Airplane noise is up
Linda Gyulai writes in the Gazette about how airplane noise is up, not just from airport traffic but from smaller craft doing sightseeing loops over parts of town. Living in Villeray, I’m under a flight path and well aware of the return of airport traffic, but not so much subjected to the tourist stuff, which I think mostly circulates over Mount Royal.
The big planes are a pain, sometimes enforcing the suspension of a conversation while they pass over, but in summertime it’s more the power tools that wear me down. Right now someone’s using a grinder nearby, and there’s seldom a day that isn’t marred by somebody running a saw or a grinder or some other noisy device. Some are not even necessary, like the guys who come and use huge leaf blowers on the frontage of the subsidized housing across the street. Leaf blowers, in July. I have to close the window.
Sprocket 10:42 on 2021-07-31 Permalink
I work near the airport. There have been fighter jets leaving. They are VERY loud. I also live on the flight path in Bois Franc, haven’t noticed too much of an uptick in traffic though.
Kate 10:46 on 2021-07-31 Permalink
I wondered if I’d heard something noisier than commercial jets recently, but fighter jets move so fast that they’re gone by the time you take note and look up.
EmilyG 11:08 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
Ugh. Power tool noise is maddening.
MarcG 11:26 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
A neighbour of mine has a tiny patch grass in front of his triplex and likes to weedwhack it on weekend mornings. It takes him about 30 minutes because he stops and examines the fruit of his labour at regular intervals.
EmilyG 15:09 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
And then there are the neighbours out here in the suburbs who use landscaping services, and they have multiple people with loud tools going all at once, throughout the day.
At least it’s not all day, every day, for a year, like when I lived in an apartment in town and the people who bought the place next door had renovators there all the time and we couldn’t do anything about it.
Blork 16:02 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
Back in the late 90s I used to go up to the top of the mountain on nice Sundays and string up a hammock between two trees and spend the afternoon in something resembling pastoral bliss. It was nice except that every 45 minutes or so a helicopter would fly right over the mountain, not very high up, loop around, and fly away. All afternoon, every 45 minutes. Low enough that I could see it was the same helicopter every time (a Robinson R44). It was annoying. I assumed it was someone giving helicopter tours.
Fast forward a few years and here I am living in Longueuil, a few km from the St-Hubert airport. My place is perpendicular to with the flightpath, however, so it’s not a problem. Except for those damn helicopters. It turns out it’s a company that does helicopter pilot training AND tours, and my house is right under their flight path between their facility (next to the St-Hubert airport) and downtown Montreal. And now they have two Robinson 44s; a red one and a dark blue one. Those things go over my house at least 15 times every day. By now I’ve gotten used to it so I barely notice.
We’re also right on the flight path for PET, for planes coming in from the west when the wind is blowing towards the east (which is most days). So we have dozens of passenger jets flying directly over our house every day, but at least they’re still pretty high up (probably 2-3000 metres), and they are descending, so they’re not loud at all. Far less noisy than the helicopters.