Why are planes so loud?

OK, so I live right next to a small municipal airport. Lots of small single and dual-engine prop planes coming and going every day, especially when folks are doing training for landing/take-off/touch-and-go's.

I know next to nothing about aviation, but why do 99% of these planes sound like they're running a blown-out Hindle high-mount?

Is it the weight/complexity penalty of having more complex muffler designs? Is it blade design? Manufacturers not wanting to quiet planes because regulations don't require them to?

No, it doesn't really bother me. I've lived here long enough that I only really notice it when I want to, but being home a LOT more recently has me sitting outside watching these folks and wondering....

 

No room for a full Akra. Nowhere to put it.

 

because they're pretty much running a blown-out Hindle high-mount with all the guts removed.

 

In many cases the prop tips are going supersonic and you’re hearing that loud noise too, not just engine exhaust noise

 

Loud pipes save lives

 

I live right next to a small airport as well. Some guys have little hot rod prop planes and they are loud as f$ck. A few of the private jets will also make the windows shake. Prop planes you can put exhausts on. Basically same as you do on anything with a motor, get more air / fuel in and you have to get it out. It’s usually the experimental aircraft that are the loudest.

 

That’s a different sound and after about a year and a half living here I can now tell the difference. One guy has a plane that was used for a couple years in Red Bull races that they ran out of funding to compete and he bought it. He’s a retired navy fighter pilot, flew F-15’s and spent a bit of time in 18’s. Invested his money wisely and now living the good life. He can do some cool shit in it and said it’s way more of a fun ride than a fighter jet minus the fact the fighter jet “was great knowing at the push of a button you could vaporize a building”.

 

Yep. I live right across a farm field from the municipal airport. I get sick of hearing it.

We have a popular parachute club that jumps every Wednesday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. They continually circle my place, on ascent. It’s a very loud plane and takes forever to get the job done. I feel like they could circle further out the other side of the airport, over barren farmland.

We have much cheaper fuel than the capital city, NW of here, so we have a large amount of private and military (rotary) air traffic. In addition, we have a busy aircraft refurbisher, here.

 

It would be really difficult to fit a muffler in there. That, and as mentioned, the propeller is loud as shit.

 

We had two chinooks doing high speed refueling yesterday. It’s very cool as they drop a few guys out the back so they can get refueling stuff ready while the chopper gets into final position. My 7 year old can hear them coming and I better be ready to run through the woods to get to the tree line as he loves to watch. It’s pretty cool seeing what I helped pay for

 

One of the guys who fly experimental and some hot rod planes gave me the low down on props. Like gearing many choices and some are loud as hell. He said the “control” props as he called them, less pitch but bit larger diameter as the loud ones. That extra diameter is a lot of extra speed at the tip, just like boats props and larger diameter, even as little as 1/2” can totally f things up in performance boats as you start basically boiling water.

 

Try to push that big of a hunk of steel at 30 000 ft going 500 mph while fighting gravity and see how loud any engine would have to be... The manufacturers are putting a lot of effort to make planes quieter.

 

We had a flight of shit-hooks with escorts come through the other week. Training mission or on their way (maybe) to Quantico, no idea. We have some big ass jets come through (low some times) on approach to Dulles and the low end grumble will make you crap your pants but those helicopters, holy shit.

 

Skydiving aircraft are, by classification, commercial flights. The DZ must designate the flight pattern for the entire day and report to the FAA, so the pattern is the same all the time.

There may be some variation in the flight path, but for obvious reasons, the jump run can only be in one place. Flying just a few minutes off course, then a few minutes back will not do much for noise, but will mean more fuel and fewer loads at the end of the day.

The economics of operating a DZ are tricky. You have an aircraft which cost $700k-$1m plus exorbitant operating cost and you're trying to make it back charging us $25 per lift. They survive on tandems, but I still wonder how they can stay afloat.

 

I only have one question. Was the airport there before the houses? If so then you willingly bought into a house next to an airport. Deal with it or move.

 

I can tell you one of the country stars who has a lake house on lake Burton has a gulf stream and it scares the shit out of you.

 

If you fly out of San Diego int, you fly over my house. It's annoying as fuck. I want them to move but thus far my emails have gone unanswered...

 

I didn’t realize or think about flight patterns.

Cessna 206 (capacity of 6). $20 to 5500’ and $27 to 10,500’. Margins would surely be tight, as you noted.

 

For the recor I’m not complaining, I’m stating my observations. I’m not an idiot and knew I was buying a house next to an airport and the rules of the airport. It’s well worth the trade off to me with the hood I live in, etc. A few people in my hood have a private access way into the airport which was one of the drivers for this hood so that being said maybe it’s not the “hood”. Plus getting to flog my neighbors car, even if it’s a mustang, up and down the runway was a hoot. We ride out dirtbikes up and down a path parallel to the runway. Very cool when you think you are going Red Bull straight rhythm speed and a private jet takes off and passes you like you are going backwards. One thing that still amazes me are the amount of people with lake houses (usually on Rabun or Burton) that fly in on private jets. I usually get on the google and it takes some time but you can figure out eventually who “owns” the plane/ lake house. You can see Alan Jackson and recognize him from a mile away. Couple people that own medical companies and other folk beyond my income level. Saw Oprah waddle her ass off a jet last year. Her security detail can’t be that good as I was looking through binoculars in visible sight and had a 308 on my shoulder and they didn’t even look over at me she did have two security detail with her. Didn’t see steadman though.

 

For every ounce of weight a part adds to the plane that's an ounce of weight that can't go inside the plane. When you are beating the air to death with a prop I see very little reason to shut the motor up.