Originally Posted by
SWBKCB
Plenty of comments about the residents should know that airports are noisy - conversally, Stobart knew the residents were there and that their plans were going to increase noise levels. What did they do about it?
That's no reason for doing nothing - what mitigation does a chainlink fence provide?
I agree with both your points. What I think they should do in the immediate future is use Charlie 2 as the holding point for 05 departures rather than Charlie 1. They should then offer the affected residents a noise attenuation wall between them and Charlie (as it seems to be the taxiway which causes them most annoyance, not the runway itself).
There has been a lot of criticism here on the lines of 'why didn't SEN see this problem coming'. I think the answer is threefold:
1) Taxiway Charlie had been largely out of use from perhaps 2015 to 2017 (I don't know the exact time frame) but by November 2017 had been rebuilt (but not re-aligned) and was in use by all traffic. Last year this comprised jet traffic of 4 x A319/320 and 3 x E195 so the 'annoyance' level rose considerably.
2) Runway 05 became, unusually, the prevailing departure runway during late Winter/early Spring this year due to the weather pattern, so the noise became more noticeable.
3) At the start of April the three RYR B738s arrived and no doubt their engine note on the taxiway is slightly different (maybe louder I don't know), further increasing the noise nuisance levels.
Maybe someone at SEN should have realised the effect of 2) and explained it to the residents and they certainly should have carried out some noise monitoring to see if the RYR presence at SEN made a noticeable difference to noise levels and, perhaps more importantly, noise level perception.
I do have personal experience of measuring aircraft noise levels and prior to the introduction of the A319 at SEN I travelled to Jersey and made recordings on the beach to replicate the height above Bridgwater Drive (a critical noise location in Southend) for aircraft landing on 06 at SEN. These recordings were offered to the main noise lobbying body at SEN but they declined the offer!