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The Sound of Freedom? NIMBY!
One pleasant feature of my northern Virginia home, less than five miles from the Pentagon and a couple of blocks from I-395, is the sound of freedom that occasionally envelopes my neighborhood.
On some days, it happens as early as 7:30 a.m., often hourly, sometimes more. Sometimes in tandem. And often well into the evening hours, at low altitude. I love it.
Military helicopters, especially. Sometimes I spot a V-22 Osprey, which is always a treat. The Osprey has the unique ability to convert, in air, from rotary-wing (helicopter) mode into a fix-wing aircraft. It’s a remarkably versatile aircraft, allowing it to land and take off (and even fly) like a helicopter, but cruise over 250 miles per hour to move personnel by tilting the rotors. Runways are not required. They are fun to watch. You can see one up close and personal at the American Helicopter Museum at Brandywine Airport near West Chester, Pennsylvania.
But apparently, that is too much for the sensitive ears of many northern Virginians, including our local Congressman, legendary foreign auto dealer, and former Lt. Gov. Don Beyer (D-VA). When he’s not proposing unconstitutional legislation to impose a 1,000 percent tax on scary-looking guns (in clear violation of the 2nd and probably the 8th Amendments of a Constitution he has vowed to uphold), he and his fellow Democratic colleagues from DC (Eleanor Holmes Norton), Virginia and Maryland are siccing the General Accounting Office (GAO) on the Department of Defense to deal with complaints. From the Washington Post in 2019:
When Beyer, whose district includes neighborhoods near the Pentagon, held a town hall on the issue last year, more than 200 people attended. He said he has tried to work with Pentagon officials on ways to reduce the noise, but has been disappointed with their response.
“The GAO study should, I hope, give us much better information with which to address this issue,” he said.
And the GAO delivered. From the Arlington Patch:
The Eastern Region Helicopter Council and the Helicopter Association International are participating in a pilot program that will allow people who live in the Washington, D.C., area to use a new helicopter noise complaint system.
Residents will be able to submit noise concerns via a webform, iPhone and Android-compatible mobile app, or voicemail at the noise complaint hotline at 877-209-3200. Residents should provide as much information as possible when submitting a complaint.
Helicopter noise is a constant problem for people who live in Arlington, Alexandria and parts of Fairfax County. Using flight track data, the system is designed to accurately identify the aircraft generating concerns.
“For years my constituents have steadily complained of disruptive helicopter noise in the National Capital Region, and I have worked hard with colleagues and regional partners to address those concerns and reduce this noise,” U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8th) said at a news conference Friday.
Beyer said the helicopter noise complaint system meets a key recommendation made by the General Accounting Office in a report that he and his colleagues in Congress requested: that the FAA develop a mechanism to track helicopter noise complaints in the D.C. area.
To be sure, there are a lot of helicopters in the area, which includes 22 hospitals and every branch of our military, including the US Coast Guard, whose distinctive orange helicopters also occasionally grace my neighborhood. And of course, there are those pesky media helicopters that love to report on traffic issues in the region or hover above crime scenes.
When the President or Vice President makes an appearance nearby, US Park Police helicopters can hover or fly around for an hour or longer. That can be annoying.
But military helicopters seem to be the target. And they are noisy (almost as much as Beyer’s whiny constituents). The noise from any variety of military helicopters departing or arriving at the Pentagon can take about 30 seconds, at least where I live. They fly at very low altitudes over the equally noisy I-395 expressway in their approaches and departures involving several military installations in the area, from Joint Base Bolling along the banks of the Potomac River in Maryland to Fort Belvoir and Marine Base Quantico in Virginia. Others can be seen flying low over the banks of the Potomac River, which is also the flight pattern for the very busy Ronald Reagan International Airport (DCA). Talk about noise.
Reagan Airport airline traffic is a major reason why helicopters must fly low around here.
This is all part and parcel of the NIMBY syndrome, especially in this deep blue enclave – “Not In My Back Yard.” Having moved to a home along with a busy flight pattern nearby, with helicopters constricted in altitude, they proceed to complain about it. How about moving to a location where the noise can’t bother you, instead of whining to your woke congresspeople to harass our military? Many of these flights are training missions. Pilots require a certain number of hours of flying time to stay current and skilled. I think my neighbors should be able to survive with, maybe, a grand total of five minutes of military helicopter noise per day over their homes.
I suspect there are 430 or so congresspeople who would happily take on the burden of hosting the Pentagon, moving it out of Don Beyer’s unappreciative district. Especially Virginia’s Second District US Representative, Democrat Eliane Luria. Her district is already home to naval and air bases along Virginia’s south Atlantic coast and the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. North Carolina’s Fort Bragg isn’t too far away, either. They’re used to lots of military noise and probably appreciate it more than the NIMBYs of northern Virginia.
