If you have ques­tions about the noise air­craft from the air­port make as they fly over Foggy Bot­tom and the West End, you will soon be able to get answers.

Noise and air traf­fic con­trol offi­cials from Ronald Rea­gan Wash­ing­ton National Air­port will be speak­ing and tak­ing ques­tions at the Foggy Bot­tom Association’s May meet­ing. The meet­ing is Tues­day, May 22 at St. Stephen Mar­tyr Catholic Church 2436 Penn­syl­va­nia Ave., NW. at 25th (entrance on 25th). A half hour social begins at 7 p.m., with the meet­ing start­ing at 7:30 p.m.

Speak­ing at the meet­ing will be Russ Adams, who as a sup­port spe­cial­ist at the airport’s air traf­fic con­trol tower has been involved with air­craft noise mit­i­ga­tion for many years, and Mike Jeck, assis­tant man­ager of the Noise Office run by the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Wash­ing­ton Air­ports Author­ity (MWAA).

As pre­lude to the meet­ing, Foggy Bot­tom News (FBN) asked some ques­tions of Jeck regard­ing air­port noise.

FBN: What hours is National Air­port allowed to oper­ate?
Jeck: Twenty four hours per day.

FBN: What kinds of planes/ engines are allowed dur­ing what hours?
Jeck: Most air­line air­craft are able to use National Air­port. Due to the length and design of our run­ways, wide body and other very large air­craft are unable to use National Air­port. National Air­port is open for use 24 hours a day.

FBN: What sit­u­a­tions allow National Air­port to oper­ate for longer hours (for exam­ple, can planes land after the end­ing time, and under what cir­cum­stances)? (In a few infre­quent sit­u­a­tions, Foggy Bot­tom res­i­dents have noted planes land­ing very late at night–well after 12 p.m.)
Jeck: As noted on our web­site, mwaa.com/ reagan/1271.htm, if an air­craft engine meets the night­time noise stan­dard (which applies from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.) that air­craft may oper­ate at any time at the Air­port. The air­line sched­ules and the mar­ket­place, how­ever, have not cre­ated a demand for late night flights so there are few of them.

FBN: Foggy Bot­tom res­i­dents are under the impres­sion that only planes with qui­eter engines can oper­ate dur­ing cer­tain hours. Is this cor­rect? If so, how does MWAA mon­i­tor the air­lines’ com­pli­ance with these rules?
Jeck: Air­craft are not pro­hib­ited from using the air­port overnight, but if they oper­ate in vio­la­tion of the night­time noise rule they are sub­ject to a fine. National Air­port has a night­time noise rule in effect from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. As explained on our website:

Night­time Noise Limitations

Ronald Rea­gan Wash­ing­ton National Air­port is one of the most strin­gently noisec­on­trolled air­ports in the United States. National’s night­time noise rules are among the most restric­tive in the coun­try. Under the Authority’s reg­u­la­tions, air­craft may be only oper­ated after 9:59 p.m. and before 7:00 a.m. if the noise level for the air­craft type and model meets National Airport’s strict noise stan­dards which are designed to min­i­mize sleep inter­fer­ence. If the noise lim­i­ta­tion is vio­lated, the air­craft oper­a­tor is sub­ject to a civil penalty up to $5,000 per violation.

Over the years, advance­ments in tech­nol­ogy and Fed­eral Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) reg­u­la­tions have led to qui­eter engines on air­line jet aircraft.

FBN : Does MWAA antic­i­pate any changes to these rules, espe­cially as newer, qui­eter engines are more com­mon on planes?
Jeck: No.

FBN: How and where does MWAA mon­i­tor noise lev­els? Are there mon­i­tors in the Foggy Bot­tom and West End neigh­bor­hoods? Where? How fre­quently are read­ings taken?
Jeck: MWAA has installed 36 noise mon­i­tors around the region. The clos­est noise mon­i­tors to Foggy Bot­tom are in George­town, Ross­lyn, and the Pal­isades. The noise mon­i­tors col­lect data every second.

FBN: If a res­i­dent thinks planes are landing/taking off out­side of the pre­scribed hours or planes with nois­ier engines are oper­at­ing, who should they con­tact?
Jeck: Me, Mike Jeck, at 703.417.1204 or mike.jeck@mwaa.com

FBN: What does MWAA do to fol­low up on cit­i­zen com­plaints?
Jeck: We inves­ti­gate the com­plaint and respond to the cit­i­zen with our findings. ~