I’m quite behind with technology when it comes to my phone and have only just updated to a smart phone! I am very much aware that any apps I find for obtaining dB levels will be rather poor, but it still allows for personal experimentation especially at times you don’t expect.
I have been in Anglesey over the last few days visiting my mum and on a trip to a beach the unexpected happened. I decided to go to a beach literally next to RAF valley and whilst walking down the overgrown almost hidden path 3 jets went over in formation, the sound was incredible, they were so close! I knew they were flying that day as I’d seen them flying high above the house, but we went late, it was such a hot day, I assumed they’d have finished for the day. Lucky for me the formation wasn’t flying over to land and buzzed the landing strip as they the went up for more air time.
Once on the beach I decided to try out the apps I had downloaded, unfortunately I have no idea what height the jets were flying; I am rather lousy in general with guessing distances but still it was fun to play.
At about 7pm the average background noise came to be between 40 – 50 dB, the pilots driving down the private road, blanks been fired to scare the birds etc. caused it to be higher as earlier when at home I did the same at 2am where the background was in the low ; which rose to more in the 40’s at 2pm. When the 3 jets went overhead the average dB level over 10 seconds of readings was in the high 70’s, but when they flew individually it dropped to be in the mid 60’s. I assume this could be to height differences and the wind and obviously the thrust may have been lower and therefore produced less noise.
Claire Starley 