With the arrival of some nice winter storms comes the loud flights over B'game from SFO. As a heavy traveler myself, I don't want to suggest doing anything that would make getting into or out of SFO any more difficult. But. Perhaps it is time to press for a late night curfew on departures when the airport is in the storm pattern mode. The low hanging, loud noise directly over the residential part of the mid-Peninsula was close to unbearable last night until well after midnight.
There is a rush of departures at 10 pm as East Coast redeyes and European flights leave and they have to be allowed to get out. Storms slow everything down and can push these flights past midnight, but there has to be a limit. People have to get up for work in the morning so there has to be a balance.
From the Council assignments (see item 8a on the consent calendar here) that were confirmed last night Ricardo Ortiz will remain our rep on the Airport Round Table that meets quarterly. That would be a good place to broach the topic. What say you, Voice commentators? Here are the runways that come right at us in reverse operations.
Orange County airport has a 10pm curfew. But, I understand there is a law now that prohibits cities from imposing curfews on airports. Plus, the airport belongs to San Francisco. You can imagine the hassle if such departures couldn't be proved to annoy whales, etc...
Yes, noisy last night. Also, I wrote one complaint to SFO and was told that even if a pilot could choose to depart safely on one runway, he could also choose a safe, closer runway that would make more noise over a neighborhood but entail a shorter taxi and less fuel. The pilot choose to hurry, save gas and flew over us last year at 1:59 am. Oh, well.
Posted by: Cassandra | January 04, 2017 at 05:03 PM
Maybe Jerry Hill could get on this instead of worrying about the rinky dink stuff that has occupied his time so far.
Posted by: hillsider | January 04, 2017 at 05:47 PM
Jerry Hill didn't help with the train whistles as you may recall.
He came to a meeting I attended and I mentioned to him that every time I hear the train whistle in the middle the night, "It calls his name: Jerrrrrrry. Jerrrrrrry. Jerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry."
Posted by: Cassandra | January 04, 2017 at 07:12 PM
With the wind howling through the trees and shaking my house and the noise of the rain I didn't even notice the planes for once!
Posted by: HMB | January 04, 2017 at 09:28 PM
Writing new laws to outlaw stuff that is already illegal like underage drinking makes for good headlines.
Posted by: hillsider | January 04, 2017 at 09:40 PM
Here's what will change what is what: landing gear falls in a Millbrae pool.
Posted by: Cassandra | January 05, 2017 at 03:25 PM
The good news is a lot of flights are being cancelled so maybe just maybe we can get some sleep tonight. I love the curfew idea. How about it Ricardo. Can you make it happen?
Posted by: local motion | January 08, 2017 at 05:43 PM
The more I thought about this the more I came to the conclusion that this is probably something for the county supervisors to spearhead. I know down south, Anna Eshoo has stepped into the San Carlos airport and SFO overflights of Woodside, et al.
Also the Roundtable has a website and a page for "Noise 101" that can be found here:
http://sforoundtable.org/noise-101/
Posted by: Joe | January 09, 2017 at 06:07 PM
This aquostic phenomena that happens under specific weather condition is nothing new in Burlingame.
It also happens in Millbrae, San Mateo, and SSF.
San Bruno, won a class action lawsuit against SFO@ 30 plus years ago.
Big time lawsuit.
In the meantime:
-A new roof. New 3/4 to 1 inch T&G Plywood. The best shingle/composite roofing covering available.
-purchase double/triple pained windows.
-insulate entire home; including walls, and ceilings and sub floors.
-replace all interior/exterior doors, as well the garage doors too.
NO HOLLOW CHEAP DOORS.
This EXCELLANT and nessesary investment in your home and community should be available for purchase, or financing at between $140,000.00 and $220,000.00 per home depending on you choice of Air Conditioning configuration.
The price is worth it.
Posted by: [email protected] | January 09, 2017 at 08:03 PM
Thank you for binging this up.
If you look at SFO reports, complaints out of Burlingame are minimal so their focus is elsewhere(page 3 of this report): http://media.flysfo.com/SFO%20DR%20201611.pdf) Burlingame has 454 reports from 7 individuals compared to South City (1,386 form 40) or Pacifica (13,040 from 79) .
Time to file a report:
http://www.flysfo.com/community/noise-abatement/file-a-complaint
You know, the squeaky wheel........
As far as a curfew, call your Congresswoman and Senator. This is not a local decision:
In 1990, Congress passed the Airport Noise and Capacity Act. This law was a compromise between the airlines and the airports: airlines were required to phase out the use of the noisiest aircraft (known as Stage 2 aircraft) and airport operators were prohibited from creating curfews or other operating restrictions. Airports with existing curfews were allowed to keep the curfew in place under a “grandfather” clause. Since SFO did not have an operations curfew in place at the time the law was enacted it is now prohibited from establishing one.
Posted by: JROC | January 09, 2017 at 09:44 PM
In 45 years planes never bothered me. I knew there was a airport and a train running through. Its just in inclement weather. How about this. A no fly zone over Burlingame. Just deal with it and next time don't buy a house near train tracks, airport, freeway.
Posted by: miguel r | January 10, 2017 at 05:39 PM
Smart move, miguel, taking your hearing aids out when you go to sleep.
Time to change a 25 year old law that does not keep up with the times.
Posted by: hillsider | January 10, 2017 at 06:06 PM
When the airlines start flying prop planes again I be fine with the noise. In the meantime Miguel you are being foolish.
