Mad Jock - you are quite correct, the locals will in the future look back on the halcyon days of the C130 with regret once the mighty (& noisy) A400M has arrived - although it won't be doing many circuits as the fatigue usage would be too great.
The C130 takes around 10 mins from start-up to taxi, noise on the ground is quite bad but once it's airborne I find it quite quiet (from the observer's perspective). When I lived in OMQs at LYE the noise from ac on the ground (15+ ship formations anyone?) could be horrendous but ac in the cct never bothered me.
Frankly I have little sympathy for those around BZN - they mostly bought their houses knowing the airfield was there & benefited to the tune of approx. 30% discount on the properties as a consequence. They seem to want to close down operations at the base which cannot be allowed to happen. I agree that LYE should never have been closed, a very foolish & shortsighted event for which a number of VSOs should be cashiered. Most of the locals around LYE would love the place to be re-opened but sadly that will never happen so the people of Oxfordshire will just have to get used to it.