A flying instructor whose own "stuff-up", as he himself described it, resulted in a small plane circling over central Dunedin for several hours on Monday night, has apologised for any inconvenience caused.
Yesterday, a concerned reader contacted the Otago Daily Times to complain about the plane, which reportedly flew in circles above the central city between 11pm and 2am.
John Penno, from Mainland Aviation College, which owns the plane, said, when contacted, several people had also contacted the company yesterday to express their views on late-night flying.
Mr Penno said the college had a rule that students did not do night flying training over the city after 10pm, but this week he was not there to enforce the rule and some students had not stuck to it.
"I'm quite upset about it, but I have to take responsibility for it," he said. "Basically, it was my stuff-up. I do apologise for that and for any convenience it has caused."
Mr Penno said he was "bombarded" with complaints when he arrived at work yesterday.
"One guy just rang and made airplane noises down the telephone for three minutes," he said.
While planes were legally allowed to fly over built-up areas as low as 1000ft, his students were instructed not to fly lower than 2500ft-3000ft and he did not believe they would have been flying lower.
"No way. They would be grounded if they did that."
The issue was the noise. On a calm night, the plane could sound a lot closer than it was.
CAA communications adviser Emma Peel said light planes were allowed to fly as low as 1000ft over built-up areas and 500ft over rural areas.
It was "highly unlikely" the plane was flying under the legal height of 1000ft over the city because it was controlled air space, monitored on radar by the air control tower.
If people were on a hill, the plane could appear closer than it was because they were viewing it horizontally, she said.
"It can also seem quite loud because it seems to be coming towards you."
The CAA would only deal with complaints about aircraft noise if the aircraft was flying under the legal height, which did not appear to be the case.
An Otago Regional Council spokesman said it referred all noise pollution complaints to the Dunedin City Council, but a DCC spokesman said the Resource Management Act specifically excluded from its excess noise pollution clauses "aircraft being operated during, or immediately before or after, flight", so it was not within its authority to assist with the problem either.
It referred complaints about aircraft noise to the CAA.
Ms Peel said the onus was on the aircraft's operator to be considerate, because they could fly wherever they wanted whenever they wanted, within the given limits.
Pilots were taught in their syllabus to "fly neighbourly" and be mindful of people on the ground.
Mr Penno said trainees usually flew at night around the airport on the Taieri Plain, but also needed to learn how to differentiate between objects, such as Mt Cargill and the harbour, which appeared as black holes in the dark.
