Perth noise pains

For instance every night at about 3am over 45 tonnes of express freight is delivered into Perth from Melbourne on Boeing 737 freighters, much of which is trans-shipped to mining sites to keep production moving smoothly.

These express goods, typically parts, come from central warehouses in Melbourne and Sydney.

Perth is the second most isolated capital in the world and the centre of Australia’s economic engine and needs a 24-hour airport.

However, much can be done to make a significant difference to the lives of nearby residents to the airport.

This writer, through AA and a variety of media has suggested the following;

• Take-offs from the end of the runway not one third and sometime halfway down. This would require the airport to add additional tarmac and both ends of the main runway to enable ATC to sort planes.

• No refueling stops by cargo flights and no take-offs by cargo flights between 11am and 6am.

• Insulation for nearby residents paid for by a passenger tax.

• Adoption of Continuous Approach Descent as soon as possible.

• Fast track of RNP

• Investigation and adoption of higher descent landing profiles to reduce noise by up to 20 per cent.

• Full power take-offs between 11am and 6am to ensure aircraft are at a higher altitude as quickly as possible before power cut back.

With Emirates suggesting that they can achieve a 20 per cent cut in the area impacted by noise at Heathrow with the steeper angle of attack for landing the cumulative impact of all these ideas is not to be dismissed.

While aircraft are getting quieter residents are get more vocal in their objections to noise and dismissing these claims only enrages the situation.

Measured at a given thrust level, aircraft noise actually fell by 20dB over the 30 years from the mid 1960s to the 1990s.

The human ear hears this as a ¾ reduction in sound intensity, however the sound energy escaping the engine has in fact been reduced by a factor of 100.

However virtually every airport has a noise problem despite the fact that today’s aircraft noise affects only 25 per cent of the surrounding area of 30 years ago.

A good example of this is Heathrow Airport where, according to various studies by regulators, flights have increased by 160 per cent since 1975 but the population affected by noise has declined by a massive 90 per cent thanks to dramatic reductions in engine noise.

Despite perceptions on the ground, the number of people worldwide who are disturbed by aircraft noise has dropped from 19 million in 1970 to just 800,000 today — a 95 per cent decline, according to the FAA.

The Air Transport Association (ATA) estimates that even if nothing further is done to reduce noise, by 2020 there will be a further 40 per cent reduction in the population affected in the US and Europe, as hush-kitted and marginally compliant Stage 3 aircraft are withdrawn from service.

But as the debate increases not only in Perth but around the country authorities must model what the noise levels will be in say 5 or 10 years time when all the technologies or changes outlined above are introduced and aircraft like the 787 are introduced into regular service.

And debate about a four and fifth runway at Sydney for instance must for take into account not what the noise levels are today but what they would be when those runways are completed and these changes are introduced.

The government needs to take ownership of the issue and mandate AirServices to introduce as many noise reducing technologies and procedures as quickly possible.

The country’s economy depends on it.