Neighborhood Notes - Foxhall: 10 October 2001
It sure is good to see planes flying in and out of Reagan
National airport, but all the new ground rules about what planes fly, when, and
where could use refinement.
Planes have been restricted to seating
capacity of 156 or less, deliberately to restrict the Boeing 757 from flying in
here, since this is a plane that terrorists had trained upon. But the Boeing 757
is also a much more modern, fuel efficient design than older 727’s and 737’s
commonly used for shuttle flights. Once the area-wide TRACON traffic control
site becomes operational in 2003, modern planes with improved
communication/navigation tools will give broader control options.
Official announcements also stated
that sound restrictions had been lifted. Does this mean that noisier planes can
now fly – or simply that the route restrictions keeping planes to the center
of the Potomac have been lifted? The planes weren’t doing a very good job of
sticking to the river anyhow, but since the total number of airplanes is well
down from before, will the airlines now publicly commit to only using the
quieter planes within their fleet?
Talking about the routes, while we
understand a need for planes to fly directly toward the airport beacon so that
air traffic controllers could spot if they make any deviation, why just stick
with the present D.C. routes? Why not also consider using routes that come in
from Virginia on the east, or from Maryland on the west?
One route that everyone seems agreed upon is
landing / taking off to the south, since that is the best route to avoid federal
buildings. Why not adopt a rule that planes always use that approach when
weather is calm, and only use the northern approach when winds are unfavorable?
© Bob Andrew, Foxhall
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