Posted by: Handle Bard | January 10, 2017 at 07:10 PM
Please. The people who suffer the most from this are in San Bruno. They don't get nearly the attention they deserve, but they don't complain as loudly as people here do, nor do they tend to have the financial resources and time to mount effective resistance.
Planes and transportation are important for the area and the economy. SFO only changes the flight patterns on rare occasions, and when extreme weather is in effect causing safety issues, and this was definitely the case this week (!)
I live literally 5 mins away from SFO and planes were booming literally OVER MY RESIDENCE this week. But I am not bothered the slightest about it when I think about how much more our San Brunan neighbors have to suffer, and how much fewer resources those folks have to deal. Have a heart, and nix the whining. We are very lucky to live here.
Posted by: J. Mir | January 11, 2017 at 11:29 AM
People suffer all type of issues who live in San Bruno, CA.
Those "People" in San Bruno have absolutely no idea how to manage Multi- Million Dollar property portfolios, keep the "Staff" in check.
Including attorneys, caterers, Contractors, neighbors, and friends.
Whenever I think about San Bruno, my foot itches.
Posted by: [email protected] | January 11, 2017 at 07:18 PM
Sometimes the original intent gets lost in the comment stream. I don't mind--that is what comments are for, but just to come back to my original question: for those rare nights when the airport is in reverse operation, does a curfew of 12am or 1am seem reasonable? JROC notes prior law, but laws can be changed and this doesn't strike me as unreasonable. And I like Handle Bard's example of propeller planes being the prior situation albeit not in 1990 when the federal law was passed.
In the meantime all, let's catch up on the complaint count, please. I used to do it but got discouraged because it never had any effect. Time to reengage I think.
Posted by: Joe | January 12, 2017 at 06:23 PM
An occasional curfew would in effect eliminate the flights potentially impacted. Reverse flow does happen throughout the year (though rarer in the summer) so airlines would be reluctant to schedule late night flights because of the risk that their schedules get upset at the last minute; for example, a flight scheduled for midnight would be at risk of a 6 hour delay, which, if the winds shift, could be imposed while the aircraft is taxiing out the runway.
From what I can tell from SFO's noise abatement site, the flights that went over Burlingame on the night of Jan 3rd/4th were mostly the typical red-eye flights to DC, NY, and Chicago. So, such a curfew could result in the elimination of red-eye flights.
I'm guessing the source of most of the angst on that evening were the one 767 and 777 that went out around 12:30a, as well as the fact that Virgin America and JetBlue's redeyes use A320s, which have whiney engines.
Posted by: BillyGBob | January 13, 2017 at 09:13 AM
Traveling out of the US regularly-international flights, during the last 20 plus years, always took place-after 12:00AM.
Maybe the cost/tax may benefit the airlines,and Counties..
There seems two solution's to this problem:
Close SFO
Remove/Buyout, all homeowners/renters, schools,and business.
In the long term, the Airlines will most likely benefit 10 fold.
Posted by: [email protected] | January 13, 2017 at 06:42 PM
As a former Burlingame resident for 8 years, I appreciate the problem of SFO noise. However, now that we live in Belmont (more house for the money and excellent schools), we still hear the SFO noise because now we're at the top of the hill. Now, I actually hear the train more than when we lived around El Camino Real in Burlingame.
Does the train really need to honk it's horn so much?
Don't worry, Electrification (High Speed Rail Prep) is on the way! Massively overbudget, but a windfall to all of the MBE's awarded contracts.
Posted by: Noise To Meet You... | January 14, 2017 at 04:45 PM
Hollyroller, you are as nuts as ever. Keep on keepin' on you crazy ole lunatic. Remove/Buyout, all homeowners/renters, schools,and business.
Posted by: hillsider | January 14, 2017 at 07:36 PM
Thank you, BillyGBob, for what appears to be an insider's view of the curfew/noise issue. Care to elaborate just a little on how you are so knowledgeable?
To your point about such a curfew causing airlines to evaluate the risk of scheduling redeyes especially in the winter, that is the sort of business risk airlines deal with everyday. Not to diminish it, but it is manageable. If they kept redeyes scheduled to no later than 10pm and the curfew hit at 1am, that is manageable in my opinion.
Posted by: Joe | January 15, 2017 at 02:35 PM
Red-eyes leaving here before 10p arrive really, really early at the other end of the trip (especially to Chicago, Houston, and Dallas...which would land around..say 3:30a), such that they're likely very unattractive for passengers because it forces a 3 to 4 hour wait for the next morning connect bank. Basically, you'd be de facto prohibiting a season's worth of late-night flights because there are a few days where SFO has to use the 19s for departures (often fewer than 5 days per year..sometimes zero, if I recall correctly).
As for knowledge, let's just say I've lived in Burlingame for over 15 years and I fly a lot.
Posted by: BillyGBob | January 15, 2017 at 10:48 PM
Delaying flights further when they are already delayed during storms is ridiculous.
Posted by: Horatio Alvarez Goldstein | January 26, 2017 at 05:17 PM
You're complaining about a handful of days of reverse runway ops at SFO yet you have no problem putting up with 24/7/365 days of train horns.
Posted by: Andy Greer | January 26, 2017 at 05:24 PM
Andy, your comment is what is known as a non sequitur - it don't follow from the premise of the post. If you care to read up on the Samtrans/Caltrain thread found on the right hand frame, you will find a good place to put comments about the horns.
Horatio -- why is it "ridiculus". Try finishing the thought and responding to the original argument, if you can.
Posted by: Joe | January 26, 2017 at 08:46 PM