JOY!!!

Joy of Joy's...the Naval Air Station is practicing their Carrier Landings today. For those of you who have never been so blessed, The EA6-B's are jets that land on air craft carriers, and in order to do this they need to practice on a non-moving deck. They have a carrier deck replicated on a landing strip and they come in low and loud and hit the deck where the cables are, and then hit the throttle and pull up. THe key is to touch tires breifly on the runway, and then get airborne again. This teaches new pilots to safely land on the ship. Unfortunately, I live Right at the end of said runway. so when they come in from the North, I get the loud throttle noise which scares the hell out of the cats, as the planes go roaring right over the roof. When they come in from the South, it is worse, because they are lining up with the runway lights, and trying to get their speed down to a speed that will allow a safe "trap". This becomes a very long low loud roar, roar, roar, as they adjust their whatevers.

I knew the Outlying Field was here when I bought the house. So I can't complain, but it is irritating. THere is a move afoot to get rid of the base, but I don't think people realize that it could get MUCH worse if the jets go away. There would be a perfectly good Air port just sitting there. It could easily be an annex to SEA-TAC, and get the cargo jets away from the Seattle area. UGH!!! The economy of the Island would in all likely hood collapse for a while.

So while I grumble about the noise, I live with it. It provided me a secure living for 37 years, and my father one also for 50+ years. The majority of the people that live in my development are retired Military. We need the base, and it's services. We need the economy that the base provides. We need quiet jets. ah well. It isn't for long. They practice for about 2 hours a day, and then it is quiet...and Sadie can pee.