DENVER — The Federal Aviation Administration issued new rules for jets flying over Rocky Mountain National Park that are designed to make the park more quiet.
According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, 600 daily flights fly over RMNP to Denver International Airport.
Flights approaching DIA from the west are now required to fly directly over Trail Ridge Road while gliding over the park without revving engines.
The goals is to concentrate noise over Trail Ridge Road with both aircraft and auto noise in the same area.
Under the old rules, airplanes headed from the west to DIA would funnel from different directions directly over RMNP. To hit that specific point, pilots would descend using a stair-step pattern that requires pilots to use spoilers to slow down, while also revving engines at the beginning of each step of the descent.
Now, flights will be funneled into a narrow corridor over Trail Ridge while on a smooth glide-path into the airport that allows pilots to keep engines throttles idle all the way down.
“These procedures allow aircraft to fly a precise, optimized horizontal and vertical trajectory, which helps to lower fuel burn with more precise approaches, reduce diversion due to bad weather conditions and improve airport access in challenging terrain,” Frontier Airlines spokeswoman Kate O’Malley told the newspaper.