Originally Posted by
DIBO
While it is a very striking sound, the howl of PW's GTF is by no means deafening. I stood many times within 100m from a running/"howling" GTF without ear protection and the one thing it was not, is deafening.
At AMS on runway 18R/36L Polderbaan the Chewbacca is exceptionally noisy...especially in a gusting crosswind. Polderbaan has no natural or manmade sound baffles so when a streamer is stood beside the runway there is nothing but a dyke filled with water tween them and the aircraft. When a Chewbacca is either landing or taking off on Polderbaan and the wind is gusty and a crosswind, the sound goes from Wookie howl to Wookie scream to an all out Wookie banshee and the streamer cannot speak over it at all....whereas they usually can continue to commentate over the other aircraft such as the 350's, 777's and even the 747's. For a comparatively small aircraft it makes a big noise...the only other one to come close to it are the E2 Embraers but the A220 on a gusty croswindy day at Polderbaan beats them all hands down...as much as they might not seen very loud to someone like yourself who has probably grown immune to them, when they get loud, they really push that loud button hard.