Gatwick Airport Arrivals Review: Perception of Aircraft Height and Noise (Imm-15) Main author: Gianluca Memoli (University of Sussex) Key contributions from: Giles Hamilton-Fletcher (University of Sussex) Federigo Ceraudo (University of Sussex) Laimonas Ratkevicius (Environmental Resources Management, data in Chapter 8) Matt Brookes (Helios, data in Chapter 9) Acknowledgements This report responds to recommendation Imm-15 of the Gatwick Independent Arrival Review. This study was run by an independent team of researchers from the University of Sussex, but its costs were covered by Gatwick Airport Ltd., which also deployed four noise measuring units in the areas covered by the social surveys. The authors would like to thank the steering committee – Steve Mitchell (Environmental Resources Management), Colin Grimwood (CJG Environmental Management), Vicki Hughes (Gatwick Airport Ltd), Graham Lake (Noise Management Board), Andy Sinclair (Gatwick Airport Ltd), Brendan Sheil (Gatwick Airport Ltd), Matt Brookes (Helios) – for the support received during the study. This study would not have been possible without the response of the people in the selected communities. They have spent their time answering our questions, plane-spotting and sharing their opinions with us, hoping that this additional information will facilitate discussions with their local airport. Our sincerest thanks go to all participants. Published by: University of Sussex, Brighton, 1/3/2018 ISBN: 978-0-9957862-3-3 Cover image purchased from i-Stock Photo on 28/02/2018. References This study uses the numerical style for references (see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/skillshub/?id=381). This means that citations appear as [number] in the main text: the numbering refers to a list at the end of the document (section 13) Perception of Aircraft Height and Noise Contents Contents Glossary ................................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Executive summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 2 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 About the team ....................................................................................................................... 6 3 Background ..................................................................................................................................... 7 3.1 Gatwick Outline ....................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Community concerns .............................................................................................................. 7 3.2.1 Presence of “whining noise” ........................................................................................... 7 3.2.2 Joining point change (2013) ............................................................................................ 8 3.3 Introducing Height .................................................................................................................. 9 3.4 Community reports of plane height ...................................................................................... 10 3.5 Overflights ............................................................................................................................. 10 3.6 Seasonal effects: summer 2017 ............................................................................................ 12 3.7 Noise and annoyance ............................................................................................................ 13 3.7.1 Measuring noise ............................................................................................................ 13 3.7.2 Measuring annoyance ................................................................................................... 15 3.8 Academic Research Context ................................................................................................. 16 3.8.1 The Survey of Noise Attitudes (2017) ........................................................................... 18 3.8.2 The ICBEN conference (2017) ....................................................................................... 19 3.8.3 Current study ................................................................................................................ 23 4 Survey design and procedure ....................................................................................................... 24 4.1 Study design .......................................................................................................................... 24 4.2 From top level questions to questionnaire design ............................................................... 25 4.3 Site selection ......................................................................................................................... 28 4.4 Postal survey ......................................................................................................................... 28 4.4.1 Sample selection and survey preparation .................................................................... 30 4.4.2 Instructions in the accompanying letter ....................................................................... 30 4.4.3 Ethics ............................................................................................................................. 31 4.4.4 General questions ......................................................................................................... 31 4.4.5 Questions specific to this study .................................................................................... 33 4.5 Field survey ........................................................................................................................... 37 4.5.1 Questionnaire layout .................................................................................................... 39 4.6 Survey by appointments ....................................................................................................... 40 5 Results of the postal survey .......................................................................................................... 41 5.1 Introductory questions ......................................................................................................... 41 i Perception of Aircraft Height and Noise Contents 5.2 Part A: Yourself ..................................................................................................................... 42 5.3 Part B: Your circumstances ................................................................................................... 43 5.4 Part C: height and size ........................................................................................................... 48 5.4.1 Numerical assessment of height ................................................................................... 48 5.4.2 Overflying ...................................................................................................................... 50 5.4.3 Perceived changes......................................................................................................... 51 5.4.4 Noticing planes .............................................................................................................. 53 5.5 Part D: annoyance and sensitivity ......................................................................................... 56 5.6 Open feedback ...................................................................................................................... 62 6 Results of the field study............................................................................................................... 67 6.1 Setting the scene ................................................................................................................... 68 6.1.1 Weather ........................................................................................................................ 69 6.2 Yourself (Q12-14) .................................................................................................................. 70 6.3 Definition of overflight .......................................................................................................... 71 6.4 Thinking about today (Q5-Q7) .............................................................................................. 73 6.5 Noticing planes (Q8-Q11) ...................................................................................................... 77 6.6 Annoyance, sensitivity and control (Q15-Q18) ..................................................................... 81 7 Single-plane observations ............................................................................................................. 85 7.1 General results ...................................................................................................................... 86 7.2 Perceived size and height ..................................................................................................... 89 7.3 Self-reported annoyance ...................................................................................................... 95 7.3.1 The “average” plane.....................................................................................................