Boulder Municipal Airport Info
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Surrounding BDU
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Three miles from downtown Boulder, BDU was once "out in the country". Now it is surrounded by development, agriculture, and dedicated open space.
Flight schools have agreed among themselves to divide up Boulder County airspace into named training areas. This is informal in that this is not recognized by the FAA in any way. It is, however, very real and impacts life on the ground tremendously by attracting students from everywhere to come to Boulder to train, including usage of BDU.
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BDU OperationsThese numbers are from January 2018 to July, 2022
Average daily operations (take off and landing)
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BDU's Endless Touching and Going
Many planes that use BDU come from other airports and use the BDU runway to practice touch and go. There may be six planes at a time circling over Jay Road, Pleastview soccer fields, and Walden and Sawhill designated open spaces. The vast majority of these planes do not originate at BDU. Many come from RMMA. Others are from Vance Brand, Erie, Centennial, and elsewhere.
BDU noise abatement
BDU tow planes
Two companies at BDU tow gliders for nonessential, recreational gliding and soaring over the City. These flight tracks show the tow plane path, south along 55th St. to the southern end of the city. The the City's noise sensitive areas contains a gap for this path.
It takes a lot of horsepower to haul two planes into the sky. This may burn several gallons of leaded avgas, releasing carbon, particulates, and lead into our sky. 95% of the lead in avgas is emitted in exhaust.
Thus this climb is very loud. It can be heard two miles away. Also, recently some tow planes damaged their quieter 4 blade propellers and replaced them with noisier two blade propellers. The is currently no requirement for them to use quieter components.
It takes a lot of horsepower to haul two planes into the sky. This may burn several gallons of leaded avgas, releasing carbon, particulates, and lead into our sky. 95% of the lead in avgas is emitted in exhaust.
Thus this climb is very loud. It can be heard two miles away. Also, recently some tow planes damaged their quieter 4 blade propellers and replaced them with noisier two blade propellers. The is currently no requirement for them to use quieter components.
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks conduct soundscape
"OSMP annually institutes seasonal closures to protect nesting birds of prey from ground-based human disturbances like rock climbing and hiking off designated trails. A group of dedicated volunteers and staff regularly monitor cliff-nesting raptor territories and one of the things they record is low-flying aircraft because we have observed this noticeably disturbing nesting falcons and eagles."
In 2022, OSMP contracted with Natural Sounds Night Skies Division of the National Park Service along with the listening lab at Colorado State University to study ambient noise levels at two sites on OSMP as part of our funded research program.
"Based on the results of this study, visitors and wildlife at the Whiterocks site are unlikely to experience a significant noise-free interval, as the presence of noise is consistent throughout the daytime and nighttime hours. .... Noise has the potential to affect a visitor’s experience in parks by causing annoyance, reducing the perceived scenic beauty, or simply by limiting opportunities for solitude. Increased sound levels may also have wide ranging effects on wildlife such as reduced predatory success, changes in vocal communication, or increased vigilance by keystone species. In a review of literature addressing the effects of noise on wildlife published between 1990 and 2013, wildlife responses to noise were observed beginning at about 40 dB. Of the papers reviewed, 20% showed impacts to terrestrial wildlife at or below noise levels of 50 dB."
In 2022, OSMP contracted with Natural Sounds Night Skies Division of the National Park Service along with the listening lab at Colorado State University to study ambient noise levels at two sites on OSMP as part of our funded research program.
"Based on the results of this study, visitors and wildlife at the Whiterocks site are unlikely to experience a significant noise-free interval, as the presence of noise is consistent throughout the daytime and nighttime hours. .... Noise has the potential to affect a visitor’s experience in parks by causing annoyance, reducing the perceived scenic beauty, or simply by limiting opportunities for solitude. Increased sound levels may also have wide ranging effects on wildlife such as reduced predatory success, changes in vocal communication, or increased vigilance by keystone species. In a review of literature addressing the effects of noise on wildlife published between 1990 and 2013, wildlife responses to noise were observed beginning at about 40 dB. Of the papers reviewed, 20% showed impacts to terrestrial wildlife at or below noise levels of 50 dB."
BDU and the Andrus bike path
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BDU controls more land than the 180 acres under direct control. BDU's "protection zones" extend beyond each end of the runway and outside airport land, and dictate land uses below. These zones blocked the finalization of Andrus bicycle path. The path had been planned since the 1980's and is partially built.
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