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Sunday, July 29, 2007
Flight In The Ointment
I see our 400 tonne chum is practising not crashing into the Millionaires' Playground again this morning. How nice for the carnival!
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I always thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest... unless you live in Ramsgate that is. Me and the wife are now getting SERIOUSLY annoyed by that knackered old jumbo constantly flying over out heads at about 100 feet doing endless training circuits. Tried calling every listed number at the airport to complain (which we don't often do!) and the best we got was a recorded message saying 'leave your details and we may send you a complaint form' yeah right. Even the flight path into Heathrow has tighter restrictions on a sunday!
Be fair, the Carnival doesn't kick off till 4.30 and there's every chance the pilot will have used up his hours (or fuel, or budget) by then... so that'll be ok then... it's just everyone else's Sunday that's been interrupted - apart from the 'go and live somewhere else then' gang, who love the noise of course...
I agree with some people who make the argument "oh it will benefit the area and bring longterm investment etc etc" (yawn). The point is how will the endless 'training' flights by non-UK operators (like the HongKong airline using it today) actually benefit us, where they use manston likely because it is cheaper to use for training, with (some might say) less stringent noise / traffic control regulations than a london airport. We may be lucky and get one passenger flight a week out of it to some obscure destination like timbuctoo before they finally realise there's nothing of interest there and shelve the whole idea. I personally have no objection to expanding manston, but narks me why they allow this one particular jumbo to fly round and round always seeming to be on a sunday, making people more inclined to stay indorrs on this nice summer day with their windows shut?
KIA operates between 07.00 and 23.00 with some flexibility to extend regular operating hours to between 06.00 and 24.00.
Unscheduled night flights permitted on case by case basis subject to charges for aircraft noisier than "QC4" - especially B707s, DC8s and some older B747s.
A formal regular night flying policy is under discussion with the local council, Thanet District Council.
Both the Kent County Council and Thanet District Council are supportive of growth at KIA. The draft local plans contemplate significantly more passengers (6 million by 2021) and freight (250,00 tonnes by 2011) than have recently been the case.
I find it so dispiriting I've been contemplating doing something quite drastic, I'm afraid. I might trundle over and have a chat with Gerry O'Ramsgate tomorrow and offer myself as a candidate for our teeny-tiny council.
"Oasis, which operates the red and white Boeing 747, were able to move their last training run on to a Tuesday and they will continue to do so, when possible, subject to slot availability."
Well we can live in hope that more Tuesdays will be used and not Sundays! It is not in anyone's interest to disturb the Isle on weekends unnecessarily!
I don't think anyone would object to these training flights during the week, it's just the seemingly endless ruination of our weekends that's driving us potty.
Alternatively if they published some kind of schedule we'd know when to p*ss off somewhere quieter, like Heathrow.
It seems they have taken on board the fact that we do not want building lorries going to the Pleasurama site ruining our cafe culture during the summer holidays so they have allowed training flights to do it instead.
My personal feeling is that we've struggled with Manston ever since the RAF pulled out and I'm not sure we should be putting any more money into it. Keep it as a local airport, great for light aircraft, maintenance, training (sorry ECR), but it is never going to happen as an international destination and we should not be wasting public money in a vain attempt to make it work. An unpopular view in my (ex-) party, who seem only too happy to be blinded by BS on an almost daily basis.
15 comments:
I always thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest... unless you live in Ramsgate that is. Me and the wife are now getting SERIOUSLY annoyed by that knackered old jumbo constantly flying over out heads at about 100 feet doing endless training circuits. Tried calling every listed number at the airport to complain (which we don't often do!) and the best we got was a recorded message saying 'leave your details and we may send you a complaint form' yeah right. Even the flight path into Heathrow has tighter restrictions on a sunday!
Be fair, the Carnival doesn't kick off till 4.30 and there's every chance the pilot will have used up his hours (or fuel, or budget) by then... so that'll be ok then... it's just everyone else's Sunday that's been interrupted - apart from the 'go and live somewhere else then' gang, who love the noise of course...
YAAAAAWN!!
I agree with some people who make the argument "oh it will benefit the area and bring longterm investment etc etc" (yawn). The point is how will the endless 'training' flights by non-UK operators (like the HongKong airline using it today) actually benefit us, where they use manston likely because it is cheaper to use for training, with (some might say) less stringent noise / traffic control regulations than a london airport. We may be lucky and get one passenger flight a week out of it to some obscure destination like timbuctoo before they finally realise there's nothing of interest there and shelve the whole idea. I personally have no objection to expanding manston, but narks me why they allow this one particular jumbo to fly round and round always seeming to be on a sunday, making people more inclined to stay indorrs on this nice summer day with their windows shut?
Here's what Infratil say:
KIA operates between 07.00 and 23.00 with some flexibility to extend regular operating hours to between 06.00 and 24.00.
Unscheduled night flights permitted on case by case basis subject to charges for aircraft noisier than "QC4" - especially B707s, DC8s and some older B747s.
A formal regular night flying policy is under discussion with the local council, Thanet District Council.
Both the Kent County Council and Thanet District Council are supportive of growth at KIA. The draft local plans contemplate significantly more passengers (6 million by 2021) and freight (250,00 tonnes by 2011) than have recently been the case.
I find it so dispiriting I've been contemplating doing something quite drastic, I'm afraid. I might trundle over and have a chat with Gerry O'Ramsgate tomorrow and offer myself as a candidate for our teeny-tiny council.
Sounds like a good way to get yourself sprayed blue and thrown into the harbour to me!!! ;)
It'll be just like my Butlins days, Nethers!
On 12 July, Councillor Moores said on his blog:
"Oasis, which operates the red and white Boeing 747, were able to move their last training run on to a Tuesday and they will continue to do so, when possible, subject to slot availability."
Obviously a very short-lived arrangement.
ONEVOICEINTHANET
Well we can live in hope that more Tuesdays will be used and not Sundays! It is not in anyone's interest to disturb the Isle on weekends unnecessarily!
I don't think anyone would object to these training flights during the week, it's just the seemingly endless ruination of our weekends that's driving us potty.
Alternatively if they published some kind of schedule we'd know when to p*ss off somewhere quieter, like Heathrow.
It seems they have taken on board the fact that we do not want building lorries going to the Pleasurama site ruining our cafe culture during the summer holidays so they have allowed training flights to do it instead.
Anon. 3:04 I work weekends and enjoy the quiet weekdays, why would you want to spoil it for me?
There was an article in one of the free papers last week. Lots of Thanetians complaining apparently. It's a pain in the emission!
My personal feeling is that we've struggled with Manston ever since the RAF pulled out and I'm not sure we should be putting any more money into it. Keep it as a local airport, great for light aircraft, maintenance, training (sorry ECR), but it is never going to happen as an international destination and we should not be wasting public money in a vain attempt to make it work. An unpopular view in my (ex-) party, who seem only too happy to be blinded by BS on an almost daily basis.
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