A multi-thousand pound effort to hush noisy aircraft has been welcomed by neighbours of an airfield.

Rufforth residents' pleas to cut engine noise of planes at the local aerodrome have not fallen on deaf ears.

York Gliding Centre has spent an extra £3,000 to make sure a towing plane is as quiet as possible.

Club chairman Bob McLean hopes that all planes owned by the club will be a lot quieter by next year.

"We do get complaints from residents now and again, which we do listen to because we believe it is extremely important to have good community relations," he added.

"We are making every effort to minimise the noise that we create and hopefully our neighbours will have a lot less to put up with."

The club has replaced the noisy two-bladed propeller system on their Bellanca Scout glider towing plane with a four-bladed system, which slashes noise emissions by up to half.

The same system is expected to be introduced to the club's other towing plane next year.

The change follows work carried out recently to change exhaust systems so that engine noise is kept as low as possible.

Mr McLean said: "On certain days when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction we are aware that the noise can carry into the villages.

"The new propeller system cost us £4,000, as opposed to only £1,000 for the old system, but we needed to fit new propelle, anyway, and it's worth the extra money to make it environmentally friendly."

Frank Barnes, vice -hairman of t Rufforth Residents' Association, said the change had been very noticeable.

He added: "I was sitting in my garden the other night when a towing plane went up, and it was quite obviously a lot quieter.

"There have been a lot of complaints about noise in the past, and some of them have been very warranted, but I've always felt the glider club have tried to work with the community and this is a continuation of that."

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