Dublin Airport New Runway/Infrastructure.

We've been living in Ashbourne for over 30 years, and I've been aware of exactly what's going on for most of that time, and I've been more than involved with aviation in various ways.

Departures off the southern runway were not an issue most of the time, and yes, it was a lot worse when there were 737-200's, BAC 1-11's and MD series aircraft operating, but a fair percentage of them turned left on departure, or went straight out for a while before turning back on easterly headings

What's changed things is that the departures off 28R are effectively a lot closer to Ashbourne and Ratoath at the point of rotation, so they don't have the same air distance to achieve the same height as the departures off 28L, and because they're turning, that reduces the climb performance more, so what's happening now is that a significant number of the wide body flights are coming over Ashbourne/Ratoath considerbly lower and slower than they used to, and the other factor that's influenced things is that there are a lot more wide body aircraft now, due to the middle east flights, Turkish are operating 330's on some days, and there's a lot more wide body aircraft operating on the Atlantic now, and cargo aircraft operating at night are larger than they used to be.

Because of the way they're being routed now, they are a lot lower and slower than they used to be before 28R was opened, we're regularly seeing 330's at not much more than 4000 Ft, and they're only just getting into the acceleration phase because they've done more than one turn, they're often effectively flying a S turn out towards Oldtown, and then back on to a more North Westerly heading, or even Northerly, depending on where their trans atlantic track entry point is.

Departures off 28R are about a mile further north than the equivalent departure off 28L, so the easterly departures are closer, slower and lower as they're going out over Ashbourne and Ratoath, and like it or not, this area is the second largest urban area in Meath after Navan, we're not talking a little tiny village here, but from a local authority aspect, Fingal CC neither knows or cares about Ashbourne and it's hinterland, we saw that very clearly a few years ago when they were proposing building a super dump within a mile of Ashbourne, but that plan had to be abandoned because of the proximity of the low level corridor in and out of the airport, which is heavily used by smaller aircraft and helicopters, there was too high a risk of bird strikes, and I wonder if there are people in Fingal CC who's not forgiven this area for opposing their plans, their waste disposal problems have not gone away like they would have if they'd got their super dump literally on our doorstep.

i don't have a Db meter to be able to get definitive noise levels, but we are most definitely more aware of departures since 28R opened, and we're aware of them for longer than we used to be, but I'm not going to go as far as to say that it's intrusive. Closer to the airport, noise will be intrusive, not in the way it used to be when the older aircraft were operating, but it would be fair to say that DAA/IAA have been less than open and up front about what's happened, and the departure routes are not what they implied when things like planning were being dealt with.

The problem with left turns off 28L is not that it could cause issues with Baldonnel and Weston, under normal circumstances, it wouldn't, but where things get complicated is if a departing aircraft has an engine failure, as that impacts the climb and speed performance, and the proximity of the Wicklow hills is also a factor in working out those sorts of issues, and if an aircraft does have an engine out issue on departure, the last thing they then need is a TCAS alert as a result of conflcting with other traffic while they're already working hard to keep everything operating in non normal circumstances, the last thing they need is to be told to climb to resolve a TCAS alert, when they may already be operating at the maximum capability of the airframe as a result of the other issues they're dealing with. Real engine failures don't happen very often, but when they do, that tends to be significant, partly because the crew of the aircraft are not used to dealing with it, and a failure in the sim is NOT the same as a real failure, and the last thing they need is additional complications as a result of terrain or conflicting traffic.

As for how this will all play out, I'm not going to speculate on that, this country has a track record of being very good at getting it wrong, and what has to be recognised is that as an island, we need airports, unless someone is going to find billions of Euro to build a tunnel across to the UK, and if that were to happen, the problem then will be that the UK is proving itself unable to deliver on the infrastructure that would be needed to make a tunnel viable. Then, there's the whole issue of the decision by the UK to turn it's back on the EU, and the problems with that are far from resolved, and are only going to get worse over time.

DAA/IAA and national government are all going to have to be involved with resolving the issues that are evident with the airport, but the chances of an acceptable solution are not good, given that most politicians don't have any long term views, they are only interested in projects that will deliver votes at the next election, so there's no such thing as long term solutions any more, and Dublin Airport desperately needs some long term thinking and planning, but where that's going to come from is anybody's guess.