COLUMN: What's louder? Russian helicopters or Destin's complaints?
People in Destin sure do complain a lot.
They complain about commoners walking on their beaches.
They complain about not being able to fish sharks to extinction.
Now they’re complaining about Russian helicopters.
A company called Vertol Systems operates a couple of Mil Mi-8s and an Mi-24 Hind gunship out of Destin Airport. Apparently, the choppers are noisy and Destin residents don’t like that.
They don’t like T-6s, either. After last week’s tragic crash, the sound of complaining grew louder than the T-6s themselves. They say the planes fly too low and over populated areas.
Truth is, they’ve been complaining about the T-6s long before last week’s crash, primarily about the noise. Which is really, really weird. You live in a small town with an airport smack dab in its middle — and you’re going to complain about noise?
When I hear that buzzy radial engine droning overhead and see a vick of T-6s headed east, I think of America’s Greatest Generation gearing up for toe-to-toe combat with the Luftwaffe and Tojo’s kamikazes. How lucky we are to have those living monuments to a seminal moment in history cruising the air corridor of our shores. It makes me want to cry.
What I try not to think of is some twitchy bottle blonde fussing because her beauty sleep was interrupted.
But then Destin has been fussing about aircraft noise since the days of the Wright brothers. They love having Britney and Travolta shop at Destin Commons, but hate it when Britney and Travolta fly in on their Lears. Hate to say it, Destin, but if you have the cake, you must sometimes take a bite.
I don’t know when the runway in Destin was built, but the airport’s first terminal and fuel facilities were put up in the early 1960s. That’s almost 50 years ago. It’s safe to assume the airport was there before today’s crop of complaining homeowners.
If I were buying a house and didn’t want to be disturbed by aircraft noise, I would not look anywhere near an airport bounded by water on two sides and private property on the other two.
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To read past opinions on the topic, click here.
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Solutions?
I have one. It’s extreme. It could make a lot of people unhappy.
Base the F-35 at the Destin Airport.
After Valparaiso spent more than $60,000 of taxpayers’ money for a committee, something they probably could have gotten by politely approaching Eglin’s base commander in the first place, they still have a perceived noise problem. Why not transfer the problem to a group of people who are already in gripe mode? It’s like credit consolidation: Put all your rotten eggs into a single basket.
Destin’s 5,000-foot runway would serve the F-35 on takeoff, maybe not so well on landing. But one model of the F-35 could easily operate out of Destin — the B model destined for the Marine Corps. The B model is a short-takeoff and vertical landing bird that could use a taxiway for operations. It would be murderously loud, but who could complain? The noise might be a warbird training for America’s next Greatest Generation or it might be John Travolta arriving for Happy Hour at AJ’s.
Stop griping, Destin. Jets, T-6s and choppers — American or Russian — typically fly out of airports. If you don’t want to hear the sound of freedom, or commerce …
… Move!
Daily News Online Editor Del Stone Jr. can be reached at 315-4433 or dstone@nwfdailynews.com
