For 20 years, airplanes—big ones—have set a daily cadence. Early departures roar overhead crowing the daybreak as reliably as a rooster. The departure procedure from one runway involves a heading change to avoid flying low over homes, but some airplanes are moving so fast that they thunder over my sleeping neighbors before heading over the water.
An Empty Sky at Tampa
Key Takeaways:
- The author, who lives near Tampa International Airport and previously cherished the constant airplane noise, details the dramatic reduction in air traffic due to COVID-19, transforming a once bustling sky into an eerily quiet one, largely dominated by cargo planes.
- This unprecedented quiet extends to flights the author takes, experiencing rare direct clearances and empty frequencies, while his airline pilot friends face idleness, strange pairings, and flight cancellations.
- Despite the new normal, the author expresses a deep longing to return to frequent air travel, describing the current silence as unsettling and the future of aviation as uncertain, like an instrument approach where the runway isn't visible.
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