
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 21, 1995                   TAG: 9501230040
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CROWDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NOISY JETS LIKE TO PRACTICE IN ROANOKE

People out for a quiet lunch break in downtown Roanoke on Friday just after 1 might have wondered, ``What's that noise?''

An F-15 fighter jet doing a practice landing and takeoff at the Roanoke Regional Airport was responsible for shattering the midday silence, according to an airport controller.

``We might have several a day, and then might not have any for a week,'' the controller said.

Military planes use the Roanoke Valley for such training maneuvers because of the variety of instrument approaches they can practice, and because the Roanoke airport does not have as much traffic as other airports in the region, according to the controller.

``The area includes all different kinds of terrain a flyer would expect to experience,'' said Mark Courtney, the airport's director of planning and marketing. ``It's a popular part of the state for training.''

Courtney said that from January to November last year, there were 103,000 takeoffs and landings at the Roanoke airport. Military operations accounted for 1,591 of those, or about 1.5 percent. Courtney was not sure if Friday's jet used its afterburners.

In April 1990, an F-15 pilot rattled a few nerves when he used his afterburners while leaving Roanoke.

by CNB