[sammyglick]

sometimes you can't necessarily see what's flying, especially with cloud cover, but you sure can hear it. Also, the average person who isn't heavily into aviation really can't id planes from the ground. Would require some education, knowledge and background that my friend doesn't have and I don't either. And basically it probably doesn't matter whether it's Nellis or McCarran...they're large planes which means they aren't coming from the N. Vegas airport. Both facilities are undoubtedly contributing to the noise at different times, weather conditions, etc. Dumb question: why can't residents find out directly from these facilities precisely what is flying on a particular day? For instance, call them, give them the zip code and say, "what was flying here that day?"

The N. Vegas airport has a website that shows takeoffs and departures, (well, at least some of them I guess), and they can be very noisy and amazingly annoying. But this other stuff, these larger planes, they are the ones that so far have created the bulk of the larger noise problems. I don't believe this stuff is landing or taking off from NLV airport. I believe it's coming from either Nellis or McCarran, which is a bummer considering no such noise was heard prior to purchase of the home during the summer months which leads me to surmise that perhaps the runways or flight paths were not in use during the hot months and now that winter is here, the scenario has changed. (based on some of your comments about winter flight patterns). Would love to just be able to look up there at a glance and know immediately what's what but unfortunately it's beyond my background to do so.

[ChrisKLAS]

Take a picture and post it on here (it won't be cloudy forever, and even so, the ceiling outside of rain showers during the recent weather has been quite high). I'll be happy to tell you exactly what you're looking at.

That said, up around North Vegas airport, it's very unlikely you'd be having overflights of planes out of McCarran. True, northbound departures are more common in the winter, but the westbound aircraft would typically turn in quite a bit tighter soon after takeoff than the location you mention. That, and I don't know if your friend has heard any overflights the past few days, but with the strong southwest flow, LAS has been in "normal" config (departing 25R [west] and 19R/L [south]). I've only seen them going off the 1's once in the past couple of weeks, actually.

Dumb question: why can't residents find out directly from these facilities precisely what is flying on a particular day? For instance, call them, give them the zip code and say, "what was flying here that day?"

You don't think the people working at either Nellis or LAS have better things to do?

There are over 2000 operations (takeoffs, landings) at McCarran every day. Nellis, as a military installation, doesn't make their numbers public, but it's likely in the mid-hundreds.

Not possible.

[jamies]

Interesting thread - would anybody happen to have a diagram of where the flight paths generally go?

[sammyglick]

Originally Posted by ChrisKLAS

Take a picture and post it on here (it won't be cloudy forever, and even so, the ceiling outside of rain showers during the recent weather has been quite high). I'll be happy to tell you exactly what you're looking at.

That said, up around North Vegas airport, it's very unlikely you'd be having overflights of planes out of McCarran. True, northbound departures are more common in the winter, but the westbound aircraft would typically turn in quite a bit tighter soon after takeoff than the location you mention. That, and I don't know if your friend has heard any overflights the past few days, but with the strong southwest flow, LAS has been in "normal" config (departing 25R [west] and 19R/L [south]). I've only seen them going off the 1's once in the past couple of weeks, actually.

You don't think the people working at either Nellis or LAS have better things to do?

There are over 2000 operations (takeoffs, landings) at McCarran every day. Nellis, as a military installation, doesn't make their numbers public, but it's likely in the mid-hundreds.

Not possible.

Taking a photo would be possible I suppose, but from my own personal experience, I hear the plane but don't see it. Sometimes I see it but often I don't. I think the more interesting and dramatic thing would be to post a .wav file of the noise experienced at the location and perhaps someone could identify what type of aircraft it sounds like? It would certainly verify the noise intensity at the location instead of just taking my word for it or someone else's. Sorry about the dumb question (lol)...but I do feel the public should have some rights and ability to know what is affecting their daily life in their own homes by finding out what is in the air above them. With all the technology we have today and ability to find out and track just about anything from anywhere, I find it hard to believe it isn't possible to give the public a way to know what's up there.

[sammyglick]

so as a p.s. to this, since you don't think the noise is coming from McCarran, I presume you are of the opinion it is indeed from Nellis?

[akrowdybuck]

I live in southern highlands and I really hope that all this noise is somehow related to the humidity....the last two or three day/nights have been very loud. I am worried that perhaps the new runways may be in use and have a different flight path than what was present in the past. I hear a plane every 30 seconds!!!

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by akrowdybuck

I live in southern highlands and I really hope that all this noise is somehow related to the humidity....the last two or three day/nights have been very loud. I am worried that perhaps the new runways may be in use and have a different flight path than what was present in the past. I hear a plane every 30 seconds!!!

Nothing has changed. Southern Highlands is at the departure end of the north south runways. Normally the airport runs mostly east west. But if environmental conditions require north south...you are it.

One adjusts... and it will only be part of the time.

[akrowdybuck]

Thanks for the response...you are giving me hope that this is temporary (or I adjust)! I have been iving out here for a year and do not remember the noise being anything like this.

[jfkIII]

Originally Posted by akrowdybuck

Thanks for the response...you are giving me hope that this is temporary (or I adjust)! I have been iving out here for a year and do not remember the noise being anything like this.

just wait until all the tourists decide to come back...in droves!

[tom_c]

try FlightAware > Mc Carran Intl Airport (Las Vegas, NV) [KLAS/LAS] Flight Tracker it will show you the flight activity at LAS. You can get the number of flights and information on any flight on a IFR flight plan from there. An interesting note - any flight designated in red is a lifeguard (air ambulance) flight.