Day 99: Constant Plane Noise

2026-05-16

Hello! This article is written kinda like a vlogbrothers video: with a half-hearted attempt at pretending this is a journal meant for an audience of one specific person.

I was sent a dare to take a picture of a plane. Not easy, given that the clouds were thick and I was under tree cover.

(Okay, I might have specifically asked for this photo challenge. Look, I was on a long walk and got bored! And I can't disappoint a plane nerd.)

I was doubtful that I could clearly spot a plane before coming home, and they told me that a bird (or Superman) would do instead. Well, I got this. Immediately after taking this photo, I sent a message asking them to ID this plane. Apparently, it might be a Hawker 800XP2, of which I could not find decent underside photos. Flightradar24 for the win.

Oh, and I cropped this photo square, because there's really only one subject to care about.

Hey so... I think I succeeded at the challenge. Where's my prize? I'll come pick it up tomorrow.

Anyway, we think this plane was on its way to the nearby airport, and since I live under the flight path of this airport, I hear constant plane noise all the time. This was the subject of a high school presentation that I made with a few classmates regarding airport noise pollution.

The issues relating to noise pollution are obvious: stress and tension, especially at night. There's no easy solution, though — they've already tried most of our ideas within a reasonable budget. I invited Dmitri Popov (aviation photographer and fellow blogger) to our presentation virtually, and he had technology-based ideas inspired by the active noise cancellation of modern headphones and earbuds.

Finally, a drone light show. 22,580 drones lit up the night sky in Hefei, China, and it looks so pretty, with three-dimensional displays that must have been a nightmare to test. I don't think the drones filming the light show count as part of that big number, but the filming and capture of this show is impressive in itself.

Cheers,
David