I am well aware of the problem in the Atlanta area. For the last 30 years flying sites have been harder and harder to find and subsequently harder to keep. As soon as a club makes a deal for a flying site the developers are hot on their heels and put a subdivision in right next door. It is not just model airplanes, these folks will move in next to an airport and complain about the noise of the planes. They will move in next to a fuel farm and complain that the tanks are a fire hazard. The airport and the fuel farms were there first and the residents and were well aware of their presence when they bought the property but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. The planes have to throttle back on takeoff and maneuver to keep from flying over the populated areas. It would serve them right if a jet would do a stall spin right in the middle of their neighborhood.

These folks will not complain about their neighbors running their lawn mowers, leaf blowers or chain saws right next door but will whine about some models generating less than 100 db a half a mile away. If I complain about some dog barking all night or the neighborhood teenagers parking in the cul-de-sac and playing their car radios so loud that I can hear them from two blocks away, nobody cares about that. There just doesn’t seem to be any logic to it.

Oh, and if you think that the large four stroke engines are quite, just dig out your db meter and measure them sometime. The large displacement engines move more air with each revolution and will consequently read higher on the meter. However, the frequency is lower than a typical two stroke and is not as objectionable. Two strokes turning 15-20K are more annoying but will read lower on the meter. I know that I an going to get flamed about above statement and they will say that a db meter measures air pressure not air volume but I will suggest that they get a meter and measure every engine in their club before they comment. I did!