Flight path experiences

[elizabethbob]

Hello. Not sure which thread to put this on but have just heard a story about a family who have rented a property under the Heathrow flight path who are planning on moving after one week there as they can't handle the noise at 5.30am.

We are moving to under the flight path later this year and we are fully aware that there are a lot of flights and that they are quite low and loud but everyone we had spoken to had said they get used to it / don't notice it anymore etc. Including a relative who lives in the area, although slightly less under than we would be.

Is it really that terrible?? I would have thought if it was, that the properties prices in SW London would be less rather than more. Surely the benefits of lovely outdoor space - Richmond PArk, Kew, Wetlands etc outweighs the flight issues.

Please reassure me!!!!

erm well its a bit horses for courses really, some people get used to it. others dont. we used to live under fp and I was absolutely fine, drove DH up the wall. but i think the area outweighs the negative aspects. it depends on what area, there is a masssive difference even when there is only 1 mile involved.

Depends how close to take-off/landing point you are. When the wheels come down those jumbos sure make some noise.

We live under Heathrow flightpath (Hammersmith way) and the 5:30am planes always wake me in summer when we have windows in our bedroom down. Windows up it's not so bad.

But the planes don't seem to come over our house everyday. Not sure if they share the noise around, or maybe it's weather dependant?

its weather dependent plus they change runways and direction of landing.

geekily, hullloooo..... this is sort of interesting

www.heathrowairport.com/portal/page/HeathrowNoise%5ENoise+explained%5ECauses+of+aircraft+noise%5EUnd er+the+flight+path/a817f847de609010VgnVCM10000036821c0a/448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a /

Well....we've just moved out of Fulham, having lived under the flight path (just across the river from the Wetlands Centre) for about 7 years, and having finally had enough! They are loud enough to wake you at 5-6am, and to stop you going back to sleep. They also began to really annoy us when we were in the garden and they were roaring overhead literally every few minutes.

They don't go over every day, true, by they do the majority of days because of the prevailing wind direction - planes take off and land into wind, and the prevail conditions in London are for westerly winds so the planes mostly fly into Heathrow over London heading east-west.

So we put up with it for a number of years, but have finally cracked!

I lived in Chiswisk for years and the noise of the wheels clunking down, especially first thing in the morning was a complete pain. I loved the place but couldn't stand the constant drone....and that was back in the days of concorde - now, that was noisy!

Some days you get a rest as Herhonesty points out but I don't think i could go back to it. Friends live in Eton and sometimes it looks as though the planes are literally scraping the top of their roofs. They don't care about it though....so it depends how much you can take.

it took me a year of waking up at 5.30 am wondering why it was quiet before i got used to it after we moved away.

but hasten to add it wouldnt stop me moving back to sw london. its a lovely area.

Thank you for the responses... that link is great HH!! Strange though in that the noise preferential routes don't look like they go over East Sheen / Mortlake / Barnes area (she says giving away vaguely where she is moving to...!) so does that mean that it is just landings that seem to be overhead in those areas? I'm feeling in a complete dilemma now as we've found a lovely house and we've accepted an offer on our flat and I knew the house was under a flight path but just hadn't thought about the early morning aspects. Or at least thought that you would get used to it. There is double glazing!! And we currently live in central London about 50m away from a blue route with screeching sirens every couple of hours which don't seem to wake us... We also get City Airport planes overhead but they are smaller than Heathrow planes, certainly no A380s landing at City!

I'm sure we'll go with the move as I'm desperate to get out of the City and be near a big park but it's just another thing to think about along with going back to work, leaving DS in nursery etc etc!!!

I lived in Hounslow for many years. You get used to it. The early and late planes never really bothered me. What annoyed me more was stopping the conversation every 45 seconds when sitting out in the garden! In that area the planes use the main roads as guides towards the airport, so they either went along Bath Rd, Staines Rd or the Great West Road. The flight patterns always changed at 3pm as well, so if you didn't get them in the morning, you got the second half of the day instead. However I am not sure if this is still the case. We only had coming into land over Hounslow, but they were pretty low. Could sometimes see faces at the window!

I live in Barnes. Hated the planes for the first year and didn't hink I'd be able to stay in the area but I amm now totally used to it, rarely get woken and most of the time couldn't even tell you whether the planes have been coming over us in the morning.

right on the heathrow flight path myself and it's fine. nosiy at first but i got used to it. they alternate the flightpaths so you don't get the same pattern all day every day. one day you'll get the flightpat early in the day then the next you get it later in the day but heathrow are wanting to stop this

I live literally 4 mins from Heathrow. Just off the Bath road . You get used to the noise its the area I cant stand LOL

I lived in H'smith/Shep's Bush for a bit and you noticed it to start with but then got used to it part of the London drone imho

BIL/SIL lived in Isleworth and I remember one (rather dull) BBQ in their garden where FIL just reeled off all the names of the airlines as the planes landed every 10 mins - you could all but see the people's faces looking out of the window as they came past and you had to stop talking for about a minute every 10 mins or so.

I'm near Stanstead now and can hear one droning in the background now but again you just get used to it.