us2

"A handful of federal lawmakers are seeking to vastly expand the number of long-distance flights at Reagan National Airport, easing long-standing restrictions designed to protect neighboring communities from noise and air pollution...

The move resurrects a campaign by western lawmakers and the airline industry that has infuriated residents of Arlington and Fairfax counties and Alexandria, many of whom oppose longer flights because they might require larger, heavier planes that make more noise...

The so-called perimeter rule, which bans most flights to destinations more than 1,250 miles from National, would be eased considerably. For the first time, regular nonstop air travel would expand from National to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and other distant cities..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...src=nl_cuzhead

I hope this goes somewhere; I would appreciate having more than one LAX-DCA flight a day, though the article makes clear that there is a lot of local opposition to this, much of which seems to be rooted in NIMBY-ism.

slawecki

that backyard is pretty big. a swatch at least 20 miles long, and 3 miles wide. i would not mind it so much if the idiots driving the planes(pilots) could figure out how to drive down the middle of the Potomac. instead, they fly from marker beacon to marker beacon, which are on the shoreline. Bass boats roll down the middle of the river in the dark at 70 mph, using a $200 gps. why these clowns (the pilots and who ever is in charge) cannot figure out how to find the middle of the river is beyond me. the helicopters also run the same shoreline path.

yes it is NIMBY, but the houses were here first. this is not like IAD where the idiots built under the flight paths. that 1250 miles was in place for years, as was the 10pm-7am curfew.

is that really nimby to get upset about 747's at 500 feet at 2am? i fugure if mccain could figure out how to get a 747 (one once did go in and out) out of dca, he'd put them there.

when we bought, we did not sign up for heavy metal to roll in overhead. McCain,boxer, and engsin got the rules changed. i presume rockefeller has a summer place in wyoming, which is why he's signed up for the change.

Rampo

We've come a long way from the immediately post 9/11 days when the nervous nellies wanted to shut down National.

LarryJ

In visual conditions they can fly the charted visual procedure which has them fly over the river visually.

http://tiles.skyvector.com/sky/files...IVER_VIS19.PDF

When the weather is below the minimums for the visual procedure they have to use an instrument procedure. A few airlines/aircraft are equipped for the RNP approach which stays close to the river but certainly doesn't stay over it.

http://tiles.skyvector.com/sky/files.../00443RR19.PDF

Most airlines/aircraft are not equipped for RNP approaches so they're stuck doing a straight-course along the river.

http://tiles.skyvector.com/sky/files...0443LDAD19.PDF

MrMan

As someone who lives under the flight path (15 blocks from the end of DAL), what is funny here is that I would perfer the "big" jet (737) to the RJ or Lear anyday.

whlinder

I like how this is supposedly going to help save the industry and generate new revenue. Uh huh. All of a sudden more people are going to fly because they can fly into DCA nonstop instead of connecting or flying nonstop to IAD?

techboyds

You're not suggesting that our elected officials might have an ulterior motive beyond the well-being of the citizenry and economy, are you?

KCK

Some of the houses may have been there first, but I seriously doubt many of the people living in them were. The restrictions at DCA have always been governed by politics and, therefore, subject to change. As much as I love airplanes, I wouldn't buy a house off the end of a runway.

KCK

Speaking of politics, the only part of the proposal I can't support is this:
Maybe Congress should specify where each of the additional long-range flights should go.

cordelli

The three or so airports those rules were put in place to protect and force people to go to will survive just find if they would take them all away and let the planes fly where they wanted to go. It's been way too long they have had them in place.

EricH

I love DCA and would love to have more options there, but the idea that this is really to make our beloved Congressmens' lives even better is just about enough to put me off on it. Maybe they should offer term limits to show their sincerity.

Mudfish

+1

It isn't the size of the jet that makes it loud.

slawecki

from the article, i cannot tell if they want to add flights, or just to convert some of the short distance flights to long distance and keep the traffic constant.

also, although it is not a well known fact, some people do live south of the airport. i sort of think the main runway pointed and used in that direction is called one(1).

on landings, there is some form of a marker about 5 miles out(oxonn?) and another about 10 miles out. both are on the maryland shore. over 90% of the helicopter traffic running the potomac fly directly over these markers. over 75% of the inbound jets using 1 fly over these two markers. no effort is ever made to run the middle of the potomac. the only outbound traffic is the heavies, as the smaller planes scatter before the wilson bridge.

it is my understanding that unless there is considerable tailwind, the pilot on one of the long distance planes will choose to wait for a space to take off south, rather than take off north with the rest of the traffic. i do not have a reference for that fact.

us2

I believe the proposal was for new slots, though the article was somewhat vague on the point.

I'm well aware of the fact that a number of people live south of the airport in Alexandria; when I lived in DC I rode the bike trail along the Parkway out to Mt. Vernon regularly. Personally, I never found the aircraft noise to be that bad; if anything, it's a lot better than it used to be due to the use of quieter aircraft than the DC9/737/727 aircraft that used to appear regularly.

In instrument conditions, planes fly the ILS to runway 1 when traffic flow is to the north. In visual, they usually fly the Mount Vernon Visual, which in fact does overfly the Potomac the whole way. http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/1007/00443...ERNON_VIS1.PDF Moreover, even when flying the ILS, the course from OXONN to the runway is over the water. Arrivals from the north follow the river to avoid the prohibited airspace P-56 around the Capitol and White House, as do departures to the north.

None of this would really be necessary if Dulles wasn't such a pain to get to from DC (think I-66 at rush hour) and if it were improved from its third-world terminal ambience. IAD is a horrible facility compared to DCA. While I know the Silver Line and midfield concourse improvements are in the works, the completion of those projects is some years away.

DenverBrian

Indeed. It seems to me that restricting flights by mileage makes about the least amount of sense. Restrict flights by noise level, or by number/size of engines, or by weight; and continue the curfew for overnight peace and quiet. But restrict by distance flown? Weird.