Forum Topic

Planes taking off over Acton

I've noticed over the last few weeks that planes are flying over Acton much lower than they ever used to. They seem to always be ascending, obviously haven taken off from Heathrow.Has anybody else noticed the change? Can anybody shed any light on what is going on? I haven't heard anything of changes to flight paths.I can hear them going over every few minutes, and to my knowledge it has never been this bad before.

Chris Petrie ● 3754d2 Comments

Thanks for the information Richard and for the link. Good to know.

Chris Petrie ● 3752d

I'm not aware of any change this year to the standard flight paths.  Over the last few weeks, there have been many days of easterly winds and therefore easterly operations at Heathrow, when planes take off towards London, following one of the routes illustrated at http://www.heathrow.com/file_source/HeathrowNoise/Static/Easterly_operations_NPRs.pdfThe route that heads north-east passes over Acton, as it has done for years. That route is used on about 30% of an average year.  For the other 70% of the year, the airport is on westerly operations, and Acton has less aircraft noise.

Richard Jennings ● 3754d