by " Mar 10, 2006 at 06:34 AM



A rational argument such as this I can work with. Often pilots are
their own worst enemies, and some need to be better neighbors. IMHO
your 10% figure may be conservative, but currency/competancy is a
self-policing issue with little oversight possible from the federales.


Good. Because that is the same argument I have been making from Day One.
Problem is, it is next to impossible to anticipate when you will be buzzed,
and to catch the N-number from the ground.

If you complain, it is a classic Catch-22. The FAA says it is not
responsible for noise (and it isn't) the local airport is. The local
airport then tells you that noise abatement is voluntary, and once the
plane is in the air, it is up to the FAA.

Even if you do see the N-number, the FAA will make you PROVE that the
plane was below 1000' AGL. To my knowledge, no one on the ground has ever
been able to prove this to the FAA's satisfaction. So offending pilots get
off absolutely scot free, unless they do something really reckless like
buzzing a beach in Calif at 100 feet.

Because no one is responsible, citizen groups have cropped up all across
the country. Some, like STN are over the top, and some, like Plane Sense
of Groton, are very reasonable. Some pilots have made some efforts to
deal with the problem. Others then went out of their way to purposely
antagonize the noise protestors (see their web site).