Speaking of power

[Dean Pappas]

Hi All,
The club I wrote of before has a 92 dB limit. I'm not kidding, though we in the club know that most airplanes there are hairy edge, the noise meter is onerous enough, that smart people make sure their airplanes sound nice enough in the air that no-one challenges them to an actual measurement. There is no Giant Scale at this field, of course.
 
The way that the Washington Crossing club got into their earlier mess with an artificially low limit (lots of us really do meet it!) is that they got noticed by the neighbors in the wrong way, and mistakenly kept lowering the limit, in the hopes that a magic number would solve the problem. It didn't. About two years after this nonsense, I moved into the area, and found the club receptive to education. I got them to stop concentrating on mufflers and the noise stand, and on props and in the air "snarl" instead. Fortunately it worked, but for political reasons (the State Park oversight) we dare not relax the rule. 94 dB would be a really good number. Gray is right: you have to be (dare I use the word) proactive.
 
Dave H. makes a great point, we can lead, but it's up to others to follow. With the exception of noise-hostile club cultures, they do! It just doesn't happen quickly. Over the years, I have done 5 or 6 dozen noise-abatement talks at club meetings, over the NY, NJ, PA area.  Ed Miller's club in the Poughkeepsie area was one receptive to the issue: they had a field with houses very close by and they decided to prevent the first complaint from coming in. Good thinking, not to mention a nice stay at Ed and Bonnie's place. On the other hand, another club I spoke at was downright hostile, they are predominantly Giant Scale, and even have the IMAA fly-in-racetracks-only rule when 2 or more planes are in the air. The club president interrupted me ten times during the talk just to ask , "... how can you fly if you can't hear it?" Apparently he had a hearing loss from all those loud planes over the years!
 
People generally do follow when they see the good stuff,
    Dean P.
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Gray E Fowler [mailto:gfowler at raytheon.com]
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 9:38 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: RE: Speaking of power



Good for FAI being 94 dB, but 96 is plenty low. While I was Pres of my club we passed a noise ordinance rule, measured the same way pattern planes are.....limit is???? 103 dB!! And this was not politically easy, but at least it now stops the monster screamers and now when someone has a loud plane EVERYONE questions is it and we measure. 
94 dB is too low considering that an ARF trainer with a bb .46  is 95-96 dB. Getting a club noise rule in place is good, but for us a bit late. The gassers already pissed off two neighbors and now the 94-97 dB plane is a nusiance to them even though those planes had been flying near their houses for 5 years without any complaints. I suggest that all clubs get something in place BEFORE the problem starts. We were proactive and had the rule voted on but not active when the first major complaint happened. Now it is an on going battle. And like someone else mentioned...the loud plane disappeared...not come back with a "real muffler"....just gone and that is fine with the entire Richardson club. By the way...we also banned props over 22" as they were a huge noise culprit.



Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering

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