June 18, 2013 2:27 PM
Opinion/Letter
We used to have nice quiet neighborhoods on the west side of Lancaster, where families were attracted to locate and build new homes to enjoy quiet neighborhoods. Its less quiet since the county was forced by the Federal Aviation Administration to allow this noisy business to locate at the airport.
The noisy planes from the business climb in a circular pattern over our city and homes at full throttle to get to a high elevation to drop off the skydivers. Then the plane sounds like a World War II dive bomber as it quickly dives in a tight circular pattern back to the airport to repeat the noise cycle all day. The owner of the business moved it from the Columbus area to the county’s airport in 2011. The skydiving business used to operate from a private airstrip about 10 miles southwest of Rickenbacker Airport. Was this business forced to move because of the noise the planes were creating over the rapidly expanding Columbus metro area? The business advertises to attract skydivers from all over central Ohio to come to Lancaster and state that it is the No. 1 skydiving operation in Ohio and only one in central Ohio.
See http://www.skydivecmh.com. Hopefully, there is a way the business can operate without creating all the noise. For example, why don’t the planes climb and dive farther north or west of the airport over the farm land miles away from the city? Can they use quieter airplanes or props or not use full throttle over the city? Other planes flying over the city are not as noisy.
At least the planes should stop power diving in a tight circle back down to land. One would think the flight back down could be the quietest, but instead it’s the noisiest. Listen to the noise at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XcXdhgNHzU.
I understand that the the airport is getting some taxpayers money to improve the airport. How much of our tax dollars are being used to support this noise-making business? Here is an example of what one airport did in U.S. to help address this. http://www.wickedlocal.com/chatham/news/x537695290/Skydiving-plane-noise-prompts-changes-at-Chatham-Airport#axzz2U9zc9VlO.
Bruce Goff
Lancaster
Source: http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/OPINION
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