An increase in noisy fly overs from flight training school planes has prompted Lismore resident Judith Forsyth to take action.

Judith has formed a Resident Action Group and created an online petition which calls for State, Federal and local Council representatives to make some regulatory and practical changes - including the re-designation of the Lismore airport runway direction.

“Changing the runway direction from south to north will take the flights out west, and not over the residential areas of Lismore,” Judith said.

Judith said she’s not alone in wanting to see a decrease in flight noise over her home in Girards Hill and she hopes the changes will mitigate the increasing number of flights and their associated noise pollution.

Impacts

“The noise from the training flights also impacts on residents in East and South Lismore,” she said.

“The training flights are supposed to fly within Lismore City Council’s guideline areas, called the ‘flying neighbourly zone’.

“But that area is too near to residential areas – and there are private planes that don’t know about the fly neighbourly zones.

“We also want to curtail the number of flight training schools permitted to work out of Lismore Airport.”

Why are flight numbers increasing?

Judith said the increase in small planes flying over Lismore became very noticeable last year – and it’s not the local flight school Northern Rivers Aerodrome Club (NRAC) that are the problem.

“A number of Gold Coast training schools are now utilising smaller regional airstrips for training flights,” Judith said.

“It’s partly because of Covid grounded planes that are parked up there.

“NRAC are conscious of what shouldn’t be doing, even though they fly noisy twin engine planes.

“Last year, Council put a stop to an old army plane that was doing low dangerous flying, but after that, I realised there were more planes in training doing circuit loops.”

Read more: Noise complaints put planes over Lismore in the spotlight

Aviation hub

Last year Lismore City Council signed an agreement with Airways Aviation to have a flying training hub at the Lismore airport.

Judith said that because of Covid keeping international students away, there hasn’t been much action from them – but she expects that to change in the future.

“There are clear guidelines about what should be adhered to with small planes flying near residential areas,” Judith said.

“Council has put out a document, but there’s no one on the ground responsible for that.

“Council needs to monitor it and be more active.”

Noise issue

Judith said she had already contacted a number of training schools and regulatory authorities about the flight path and noise issue.

“I’ve contacted NRAC, Air Gold Coast and Airways Aviation with photos of planes when they are in breach of the guidelines,” she said.

“We are not against flight training, but we do want to see Council commit to no more agreements with training schools.”

“We are also not targeting other flying operations – like the rescue helicopter, flying doctor and firefighting planes.

“Regional airline Rex is good too – they only fly in and out once a day.”

Regional problem

Judith said issues of increasing small plane noise is something that is impacting other regional areas across Australia.

“Flight training schools and noise issues have been causing problems in other cities like Kempsey,” Judith said.

“The Kempsey - save our airport group have entered into a coalition with Swan Hill, Mildura, and other towns in Victoria and South Australia, which are all experiencing similar problems.

“I’ve had people contact me saying that the increasing noise issue impacts on their mental health and lifestyle.

“The sky does not just belong to us – we need to see national changes with regulations and monitoring.

“We also need to see some community consultation to take place.”

If you would like more information about Judith and the petition, visit https://www.change.org/p/lismore-city-council-reduce-aircraft-noise-over-lismore-and-surrounding-areas?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=df90c3c0-00e7-11e5-98d1-43a694a83d95

The petition

"There has been a significant increase in noise disturbance over the Greater Lismore Region due to the many flight training schools operating in our locality. 

The noise is generated by a variety of small fixed wing craft that often fly repeated circuits over residential areas.

Currently there are at least 8 training schools along with 2 areo clubs and numerous private owners using Lismore and Casino runways. Many residents are expressing increased stress related to the noise which is now very frequent and disturbing.

As there are no regulations available to help mitigate this noise disturbance we need to take action at our local level to reduce this intrusion.

We make clear here that we are not referring to community service flights such as REX Regional, flight rescue, firefighting, or medical flight services.

We are not only concerned about the current level of noise pollution but also what the future may hold for local residents if there is expansion of these flights, for example the addition of TAFE flight courses.

To date actions taken by Council have not been sufficiently effective in mitigating this noise issue. If you are affected by this issue your signature to this petition will help to reduce the problem."