I don’t mean to question the “patriotism” of my neighbors, and yes, I understand that aircraft noise can have health impacts. I can only imagine the angry mom whose newborn is woken up by the sonorous thumping of a Huey flying overhead. And growing up or working within the vicinity of Tinker (Oklahoma) or Luke (Arizona) Air Force bases, I have lots of memories of sonic booms and noisy F-4s and F-16s. But what did you expect, living near the Pentagon, or that hospital with helicopter pads on their roof? Didn’t you know that when you moved there?
More annoying to me is the constant 24-hour drumbeat of traffic noise from I-395. Sounds like a river, I try to gaslight myself into believing. But I chose to live here knowing that reality. I don’t complain to my Congressman about it.
When Virginia’s Governor, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in last January at the state capitol in Richmond, his inaugural address was briefly interrupted by a military fighter jet fly-by. He immediately celebrated “the sound of freedom.”
Memo to the Pentagon: your military helicopters can fly by my home anytime. The sound of freedom is always welcome here.
Perhaps Congressman Beyer could spend more time on getting the National Park Service to improve the popular but badly-maintained Mount Vernon bike trail. Now that would be a constituent service worth celebrating.
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When I am home and hear a military helicopter fly over, I go outside and wave at it. I also think about the fact that the company I used to work for makes flight deck switches, so a little bit of me is in there.
For a season I lived in SE Virginia, near Oceana, Norfolk Naval Base, Little Creek, etc. You’d see bumper stickers, hats, and shirts everywhere bearing the slogan “I love jet noise.” Which I do.
Perhaps car-sales magnate Beyer could just shut up.
Great post. I’m with you. (Literally, we’re neighbors).
I get your point. Even though my wife and I live way out in the country, we’re in an area where an ANG F-16 wing loves to fly training missions. I’ve had a couple of neighbors occasionally complain about the sonic booms but I’ve always educated them about the “sounds of freedom”.
Still, I’d be a bit circumspect about being on the flight path of the V-22 Osprey. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if I was still on duty, I’d be extremely leery about strapping one to my derriere.
Since the Osprey first took to the air there have been 13 “hull losses” resulting in 51 fatalities. This does not include several other accidents and incidents.
I’m sure that the Osprey still has some defenders but I would prefer to get to my destination via a regular fixed wing or rotary aircraft.
Here’s an idea for these geniuses who decided to live in an area loaded with people, military infrastructure, and major government offices who decide they can’t stand air traffic noise: DON’T LIVE THERE!
* Please, don’t live near me either. I don’t want you here and you wouldn’t like it either.
Interesting rhetoric. You imply that people who don’t like loud aircraft noise are unpatriotic and unamerican.
There are legitimate concerns on both sides of this issue.
I’d love to see the Pentagon brass taking you up on your rhetoric, Kelly. They could fly the insanely noisy F-16s that we sometimes have training in Tucson over your house, every 30 minutes, all night, every night. You can enjoy the “sound of freedom” until you go insane from sleep deprivation.
These are the sort of problems that need to be adjusted, with military requirements and civilian concerns accommodated, when feasible. You don’t actually state a rule in the OP, but you seem to imply that the military aircraft are always right. I don’t think that is a good rule.
Thanks for the comment. I am very aware of the V-22’s safety record. My oldest son is an Army 1LT infantry officer who has flown in one during his current deployment in Africa. I also used to live close to where the V-22 was in part built, at Ridley Park, PA, at a large Boeing helicopter factory. This is one complicated aircraft.
Your inferences of my work are annoying and, as usual, wrong. I have spent plenty of time in Wickenburg, AZ, near Luke Air Force base, and grew up near Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma. I know full well the sounds and sonic booms of F-16s.
Sea Lion.
B-1.
Love how Jerry goes on to make the exact point of the OP. And a B-1 is four F-16s. Bwaahaahaaaaaaa!
Ray’s first engineering job was a summer internship at Boeing Vertol in Philadelphia.
I’m in the F-16, too. I bought thousands of the circuit-card assemblies for the cockpit. Complicated little suckers, with very expensive components that are getting increasingly hard to find.
There’s a general aviation airport in my area that been there since at least the 1940s. It’s gotten increasingly busy in recent years as the area has grown in population. The airport has some limited ESA flights, but it also has lots of pilot training, both fixed wing and rotor.
A few years ago, the city council approved a huge new housing development west/northwest of the airport, on former ranch property. The city couldn’t grow in other directions, because it is limited by tribal lands and by National Forest property. And of course the city is hungry for more property tax revenue, like all of them.
Now that a substantial portion of the new development has been built, the residents have begun to complain about noise from low-flying aircraft. There was even a small plane crash in the area recently, which caused some to point out that maybe putting a housing development so close to the airport wasn’t such a great idea. Fortunately, the pilot managed to set it down in an empty field.
