Is there anywhere in Britain that isn't under a flight path?

Fire

I remember one forum member saying last year that in their area / garden there was no engine noise at all - the sound was of just birds singing

I am interested in finding a such a spot to visit. Most of the south of England seems ruled out. I would be interested in

- areas that have planes but you can't hear them

- areas that have planes you can't hear them at all at all (dots in the sky)

- you can't see or hear any planes

- you can't see or hear any planes, helicopters, trains or motorbikes

- any website that show the maps of regular international flight paths to spot empty spots. As the flight paths change and the Uk has so many airports I imagine there are not many such spots.

I did walk for some time in northern Spain and for days there was nothing in the sky but the sun, moon, stars and birds* - for days and days. It was amazing and delightful. No plane trails. Some kind of heaven.  Where I live now there is a plane going over every 35 seconds. Many thanks for your help and thoughts.

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*There were, no doubt, satellites and planets.

steephill

https://vimeo.com/110348926 from NATS shows UK flight paths. The video is 5 years old so things will only have gotten worse.

edhelka

We don't have any flight path directly above us. We can see big planes only occasionally northwest from us, high and on their way to the US, we are not able to hear them.

But we get some local traffic - there is a military airport not too far and they do some exercises around. We also have a small civil airport nearby and have some recreational traffic from there. And we can sometimes also hear Snowdonia mountain rescue helicopter. But 95% of the time it's quiet.

I think you would need to go south from us to get completely quiet. Somewhere around Barmouth, Tywyn, maybe south toward Aberystwyth or east to Bala.

pansyface

I went walking with my husband in Ethiopia some years ago. We had an interpreter and we met local people to guide us as we went along. There were  only two camels to carry the tents, the cooking equipment, the food and water.

No roads, no aeroplanes, no light pollution. So quiet you could hear a man call from half a mile away.

Marvellous.

a1154

Is that true? The 35 seconds, I mean? 
I can see planes but definitely we can’t hear them. 
My thoughts, Fire, is that there’s always something. For me here it’s the neighbours kennel dogs bark bark bark. I can hear the birds singing when they stop barking...if that happens! 

Lyn

We don’t hear planes, just trails in the sky.
we use to hear Concorde Breaking the sound barrier at 9pm every night, but that’s gone now.
We do have the odd military plane, they use Dartmoor for practice flying, I have known them to skim our roof, and it’s a bungalow, not had them for a few years now though, so nothing but bird song.
Of course it’s a different matter at night, Night Jars, owls, and squirrels and foxes screaming, so noisier at night than the day. 

Marlorena

Some parts of north Norfolk where I am see very few commercial jets as it's a military area.. I'm near Marham airport where the F-35's are …. lots of activity from them - very loud and at times too close for comfort... 

If you check out Flight Radar you can see where all the planes are at any given time..
https://www.flightradar24.com/51.33,-1.88/8

Fire

Thanks for your ideas. @a1154 - I am not very near an airport (north London) so it's not like Richmond or Surrey, but yes, about 35 seconds. They wake me up at 4.30am and I count the time between planes. From 11.30pm - 4.30am it's police helicopters chasing local gangs. It's true that there's always something, but my ears particularly hate engine frequencies. Not sure why that in particular. Deleted mufflers are all the rage and I feel like I'm going to vomit or pass out when they go close past. Something I just can't stomach. After a decade of fighting it in London I might just have to move house.

@Steephill's vid shows about the scale of it. Thanks for that SH. I feel ill looking at it, but good to the evidence of the craziness.

TinyGardenGIrl

We see planes now and then but we can't hear them at all. Thankfully we do hear lots of birdsong.
What we also hear is some youth riding a very loud quad bike around the neighborhood, a local mum round the back constantly swearing and shouting at her kids or loud music from that same house whilst the teens jump on trampolines.

Lyn

I get so annoyed about the amount of aircraft,  just one long flight pumps out as much pollution as yours or my house does in a year, and we are constantly told to cut down or don’t even have oil or solid fuel central heating, must change to electric cars, get charge very car tax if we don’t, whilst jet setters are flying around the world without a single thought.
Yours is bad Fire, that’s going on in cities all over the world, constantly.  

Hostafan1

None of above for us, apart from the very occasional dramatic flypast by RAF jets.