Home / Noise Sources / Drones

Drones

Drones are becoming increasingly common for package delivery, surveillance, photography and videography, inspections, mapping and other commercial and government uses.

As drone use expands, communities are experiencing repetitive and intrusive noise over residential neighborhoods.

Unlike conventional aircraft, drones can operate at relatively low altitudes directly over homes, yards and other residential areas. A single flight may last only a short time, but repeated flights throughout the day is a persistent nuisance.

Residents living beneath frequently used drone routes may experience dozens of overflights each day. The sound is often described as a high-pitched buzz, whine or leaf-blower-like noise.

Cumulative Noise

The impact of drone operations cannot be evaluated solely by measuring the sound of a single flight. Frequency, duration, altitude, flight paths and the number of operations occurring throughout the day all contribute to the overall impact on a community.

A drone that might seem tolerable when heard once can become disruptive when it passes over a home every few minutes.

Delivery Drones

Package delivery is becoming one of the most visible uses of commercial drones. For customers receiving a package, a drone may be present for only a few moments. For residents living beneath a busy flight path, however, repeated overflights can continue throughout the day.

This creates an important distinction between the convenience experienced by the customer receiving the delivery and the constant noise imposed on affected residents.

Delivery Drone

An Amazon Prime Air delivery drone flying over homes in a residential neighborhood.

Regulation

The regulation of drones involves federal aviation rules as well as state and local laws involving land use, nuisance, public safety and community quality of life.

As drone operations expand, regulators and local officials will need to determine how residential communities can be protected from excessive and repetitive noise. Existing noise ordinances may not adequately address a moving source that repeatedly travels above multiple properties throughout the day.

Community Protection

Residents experiencing frequent drone noise should document the number of flights, approximate times, duration, flight paths and the ways the noise interferes with the use of their homes and property. Video recordings and written logs can help demonstrate patterns that may not be apparent from observing a single flight.

Communities should consider cumulative exposure when evaluating proposed drone operations rather than judging the impact of individual flights in isolation.

The routine use of drones for package delivery over residential communities creates noise that cannot be adequately addressed through routing or scheduling alone.

The convenience of faster package delivery does not justify imposing this burden on residents. Unlike emergency response, medical delivery or other essential uses, routine package delivery does not provide a compelling public need that outweighs the impact on surrounding communities.

The central issue is whether repeated drone operations create an unreasonable and continuing intrusion into residential communities.

See Also

Health
Research, public health findings, sound measurement, and the effects of noise on sleep, stress, hearing, cardiovascular health, and learning.