What It's Like to Fly "Quiet"
Ed Daley, a professional pilot and former captain for United at its
SFO hub, described how modern cockpits and flight control systems limit
the amount of choices pilots have in dispersing the noise from their
planes over less populated areas or changing takeoff and landing procedures
to make them quieter. He urged airport operators to publish and make
available "airport inserts" that alert pilots to special situations
in the vicinity of specific airports.
He described takeoffs and navigation systems and how pilots interact
with air traffic controllers. The parameters of safe operations are
so narrowly drawn, he said, that a change in the speed of the tailwind
by only 10 knots for a plane on a landing approach, which is typically
executed at 120 knots, could force the plane to divert its flight path
to one that travels over a heavily populated area. A PDF of Daley's
presentation can be found here
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