we can't rule it out yet.

Ray,

At an un-towered private airport its always up to the pilot to make the determination for the safest approach to land. When you have trees and wind something occurs called "rotors" where you get tumbling air turbulence coming off the trees. Rotors can really throw an aircraft around. It may be that this pilot needs to approach a certain direction to avoid rotors or it may be a certain approach offers better visibility or a better glide slope towards the field.

Regardless of the reason, the pilot in command is in charge and no FAA person standing on the ground is going to second guess the pilot's decision.

You're only hearing one half of the story here and obviously the person making the post is going to make himself seem like the good guy who did nothing wrong and was merely a victim. Yet, the poster admits that he made the FAA person "testy" so we know that there is more to the dynamics of the story than the side we hear.

If he gets lawyers involved or the FAA or the courts involved all of the above are going to recommend the same solution -- work out a compromise among themselves if they can.

A smart person would go have another discussion with the pilot now and try and work out a compromise. Talking costs nothing other than a little bit of time.

A dumb person would spend lots and lots of money only to be told in the end to work out a compromise. That or do something really stupid like some people here suggested and try to block the pilot's approach which could result in an injury or fatality and then get yourself sued for being exceptionally stupid.

I'm going to watch with interest how the rest of the story unfolds.

 

[westcliffe01]

So, in thinking about the situation some more and doing a little research on prevailing wind in Maine, the conclusion is that during summer, if you have wind, it is mostly from the South West. The wind will apparently build to 25 knots and then subside in the evening.

What this suggests is that the OP may be to the North East of the field and the pilot takes off into the wind towards the south west (away from the OP). This pattern will coincide with the pilot making his approach to land from the North East (over the property of the OP) and landing into the wind.

All of this assumes that the OP's property is off the end of the runway. If the field has a left pattern, the OP may be to the North or West of the field instead, or if the field has a right pattern, he may be to the South or East. But "Pattern Altitude" should be between 1000ft and 500 ft when turning final (as per diagram I previously posted). If the field has no defined pattern (could be the case for private airfields) either is possble and up to the pilot to choose. The pilot should of course choose what is neighborly, but we talk as if there are no other neighbors on any other side, but probably there are. So someone may be bothered no matter which way you approach.

As said before, within reason, landings should be pretty quiet. Takeoffs will always be noisy. Apparently there is someone else other than the OP getting the earful of takoff noise.

 

[MNBobcat]

Westcliffe,

On a private airport there is no "pattern" unless the owner wants to request a certain pattern be used and even then the pattern can change throughout the day as the winds change.

In other words, he can make up whatever he wants whenever he wants.

 

[westcliffe01]

Report just in with animated video regarding a student pilot that perished after crash while "buzzing" people in his home town. The crash took place in 2007 and the scene was re-created in Flight simulator.
AOPA Online:

The same document tells of a 15000 hour airline pilot buzzing his family in a pool on a farm, before clipping the barn and doing the crash & burn. Another report also of a 9000 hour airline pilot buzzing a friend in a boat on a lake and crashing into the lake with no survivors.

Flying low killed John Denver too...

 

[ray66v]

Ray,

At an un-towered private airport its always up to the pilot to make the determination for the safest approach to land. When you have trees and wind something occurs called "rotors" where you get tumbling air turbulence coming off the trees. Rotors can really throw an aircraft around. It may be that this pilot needs to approach a certain direction to avoid rotors or it may be a certain approach offers better visibility or a better glide slope towards the field.

Regardless of the reason, the pilot in command is in charge and no FAA person standing on the ground is going to second guess the pilot's decision.

You're only hearing one half of the story here and obviously the person making the post is going to make himself seem like the good guy who did nothing wrong and was merely a victim. Yet, the poster admits that he made the FAA person "testy" so we know that there is more to the dynamics of the story than the side we hear.

If he gets lawyers involved or the FAA or the courts involved all of the above are going to recommend the same solution -- work out a compromise among themselves if they can.

A smart person would go have another discussion with the pilot now and try and work out a compromise. Talking costs nothing other than a little bit of time.

A dumb person would spend lots and lots of money only to be told in the end to work out a compromise. That or do something really stupid like some people here suggested and try to block the pilot's approach which could result in an injury or fatality and then get yourself sued for being exceptionally stupid.

I'm going to watch with interest how the rest of the story unfolds.

FYI: I have been flying since 1976, and fly regularly out of a small airport surrounded by trees. It has without question the worst turbulence in the area.

For this pilot to make significant noise on landing, he is probably dragging it in.

Turbulence on an approach can require additional speed, but that does not require it to be a powered approach. Simply by the pilot doing a power off landing, or even a low power landing, the problem here goes away.

All our students are required to be able to do a short field, power off landing, over an obstacle, with the turbulence. It's not that hard, but many are never taught how to do it.

No matter what the situation here, there are options to abate noise during landing. i.e. bigger pattern, smaller pattern, steeper approach, power off.

AGAIN, the question is, why aren't any of these options not being used?