I might be mean and unsympathetic, but the airport was there decades prior to the development. If people didn’t do their due diligence, then that’s on them, regardless of what the city approved.
Personally, I love the sound of jet noise!
Which has greatly improved.
People do it with all sorts of things. There is zoning not far from me that has been heavy industrial for 80 years. The residential has encroached. We got a petition from people who moved into condos close about it. As President of the Homeowner Association at the time, I told them we would not participate. We have been fine since the 1980s. They moved there.
Move it to a secure Republican state, we’ll need it if they successfully steal the next election.
I liked it when I could see a lot of A-10 Warthogs. Very cool to watch.
Actually with all the woke nonsense I don’t think we need the Pentagon in a secure Republican state. My father was a career Naval Officer. When he did his stint of Pentagon service in the 80’s he use to say if the Russians bomb Washington DC and Destroyed the Pentagon they might give us a fighting chance. I am pretty sure he was joking but looking at what it has done lately and the state of our military I am not so sure anymore.
Probably true.
Reminds me of folks who buy or build a house in rural America and then complain about the sights, sounds, and aromas of agriculture.
They want to suck on the MIC teat but complain about military operations? I believe there is a military expression that covers this.
F 35’s are pretty cool depending on what they are doing. They can do a canopy roll so perfect it looks like CGI. I have no idea if they are noisy.
The “sound of freedom” has been the squadron duty officer response to noise complaints at least since I started active duty in the 70’s and I’m sure much earlier than that. Whenever a fast mover goes by at low level we run to get a glimpse if we can. We are out in the sticks but near a low level route.
When Mrs Tex was a T38 instructor in a small Mississippi town, there was a historic mansion near the base and there was some restriction about flying overhead (IIRC it scared the peacocks that lived there). For years every instructor would take new students and fly a tight, steeply banked low circle around the mansion at the minimum distance and altitude and say “don’t fly over that house”.
Thanks for reminding me again why I love living in a small town. The Avon Park Air Force Range media person shares on Facebook whenever there will be low, medium, or high noise air traffic in the region, plus gives us a heads up regarding scheduled EOD (explosive ordinance detonations) so we understand if our windows rattle those days. We welcome and celebrate the sound of freedom!
Hmmm. Are you saying that the V-22 has improved? On June the 11th, five Marines were killed in an Osprey crash. Sounds to me like they need some more work on it…
I have no idea what caused that crash, so it is is non starter of an argument. Did it crash because it failed mechanically?
You know, other aircraft crash, too. It performs a vital mission.
But hey, I guess they guys I have spoken to who fly it and like are just morons.
A “non starter of an argument”? I believe you’ve been hanging with Gary for too long. To begin with, the link is just a partial list of v-22 mishaps. It does not begin to cover minor things such as a fire, on a runway, which was quickly extinguished without major loss.
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/dblist.php?AcType=V22
However, the entire V-22 project has been beset by one problem after another including the firing of a General Officer for not toeing the company line not to mention other flareups.
I don’t know about the guys you have spoken to who “fly the aircraft and like” but an observation in the Los Angeles Times relating to the last fatal V-22 crash was particularly interesting. The pilot (who flew for the Air Force and is presently a defense analyst) stated,
“Most aircraft have about a dozen flight envelopes, parameters that pilots should not exceed to maintain control. The problem with the V-22 is it doesn’t have five or six envelopes. It’s got thousands of envelopes, because each different pitch of the cells has its own set of envelopes. A small mistake in a typical helicopter just causes minor problems. Maybe it scares the pilot, but in a V-22 a minor mistake can kill you.”
The next time you get together with all your pilot buddies ask them a simple question: Would they take their family up with them?
When the V-22 came on line, it was envisioned that government officials could be shuttled on the aircraft. So far, I don’t know of anyone other than than military types who are flying on the aircraft.
I don’t know where that “moron” remark came from. No one is calling anyone names. However, I’ll say again my own feelings. I’ll take a C-130 or Huey (which I often did) before I’ll ever get into a V-22.
Gotta say, that analyst sounds pretty ignorant. The analog argument about “envelopes” can apply equally well to other analog considerations. And it’s “nacelles”, not “cells”. For decades (over a century) even such lowly platofrms as mere shps have had standard power settings, standard rudder settings, and standard intervals in order to create a select set of known resultant conditions, with predicted and charted behaviors attendant.
Surely our moral superiors in the flying diaper community have figured this out. Surely everything that flies nowadays has automated controls which function like thermostats to ensure conformance to commanded performance.
I don’t need a lecture about vortex ring state (SWP), either.
“A lecture”? I didn’t see that anywhere.
Pre-emptive. I am greatly relieved not to have received one.