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On 16th May, 2006, representatives of Hever Parish Council accompanied by Mr Bob Pullin from Hever Castle and Mr Ron Palmer from Hever Lakeside Theatre met at Gatwick Airport with officers from the Flight Evaluation Unit. The following are notes of that meeting kindly supplied by BAA.
Flight Evaluation Unit Meeting with Hever Parish Council 16 May 2006
Q. Aircraft fly every minute over Hever lake on some occasions. Can we shift this when there is a concert or play at the open air theatre? A. Air Traffic Control (ATC) do not deal with routes by using a lake, but aircraft are lined up over Hever as it is on the central runway approach line. Q. The letters we receive when we complain don't mean anything. The real issue is whether you will do anything about it. A. We can't move the point that aircraft move onto the approach line but we can encourage airlines to comply with continuous descent approach (CDA). Q. If a plane does a perfect CDA how many feet is this? A. 3,200 - 3,400 feet. Some of the reasons why non-compliance happens can be inaccurate information from ATC, bad weather or pilots who are unfamiliar with Gatwick's CDA procedures. Q. Are there procedures for pilots who persistently get it wrong? A. We can't investigate every single instance, but we do show airlines trends and help them to raise performance. There are no sanctions but there are strong persuasive arguments, e.g. CDA is more fuel efficient, CDA limits the impact of noise on the community. Q. But can't we move the point? A. Aircraft can't operate on a curved approach. Q. Will our situation change? A. We can work with ATC to raise CDA performance but we can't change the number of flights in the area. Q. Are other areas complaining? A. Yes but the numbers are fairly static. Forums like this are more useful to find out what the impact is. We are careful not to draw inferences from decreases in complaints. Q. The Leq measurement does not represent levels of disturbance at a particular time. A. If we can raise the height of aircraft we can shave some decibels off the noise disturbance experienced. Q. Do you think we are being outrageous? A. If noise disturbs you that is the issue, regardless of the level it is. In summer 2002 there were 60% easterly arrivals but in the summer of 2004 there were 78% easterly arrivals (due to wind direction). Hever has always been overflown due to its position on the central runway line but this is a noticeable change. Q. Is there anything BAA can do? There is nothing in law. A. In terms of height we can, and we can work with ATC to reduce the number of turnings at a certain point if it is a high number. We're working with ATC on the increase of aircraft flying over Hever who are not CDA-compliant. BAA is lobbying at group level for quieter aircraft. In the future, Precision Area Navigation technology will make the tracks aircraft fly on very narrow and there is the potential to have different routes. The onboard technology will need to be taken on by the airlines. However, this will have to be balanced against the need for increased frequency.
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