Concerning airport noise letters of March 6, 2015.
I agree with and empathize with the two contributors’ comments. Living near the airport myself, I am subject to the same two significant noise problems mentioned: helicopters and training flights.
It should be noted that military helicopter pilots do undergo training in simulators but even with many hours in sims there is no substitute for real flying.
To gain and maintain proficiency for combat and SAR operations pilots and crew must function as a team. Only real flying can achieve this.
Simulators do not simulate whole flight crews working together.
One thing that would reduce the noise levels of these machines over our homes would be vertical take-off.
Apparently, the VAA insists that the helicopters take off using the runways in order to collect fees.
The result is that these helicopters are forced to fly over our neighborhoods when they could easily avoid them.
In my mind the real noise culprits are the training flights.
In one day last summer I counted 30 such flights in a single hour!
However, these training flights should be re-routed for a far more important reason — safety.
According to the FAA and the TSB, small, private, single engine planes flown by amateur pilots account for the greatest percentage of crashes every year.
In other words, the VAA permits these high risk flights over our homes, schools and places of work every day and refuses to re-route them. Why?
This type of training would really benefit from simulation which is zero risk, far less expensive and more environmentally friendly than thousands of training flights every year.
It is time the flying clubs implement simulators and for the VAA to mandate them in order to reduce the number of flights.
Lower risk, less expensive, less noise — it’s a win-win scenario. Why are they dragging their feet?
Richard Smith, Sidney
