Run-ups: "a new mode of torture"
Thursday, February 17, 2011, 10:10 am
They're at it again. A Porter plane at the
Island Airport is revving its engines to maximum RPMs in an engine run-up.
It's loud enough to loosen the fillings in your teeth.
This time there is a new mode of torture.
The pilot, or mechanic, guns the engine of the Q400 aircraft up to
maximum ear splitting levels and then throttles back. We
are lured into thinking that, thankfully, it is over, but
no, the throttle is pulled back again to maximum RPMs until the
branches of the trees are trembling. Again they throttle back,
and again the mounting roar of the engine run-up, and again they throttle
back ... on it goes for several minutes.
They have developed a new rhythm
designed to announce to all of us living
along to the Waterfront that we must pay attention because the
next blast could be the loudest and most spectacular of
all.
Do they sit up at night trying to figure out the
best way to drive us nuts?
Bill Freeman
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