Here's another money vs quality of life story

LVSteve

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Seems that a couple of Air National Guard units are getting F-35s to replace F-16s. The snag with that is that anybody who lives near Nellis or Luke will tell you that the F-35 is WAY louder than the F-16. I've seen them at the Nellis show and I will back up that assertion. I call them SNUB fighters (Short, Noisy, Ugly Bugger).

Well, it seems there's a little too much "sound of freedom" for some, while others (probably not living near the base) want the economic benefit. Interesting that even the USAF admits that 1000 properties would become unfit for habitation.

Wisconsin, Alabama awarded F-35 fighter jets | KSNV
 
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30+ yrs ago I lived in La Jolla in the take off flight path of the USMC airbase at Miramar ( San Diego ) . They changed models and the new jets were very noisy . The residents descended on City Hall, and City Hall descended on the CO at the airbase. Take off routes were changed and noise be came a non-issue. Then the base added choppers, which are much more annoying than jets, so I moved. Ed.
 
Funny what noise you can get used to. I grew up with an elevated railroad directly across the street and about level with my bedroom windows. This was 50+ years ago and there was a lot of very noisy train traffic at all hours. I slept like a baby. The trains never woke me.

I'd have trouble feeling sorry for anybody who bought a house near an air base. It's not like they didn't know it would be noisy.
 
In Westchester County NY, people built 3-10 million dollar homes right next to a somewhat small airport, compared to LaGuardia or JFK. They complained to no avail, the airport is owned by the gov't ;) As time went by the airport added additional flights, most longer distance destinations, and generally expanded.
Bigger planes, more noise. The howling got louder, the result was the same. The moral of the story is do not move near an airport. Higher incomes do not mean you have common sense. :)
 
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The sound of tax dollars getting vaporized. We spend more than the other top 20 world powered combined on our military and 18 of those are our allies. LOL. Here we get the sound of helicopters almost daily as they go around checking out the missile silos, We only got enough of those to destroy "civilization" 10 times over. It is about the money.

but, I don't get moving in next to an airport and then complaining about the noise either. Another one that makes me laugh is some mansion on the side of a sea cliff and its getting ready to take the big drop. How did they think the cliff got there in the first place? Hey I built my house along side the river and now its flooding.
 
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The cabin and lake are not far from the Flight 93 Memorial........ which is a major arial crossroads..... not uncommon to be able to count a dozen contrails across the sky at any given time...............................

......lately the sky has been almost as "quiet" as the week after 911
 
The 180th Fighter Wing, and the 112th Fighter Squadron of the Ohio Air National Guard flies from Toledo Express Airport. They fly F16s. All the time, all day, and many evenings until, I think, 2000 hrs. I'm not under the approach, but I can hear them most of the time. The make me smile. There's a pair up right now.
 
Rhein Main AB shared runways with the Frankfurt airport. combining these together it was the third busiest airport in Europe. since high bypass jet engines hadn't really made an impact on the noise yet and hush kits were still in the future. our barracks was about a 1/4 miles from our flightline and while you didn't have to yell to talk to somebody there was a constant background noise. so when sleeping we kept the radio playing and that really helped. but then again even today I can't get to sleep without the radio playing.

the noisiest airplanes by far was the TU-134 and the French Caravelle and they only had two engines
 
The best part about living on base when I was in the Air Force was the sound of the jets.
 
i miss living near an AF base. at Offutt when i was there and after i retired there you could set you watch by the Looking Glass take offs at 0700, 1500 and 2300 hours. you also knew when NEACP took off. the E4-B(747) had a very different sound. lee
 
I also live within a couple of miles of Wright Patterson AFB and unfortunately moved here just after they transferred the SAC base. My patrol area incorporated all the area around the base and there used to be constant flights in/out and around the base all hours of the day or night. (Nothing like working midnight shift in dense fog and making a traffic stop at the end of the runway and having a huge military aircraft drop out of the fog overhead just as you make your initial approach to a violators vehicle, tends to scare the bejezzus out of you). I don't know 1 plane from another but some of those flying routine flights were HUGE.
We also had an F16 training squadron in the area based out of the Springfield Air National Guard base and a huge DHL commercial terminal for freight just south of us in Wilmington. At times it was impossible to look up without seeing a fairly low flying aircraft landing or taking off.
Now days, WPAFB has very few flights, the F16 training squadron is gone and the DHL terminal has moved out. I miss seeing/hearing all the aircraft in the area.
 
Jet engine noise. Marine Recruit Depot San Diego is right beside an air field and the old practice parade deck was right beside the fence. Us maggots would be out there practicing and as a jet would take off the DI would of course order something like column left, March. Of course many would not hear it right and it would be a mess. On your knuckles ladies. Down in the push up position with your knuckles on the asphalt. I hate those planes. DIs knew exactly what would happen. Just another part of their "master plan" .
 
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I too like hearing/watching military jets, but I'm not sure many of you have grasped just how much noisier the F-35 is compared to the F-16 or even the F-15 and F-22.

Where I work is frequently under the Nellis circuit and as soon as the F-35s moved in, we knew the difference. I'm talking F-4 with J79s noisy, maybe even up there with the Thud. The F-35 makes a noise that really penetrates, like a B-1 or a MiG-21 at take-off. I can see how building permits issued based on the noise footprint of an F-16 unit would be worthless when F-35s move in.
 
My patrol area incorporated all the area around the base and there used to be constant flights in/out and around the base all hours of the day or night. (Nothing like working midnight shift in dense fog and making a traffic stop at the end of the runway and having a huge military aircraft drop out of the fog overhead just as you make your initial approach to a violators vehicle, tends to scare the bejezzus out of you).


LOL Dad and I use to ride our 4-wheelers up on the ridge behind the cabin after dinner ..... talk and watch the sun set..... the field was just below the military crest on the western slope .................giving us a 15 mile view to the west..................

That ridge is the Eastern Continental Divide.........

About a half dozen times over the years....... we'd be sitting there.... when everything from C-130s, F16s, to Apache helicopters ...... would "pop up" over the ridge...... flying nap of the earth ....... a couple hundred of feet over head.

Talk about almost soil your pants moments....... but Oh so cool!!!!!!!

One second all you'd be hearing is katydids.....the next the roar of engines.
 
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