It's 4.30am and the heathrow flight path appears to be in use

[Carbonara]

Heathrow should never haven been sited on the West of London. It was a planning disaster that happened for one particular reason, I can't remember what, but a notable politician wrote about it and said it was one of the major mistakes of his age. The prevailing winds mean that planes come in to land over London, it is an accident waiting to happen.

It seemed quieter at 4.30 this morning, I'm not sure if the fog muffled the noise, or delayed the flights.

[Barred]

I miss the 5pm Concorde

[*Bob*]

Carbonara Wrote:

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> It seemed quieter at 4.30 this morning, I'm not

> sure if the fog muffled the noise, or delayed the

> flights.

There weren't any going over us. The prevailing winds were not prevailing.

Normal service resumed later today.

[maxtedc]

I thought it only fair to mention the lovely silence this morning. Unfortunately the pessimist in me assumes those prevailing winds are still not prevailing and that business will be resumed shortly.

[Only me!]

Has the Spring hour gain made any difference? 4.30 now in effect 5.30?

The planes leave their destinations in the far East or the States at their local time, I don't imagine they change departure times to suit us swapping an hour to BST.

They won't leave to deliberately land during the curfew I guess, but if it leaves New York at 8.00pm it will leave at 8.00pm & take 7 hours to get here, whatever time that is here.

[Carbonara]

It has been quieter for the last week or so. I don't know if it is winds, or BST (though I haven't noticed the fly past an hour later, either) or maybe they just vary the flightpath on a rota to prevent any one group of citizens getting too upset and uppity, and reporting the constant breaches of the dawn curfew to an ombudsman.

[maxtedc]

I think it is the wind as the quiet was at 5.30pm (and later). In fact there have been fewer planes at other times of the day - they've definitely been coming in from a different angle.

[tallulah71]

cody Wrote:

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> And its SOOOOOOO anoying as they wake me up EVERY

> morning , we are moving because of the noise

4.30 is definitely annoying. As is the yoga teacher who lives above me and practices her yoga at that time, or 5am every morning. But when my windows are open the birds start way before the planes.....surely not a reason to move out of ED. My Dad lives the beautiful coutryside of Bucks....right within the Heathrow flight path. So - it's off to the outer hebrides for you Cody!

[*Bob*]

Here's The Bottom Line, plane fans:

Wind blowing from the east: there are no Heathrow planes coming over. The ones you see are for City Airport. They have smaller engines, they come in at a steeper angle and are less frequent, but are lower and can often seem very loud and piercing, but the sound disappears quickly.

Wind blowing from the west: the planes you see are going to Heathrow. Bigger engines, louder, more frequent, flatter angle of descent - but usually higher up in the air. Expect rumbling, longer-lasting passes that often merge into one another when you get a bad run of them.

Appox 2/3 of the year you get Heathrow, the other 1/3 you get City.

Check the weather forecast and you know what you're in for over the next few days.

[Carbonara]

Is that East and West the right way round?

I thought planes had to fly into the wind to land and take off?

The City airport planes are much less disturbing. And don't come in at 4.30am, presumably because they aren't big enough to come long haul from the Far / Middle East?

[*Bob*]

You can look at a replay of landings and departures on any given day - in real time - on this website below. Hover over any aircraft icon for its altitude - move the scroll bar to speed the replay up.

It's slightly addictive. In fact, the best thing is never to look at this website and just forget about them. The more you think about it, the more you hear them.

http://webtrak.bksv.com/lhr

(This one's for Heathrow. You can see the two different patterns depending on whether wind is from West or East - especially if you speed up the replay)

[maxtedc]

I woke up this morning, heard the planes, and my first thought was the wind must be coming from the west. I kid you not! The radio then said it was coming from the north (cold) but I guess it isn't an exact science.

[????]

*Bob* is a planespotter, *Bob* is a plane spotter, *Bob* is a plane spotter

[ibilly99]

It's the bloody bird song that's doing it for me - planes are a doddle in comparison.I I wanted nature I would go and live in the countryside -it;s a shame foxes can't fly then they would be of some use.

[*Bob*]

Come on, ???? - get yourself an Osbourne book of planes and feel the magic.

Alas spotting is not my thing.. but trying to record things with microphones in a house under two flight paths is - it's often useful to know when you should be in for a quiet stint!

Agree on those birds though.

[maxtedc]

It's 5.20am I've counted 6/7 in the last half an hour - definitely 4 large planes. I've got to somehow turn my new radar/obsession off - but now I've noticed it. It'll be hard to go back to ignorance or denial. At least I don't have any issues with birdsong - no trees near my windows and I quite like the sound anyway.

[Only me!]

Birds much noisier than planes this morning. Damn them. (td)

Can't we open a designated space, sanctuary or something, somewhere out of town? ...... Thames Estuary maybe?

Then insist they all go there for their jolly 04.00 conversations! ;-)

[maxtedc]

"Heathrow night flight plan given an airing" p.4 of today's FT. Emirates Airlines suggesting a sharper descent into Heathrow will reduce noise and allow for a shorter time limit for no night flights (1am-4am)...

[James Barber]

Sharper descents is one of the HACAN proposals to mitigate the noise caused by landing aircraft - along with aligning on landing paths earlier avoiding noisy turns over populated areas such as SE London.

But Emirates are using the idea to propose an increase in night flights and specifically of the super sized Airbus A380 jets.

But this shouldn't be used to excuse night flights. With time Heathrow should have less impact not more. Smarter descents is one method. Banning night flights altogether is another.

[JJ]

this is even more addictive and depressing.. http://www.flightradar24.com/ I'm thinking of moving to E17..looks quiet up there.

[EDZ]

We live close to Goose Greene and the noise is really bad. We can hardly enjoy our garden. We are moving. After 4 years we are still not used to it and it is driving us nuts. Its no way to live. We are moving further south and west into forest hill. We will still get planes but not the constant line of planes over our head. When I moved in I was shocked and in tears about the noise. I phoned Heathrow pointing out I lived 19 miles from the airport. I did not expect that. Woman looked up my address and said three flight paths converge at the top of goose greene. Joy....

[fabfor]

Just spotted this thread; very useful. Nice to know others are outraged by LOUD aircraft noise at 4.30am every day! Unbelievable!

[stacey-lyn]

From 0433 this morning. Again.

Oddly, no flights are listed before 0540 (ETA) - that actually arrived today at 0657 (the BA/QF codeshare from MEL via SIN) and no record of any earlier. So what are they? Rendition flights?

[iceicebaby]

I'm a light sleeper and these morning flights wake me up most days. They seem so much louder than the daytime ones! Without all the daytime background noise. If these flights are scheduled to land later I guess they have something like an open road ahead of them, an uninterrupted route into london and can probably take shortcuts from their flightpath. As people have said on this thread, if its legal to land planes at 4.30am, then companies will do it.

[stacey-lyn]

Spoke to BAA who are certain that NO flights landed at Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted before 0657 today. Go figure.