Sir, I find it somewhat amusing to read the letters of complaint about aircraft noise from residents of South Oxfordshire who have chosen to live in a part of the country long designated on aviation charts as an “area of intense air activity”.

Not only are there many civilian airfields and air strips, as well as ‘London Oxford Airport’, on the doorstep, but very active RAF bases at Benson and Brize Norton, together with locally-based police and air ambulance units – all of which are long-established.

Moving to live in an area within the traffic zone of a fully-operational RAF base and then complaining about night flying and other training activity is particularly perverse considering Benson has been in active service for flying and flight training with the RAF since 1939!

Regarding recreational flying and aerobatics, I personally find the engine and propeller note from a light aircraft pulling some high-G manoeuvres for a few minutes far less annoying – and much shorter-lived – than the droning of two-stroke hedge cutters, strimmers, petrol lawn mowers and sundry power tools that also often seem to come out on a sunny afternoon, and keep going a lot longer.

Simon Newton
Wilding Road, Wallingford