O'HARE — Starting Sunday, residents all over the Northwest Side will spend a week hearing hundreds of flights whoosh over their heads — followed by seven days of quiet.
That on-again-off-again pattern defines the second round of the city's Fly Quiet Runway Rotation test, a three-month program that aims to spread the burden of overnight jet noise equally among neighborhoods and suburbs surrounding O'Hare Airport.
Unlike last year's rotation program, which ran continuously for six months from July to December, the test approved last month begins Sunday and ends on July 22. The full schedule is posted online.
The program will likely "dovetail" into a third test, drawn up to exclude a runway that's marked for closure in 2018, according to Aaron Frame, a deputy commissioner for the city's Department of Aviation.
Officials unveiled possible runway configurations for the third test, which would run from July to October this year, at a Tuesday committee meeting of the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission. The absence of the diagonal runway would likely send a higher proportion of flights over city neighborhoods.
The full commission is scheduled to vote in June over whether to green-light a third test.
Federal law caps runway rotation tests at six months, unless they're born of an intensive environmental impact study, Frame said. After the third test expires in October, aviation officials would spend the winter researching a longer-term rotation plan that could go into effect in spring 2018 and last until a new east-west runway comes online in fall 2020, he said.
During Tuesday's meeting, Al Rapp, a leader of the anti-noise Fair Allocation in Runways coalition, called the new runways brought on through the 15-year O'Hare Modernization Program "unsustainable in the long term."
"We'll have to think about capping overnight flights, or possibly moving operations to other regional airports," Rapp said.
About 100 flights take off and land at the airport between 11 p.m.-7 a.m. every night, when the rotation program will be in effect.
City residents filed almost 127,000 jet noise complaints with the city between July and December last year, while the rotation plan was in effect — about an 11 percent drop compared to the previous six months, according to data released by the commission. The number of people filing complaints, meanwhile, fell by about 15 percent.
During last year's test, pilots used their designated takeoff or landing path about half the time, officials said. Another 19 percent of flights followed a "secondary" path, offered so pilots can land safely against the wind during storms. All other times, pilots chose to forego both suggested patterns.
The below maps show both the primary and secondary runway patterns planned for each week of this year's rotation test.
During the week starting Sunday, departing flights will swoop over neighborhoods all around the city's Northwest Side. A secondary pattern will send arriving flights along the same paths:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of May 7, no flights will be directed over city neighborhoods. But during last year's test, rough weather led pilots to forego their suggested runways about 30 percent of the time, and they'll have the same option this year:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of May 14, departing flights will swoop over neighborhoods all around the city's Northwest Side. A secondary pattern will send arriving flights along the same paths:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of May 21, a secondary pattern will send some departing flights over neighborhoods including Portage Park, Belmont Cragin and Logan Square. But most will be directed to avoid city neighborhoods altogether:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of May 28, departing flights will swoop over neighborhoods all around the city's Northwest Side. A secondary pattern will send arriving flights along the same paths:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of June 4, no flights will be directed over city neighborhoods. But during last year's test, rough weather led pilots to forego their suggested runways about 30 percent of the time, and they'll have the same option this year:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of June 11, arriving flights will swoop over neighborhoods all around the city's Northwest Side. A secondary pattern will send departing flights along the same paths:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of June 18, some departing flights will be sent over neighborhoods including Portage Park, Belmont Cragin and Logan Square. But most will be directed to avoid city neighborhoods altogether:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of June 25, arriving flights will swoop over neighborhoods all around the city's Northwest Side. A secondary pattern will send departing flights along the same paths:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of July 2, no flights will be directed over city neighborhoods. But during last year's test, rough weather led pilots to forego their suggested runways about 30 percent of the time, and they'll have the same option this year:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of July 9, arriving flights will swoop over neighborhoods all around the city's Northwest Side. A secondary pattern will send departing flights along the same paths:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
During the week of July 16, some departing flights will be sent over neighborhoods including Portage Park, Belmont Cragin and Logan Square. But most will be directed to avoid city neighborhoods altogether:
[Chicago Department of Aviation]
