mples of aircraft noise in Malaysian national parks
On Fri, 2010-04-02 at 12:48 +1100, Paul Jacobson wrote:
>
> I was just wondering if anyone had used en-route charts (see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En-route_chart ) as a location planning
> tool? A combination of high and low charts seem like they might be
> useful in identifying areas with lower likelihood of air traffic, as
> I'm often disappointed after switching on the recorder only to
> discover an otherwise reasonable location is right beneath a busy
> early morning commuter flight path.
I think that this idea has value, but also has limitations. For the UK,
aeronautical charts show where controlled airspace is (airlanes, and
controlled areas around airports), and will certainly provide clues as
to where intense aerial activity might be.
At best though it is only going to be a guide. For example, where I
usually fly from, a farm strip in Hampshire, there is an airlane from
3,500' directly above the strip. I cannot remember ever hearing
commercial jets out of Heathrow there: just business jets from
Farnborough, heavy military helicopters and private light aircraft.
So if you were using aeronautical charts for planning a recording trip,
you might avoid a location that is actually OK. I think they are worth
buying as an extra source of information, but definitely cannot be used
as the sole method of deciding whether or not you will have problems
with aircraft noise in any particular location.
Intrigued by your question, I made a point recently on my trip to
Malaysia of finding an aeronautical chart there, to see if there was any
correlation between airlanes and aircraft noise I was hearing (maps in
Malaysia are a bit of a problem - separate story). When I finally did
manage to get sight of one, it was clear that there they do not have
designated airlanes in the way that we have in the UK, just controlled
airspace around airports in the usual way. So the value of the chart
here was simply to show where the airports were, and you needed to
supplement that information with knowledge of the routes generally taken
from those airports.
In Taman Negara the air traffic was generally high up and audible
probably anywhere in the park (I only went within a few km of the main
tourist centre, so cannot be sure of this). Possibly commercial jets
en-route to China, e.g.:
http://soundcloud.com/user2340027/aircraft-noise-bumbun-kubang-taman-negara
In Endau-Rompin the air traffic was flying at much lower altitudes, and
was mostly propellor-driven smaller aircraft, presumably the regular
traffic between Kuala-Lumpur and Sabah/Sarawak. These flights were loud
and objectionable if you were directly under them (the following example
was recorded after an hour's boat ride, followed by a 7 km trek along a
leech-infested trail with several river crossings - not really what I
was expecting :-s):
http://soundcloud.com/user2340027/aircraft-noise-kuala-marong-endau-rompin
However a few kilometres away from this place you could not hear the
aircraft at all, e.g.:
http://soundcloud.com/user2340027/dawn-chorus-pantai-burung-april-2010
Military aircraft are a separate problem. Here in the UK the charts do
show areas that have been designated for military flight training
(mostly offshore), but you will also find them, for example, doing
low-level training on a regular basis in the valleys of Snowdonia.
Generally I don't think that aeronautical charts are helpful to indicate
where you might encounter military aircraft.
Richard
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