Maybe these quotes will help you:

and

In other words, the trend under the proposals will be for more aircraft to use the P-RNAV (Precision Radar Navigation) routes as they come in to land, thereby concentrating the aircraft along the red route, whereas they are manually routed in across the shaded area by the ATC at the moment.

Yes but the P-RNAV will never had a steady flow of aircraft all on the same heading and hight particulally given the frequency of flights. Planes willl be bobbing all over the sky and the champers swilling passengers will be up in arms.

If my earlier calculations are correct, then we would have a plane every five minutes for six hours a day (on average).

It's fairly hard to get an overview of the changes because there are so many maps, but I THINK that the reason they will not be routing the same proportion of arrival traffic over Dagenham is that they have routed the North-bound departure traffic over them instead (maps i5 and i9).

This may not be dire, but I as a principle, we should not condone a concentration of air traffic above any Londoner, a view not shared by our illustrious leaders

I'm not sure this is correct.

The P-RNAV specification that is planned for arrivals into London City is +/-1 nautical mile horizonatally, for 95% of arrivals, in practice these will be flown much closer to the horizontal track than this.

Wake turbulence is not limiting in this - the minimum permitted spacing varies between 2 and 4 mins depending on the aircraft type.

Driving in on the M40 on a Sunday night you will see a procession of jets on the same approach at these spacings.

Michael
I wonder if we are reading too much into these charts. Interestingly the map of the 'existing' approach paths appears to be wrong in so far as it shows the hold (the racetrack pattern) for City near Southend. In fact it is at Swanley, and it is because we are on a direct line from Swanley to a point about 5 miles short of the runway (where the planes line up for their final approach) that results in most City arrivals for runway 10 flying over us at the moment. I think it is important to remember that runway 10 is probably used for only about 30% of the time - most of the time they are landing to the west on runway 28 and we don't see or hear them at all.

My biggest concern about aircraft noise is the early morning arrivals of flights at Heathrow, the first of which are at about 0430 and can be annoying in the summer when the windows are open.

I don't see any likelihood of affecting the proposals in any way so apart from spreading a bit more knowledge of what is going on, I don't think the issue is worth worrying about.

BTW, if anyone is really interested, they can buy a receiver device to plug into their PC which turns it into a virtual radar picking up the transponder signals from all aircraft within line of site. This signal gives, amongst other things, the aircraft altitude, so it is possible to see exactly what height they are flying over your house. Cost ?379.95.

Some time ago I suggested you all chip in for a barrage balloon, to be tethered on Horniman Drive. It seemed like a more cost effective, not to say civil, option than working some contacts with cousins in Peshawar who could perhaps lay their hands on an unused Stinger missile, one careful previous mujahadin owner.

Perhaps it's time to organise the collection?

We could have a anti-aircraft gun in the museum.

As the flights are so low can we just stand on the top of the flats and throw stones at them, Roz may know a few yoofs who can help us out.

Apparently, and thankfully, their aim isn't very good though

There is always the old gun emplacement at the top of One Tree Hill to consider?

is it just me or are inbound flights into heathrow over forest hill/ honor oak park a permanent fixture now. we moved in about a year ago and I hardly ever heard the planes and the ones I could see were pretty high up. However, for the last couple of months, I hear them every morning, pretty loud and banking pretty low over the area?
Is this new... permanent?

I'm **** off as well. Flight paths used to be rotated so it was never the same people inconvenienced (unless you live near an airport of course). Every morning by 6.30 it starts.

Letter writing campaign alert....

Lived in FH for 7 years and hadnt noticed a significant change.

For those concerned about Heathrow Airport expansion there is a Public Meeting:

Living Under ?A Sky of Sound?
23rd Apri -7.30 pm
Recital Room, Blackheath Halls, 23 Lee Rd, SE3 9RQ
Speaker: John Stewart, Chair HACAN

John Stewart will outline the proposed changes and explore the ways we can influence key decision-makers in South East London and beyond.

The maps produced by the Department during its recent consultation on Heathrow expansion show that all aircraft landing over London will join their final landing path as far east as Woolwich and Bexley and then fly in two parallel paths to Heathrow.

? The northern flight path: Greenwich ? Peckham ? Camberwell - Vauxhall.

? The southern flight path: Blackheath ? Deptford ? Dulwich - Stockwell/Brixton

I understand these flightpaths are determined by the prevailing westerly winds which assist deceleration for landing and so the flightpaths do vary according to wind direction. There are definitely plane free mornings which would appear to back this up. But I am no aeronaut.

thought it was flights to heathrow over my house that made so much noise, but noticed this morning that they are smaller planes, (flying quite low) that fly west and then appear to take a right turn over east dulwich.... heading to city airport? so perhaps it is the increase in flights to city airport as well as the new landing pattern where all flights are streamed over SE London that I need to worry about.

I understand these flightpaths are determined by the prevailing westerly winds which assist deceleration etc etc

I did some research on this a few years ago. There is also a thread on this in the archives. As Vipes has said, generally due to winter weather systems its more common for planes to use the westerly preference ie fly from east to west over the Biggin Hill stack then over Forest Hill from the spring onwards. This is why we seem to notice it more around April time, and of course we all start opening our windows at this time of year so notice it even more. The extent to which individuals notice or are bothered about it varies a great deal. I noticed it more when I moved out of a (noisy) block of flats into a quieter house on a relatively quieter road. It has however definitely increased in the last few years, and our family and friends comment on it when they come to stay. Personally I am less affected by the City Airport flights which I see as no more disturbing than a passing car.

We clearly don't want to become Luddites but air traffic noise clearly is a problem thats going to increase for all Londoners in the coming years, even in the outlying eastern/southeastern suburbs, so we either need to start getting used to it or finding something that we can realistically do to effect change. Homes and businesses on the flight path nearer to Heathrow can claim allowances for additional sound insulation so this might be one thing to start demanding.

My flight circled over SE23 on the way to approach City from the west last evening. We were quite high up, but I could tell it was SE23 because the frightful illuminated signs of the 987 bookies were blazing away.

could you see the hoards of Big Issue sellers from up there as well?

They have hoards? Hoards of what? Big Issues, presumably...