Indeed, the long range narrowbody heading to the west coast is a lot quieter flying over my house in Old Town than the reverse-field MD80 going to ORD. If I hear a plane and look up, it's almost always an MD80.

But sadly, California only has two senators for San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to share.


Of course, having grown up here taking many trips to Gravelly Point to watch the planes, I can understand why the perimeter rule stuck around, even after Dulles was more fully populated. The old 727s and 732s used to set off the alarms in the parking lot every time one flew over. The amount of progress in noise reduction technology is amazing. I hope the law eventually catches up to it.