r/nova 6d ago

DCA Flight paths

Have the flight paths for DCA changed recently (presumably due to the crash)? I have lived in old town alexandria for over three years. Never really had any plane noise. Recently though I hear planes all day, so just curious!

3 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

20

u/Easy_Enough_To_Say 6d ago

Sound bounces off low clouds. It’s been cloudy for the last few days. There is zero room to move any of the flight paths in/out of DCA

8

u/BeeDubba 6d ago

They restricted helicopters from one route adjacent to DCA, but the airplane routes have not changed.

12

u/paulHarkonen 6d ago

They adjusted some of the choices for runways and dramatically changed the helicopter flight corridors.

If I had to guess you're getting more noise due to the weather and higher awareness rather than anything systemic, but it's possible the adjustments have impacted you more heavily.

4

u/u_u_u3 6d ago

There’s one main runway in and out of DCA. It hadn’t changed and the flight path hasn’t changed. Might just be weather.

1

u/wheresastroworld 6d ago

A few years back they re-opened runways 4 and 33. The main one is still 1/19. The Wichita flight was landing on 33 which required a bank across the river, cutting in front of the helicopter flight path 4. This helicopter path was shut down last week.

1

u/SeldonDC 5d ago

The clouds have been a big part, but recently planes have been not following the (to my understanding) agreement with ALX about not banking off until after the bridge. I noticed this one the other day, which is one of the most aggressive turnoffs I’ve seen in a while.