What was going on at Leicester Airfield yesterday ?

[LateFinals]

I spent the weekend staying with a friend in Keyham, a village close to Stoughton airfield. I've been there many times and can often see and occasionally hear a plane inbound or in the circuit.

Yesterday between about 10 & 12.30 there was a marked increase in traffic density, some of it in formation, some lower than normal and much much noisier. Sitting in the garden, we struggled to talk. This went on and on, so much that even I as a pilot started to get irritated. I don't know what other non-flying residents must have thought.

Anyone know if anything special was happpening, fly-in, air race etc or was it just a lovely day. If it was an event, I'm sure locals would be more supportive if there was some prior notice. If it was just unusually busy maybe the airfield needs to contemplate alternative (inner, middle, outer) circuits.

I'be always thought locals complaining about aircraft noise were miserable "get a life" types, however having personally experienced such prolonged noise polution yesterday makes me think that if we as pilots want our local airfields to continue and not to be turned into housing estates etc we have to be a bit more user friendly and do our best to minimize the noise effect our planes have on local residents.

LateFinals

[Chilli Monster]

Air Racing

http://www.airraceuk.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9

[Spruit]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=324602

[LateFinals]

Just saw the air-race thread which just goes to back up what I was saying about the importance of making sure local residents know what is going on a their local airfields then they are likely to be more supportive of temporary increases in noise etc.

LF

[Rallye Driver]

The race course has to be agreed with the CAA, which often modifies the planned course to avoid built-up areas by greater margins (which happened at Leicester), and makes specific stipulations about where the final descent to the finish line takes place. The was a CAA person monitoring the finish line area (at least on Saturday).

The races were at a minimum of 700 feet AGL, which is 200 feet higher than previous years in order to minimise noise. The Saturday race had an additional scatter point added after practice to route aircraft around a small cluster of houses. A couple of pilots were disqualified for low flying as the RAeC 3Rs take this very seriously and certainly want to minimise if not eradicate complaints - definitely emphasised at the briefing.

Admittedly the Cessna 180 which did the full race on Sunday sounded more like a Harvard at take off power, and is by far the noisiest competitor.

I was a turning point marshal, and had sited my marker as far way from houses as possible within the designated area.

Sorry you were annoyed, but we do our best to keep everyone happy!

RD

[Vick Van Guard]

When I flew past Leicester yesterday someone was singing ''there may be troubles ahead'' over the r/t.

I gave the place a wide berth and went on my way. :ooh:

[julian_storey]

I absolutely love aviation. I fly commercially and I fly a group operated Cherokee for fun as often as I can when I'm not flying for work. I regard flying as a freedom which we should fight very, very hard to protect.

Also, I generally have very little time for people who buy houses near an airfield and who then complain and moan when they hear an aeroplane.

At the weekend, I happened to be staying with friends who live in a village called Slawston which appeared to be one of the turning points for the Leicester air race. My friends and most of their neighbours were quite vocal about the fact that their two weekend days in their gardens were spoiled by what was genuinely a huge amount of noise.

Don't get me wrong - although I've never tried Air Racing it looks great fun and one day, I might get round to trying it. I don't know enough about it to suggest how it's impact on the non flying majority might be minimised, but I do know that it created quite a disturbance and quite a lot of negativity towards general aviation in one Leicestershire village last weekend.

Negativity towards GA is not something that we need.

Discuss.