Tuesday, November 08, 2011

D.C. and Virginia: New system to cut neighborhood plane noise

D.C. and Virginia residents frustrated for years by the thundering noise of airliners zooming overhead from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport may be in for some relief soon.

Airliners headed for the airport will now have better GPS systems to help them fly directly over the Potomac River, instead of navigating by sight, which often caused them to veer off course above homes in McLean and the Palisades neighborhood of D.C.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., the McLean Citizens Association and the Federal Aviation Administration met Tuesday night to inform residents of the changes.

It's been a long time coming, residents say.

"I think it's the single largest complaint that we get in the neighborhood is aircraft noise," Bill Slover, president of the Palisades Citizens Association, said. " I think that people have a problem with it because it's erratic and sporadic, and the routes change frequently."

Mat Thorp, a Palisades resident who has been working on the issue for more than a decade, said he has been asking for GPS navigation of the Potomac since 2002.

"If you're outside on your patio, the noise stops conversation," he said, adding that procedures to eliminate some of the noise are easy to implement. "There is nothing new under the sun on what we're doing, operationally or technically. It's available; it's being done at other airports. It's just for various reasons we were dragging to get it implemented here."

It's been a long wait on the other side of the river as well.

"We've been urged by a lot of people that we had to be patient until they got this more permanent fix in," Rob Jackson, president of the McLean Citizens Association, said.

The new system will mean a sigh of relief for communities on the Potomac, residents said.

"It will help the problem," Thorp said. "Basically the mantra for the Palisades Citizens Association is we want the least noise for the fewest people."

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