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I just finished listening to the podcast.

Yes, I agree that people buying homes near airports are dumb for complaints about noise, but you raise a good point about how we as pilots need to work with people to solve this age aold dilemma.

Something I never understood is why the plane needs to be so damn loud in the first place?!

I remember adjusting my headset on a flight and when I removed the headset for a second, I could not believe how loud the cockpit could be in a C172.

We have state of the art performance, GPS navigation, live updated weather and glass cockpits... why isn't the technology to lower the prop noise available yet?

How quiet would an electric plane be?

From my understanding, the engine and it's inner workings contribute a good amount to the noise. How much of what we hear is caused by the prop tips going supersonic? The constant breaking of the speed of sound becomes a limitation in terms of decibels.

Would using larger slower props be a solution?

This is a good topic because it starts getting into the real sustainability of the industry.

engines with geared props are much much quieter. A few months ago we had some people camping at the airport for the American Barnstormers tour, and I had an early morning flight. When I took off I passed within 1000 feet straightline from their tent at full power, and they never woke up.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe that I will go flying.

I agree that we as pilots have a responsibility to be as kind to the neighbors as possible. Yes, in many cases we were there first, but as has been mentioned, we are far outnumbered.

Having said that, I am not in favor of most GA airplanes doing what we in the airline business call "Reduced Thrust" takeoffs.

I think the objective is to create as little a noise footprint as possible. To do that, we need to keep as much of the noise concentrated on airport property as possible.

What that means to me, is climbing as fast as possible while still on or over airport property. Climb at best angle and full power until at the airport boundary, THEN pull the power back and climb at best rate.

If you do a reduced thrust takeoff, you are climbing slower and will cross over the affected neighborhoods at a lower altitude than if you use max thrust. And I think it is a wash as far as noise goes. Maybe it makes more noise in the long run.

Not to mention the safety factor of being at a higher altitude closer to the runway in the event of an emergency of some sort.