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The initial remedy is to ask the operators to choose a different flight path. If that doesn't work, and Gwen says she tried that to no avail, and I were significantly affected, then yes, I'd get pretty fed up. But I've known people buy a house at the end of a runway and then complain about aeroplane noise.....

I live near the airstrip and I hear the planes taking off and landing. I have no right to complain as the airstrip was here first. Now if they materially changed the way they operate, like introducing night flights or allowing business jets, then perhaps I would have grounds for complaint. But till then.....

DO NOT GIVE HIM THE LAST WORD, GwenA !

Ignoring the personal insult, which seems to come out of your mouth every time you open it, there are often people who complain "out of principle" when they themselves are not directly affected at all. In all countries. But perhaps that's a bit subtle for you.

Read the post, then respond. Are you sure YOU can read ?

I WILL NOT. Unless he plays the na, na, na, na, na game. But, truth be told. I don't mind living, probably, somewhere near the middle of the runway. We like the planes, they are our clocks. Dave is a pilot, and I have lived with planes near me all my life. We owned a lovely Piper Turoarow.
My father built rocket engines at Bell Aircraft in Niagara Falls, NY, when I was kid (not my brother). They chained them down in the parking lot and blew them off. Great thundering beasts. More about that another time, but he then went to NASA, and I grew up with that..not my brother.
These ultra lites sound like chain saws. They are dangerous to their patrons...look up the crash records of ultralites, please.
They offer something to our tourists, but I hope nobody dies. One of our friends from aquafit watched personally as a tourist died in an ultralite. I'll give the name, if necessary, but it won't be a problem.
THIS ISN'T A GOOD TOURIST VENUE. IT ISN'T FRIENDLY TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE NOISE, AND IT ISN'T GOOD FOR THE LOCAL BIRDS AND WILDLIFE.




But,

So is it the availability of these things for tourist jaunts, the noise they make, or safety concerns which are the bigger concern to you? Separate issues, all perfectly valid, but requiring different solutions.

Did you enjoy seeing the various aerial videos that have been taken of Belize and promulgated over the past year or two? I have two in mind - the one made by Astrum Helicopters and the official BTB one. Do you object to those being made, or would you have objected if you had been under the flightpath? Do you object to the paid tourist flights that Astrum advertise? How about the aerial photos of Ambergris Caye taken by Chris at Pelican Properties?

What is the difference between people watching images taken by others and seeing those scenes for themselves? Is it just a question of the volume of flights, or is it something deeper rooted?

Peter, so you played the na, na, na, na, na card.
Did you realize some of the images produced interfered with wildilife. I guess not.
Ambergris Caye overflights won't bother any primates.

haaaaaa!

No you're right, I didn't. I can imagine that they may not have been very happy when the helicopter passed overhead, but do you have knowledge that it went beyond that? And do you therefore think that those videos shouldn't have been made and/or those tourism flights shouldn't be offered? GoB seems to think they're a good idea.

I don't know about the na, na, na, na, na card. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of your undeniably considerable objection to these microlights. You've offered several different reasons so far.

On safety, do you have any recent statistics on accidents with microlights in commercial operation? When they were new and only in private use there were lots of accidents, just as there were with hanggliders and other innovative devices (can't think of a better word), but I thought they had matured so that they are capable of very safe operation.

You say AC overflights won't bother primates. You're bothered, aren't you? But in any case, why single out primates? Surely birds and all mammals - all animals, in fact - are just as worthy of our protection, if they are materially affected?

Peter, to deal with the last issue, more messing with you. We are the primates and I was just being sarcastic.
The birds and other species more sensitive are definately in our concerns. You might have missed that there was a big time dis of Beautiful Belize, if I have it right. A book of photos of over views of animal(mostly on the mainland) taken by the same ultralites on the Island. It became a big "dislike" on facebook from a lot of people that discovered that these photos were made by the ultralites and disturbed the animals.
Safety wise, it is a no brainer. Even though we don't subscribe to it now, you can probably on-line, AOPA, the magazine of Private Pilots, has every flight disaster, every month, and you can find out the truth. It is definative...never fly in an ultralite and never go up in a balloon. The stats are there.