Since the airport was already lim.ited in its available runways, the loss in efficiency was considerable. Moreover, it was also agreed that aircraft taking off toward Meadowood would-almost at once after becoming airborne-follow noise abatement procedures. This, in turn, produced protests from pilots, who consid– ered the procedures dangerous. T'he airlines, however –conscious of the public furor and their corporate images-had ordered the pilots to conform. Yet even this failed to satisfy the Meadowood residents. Their militant leaders were still protesting, organizing, and-according to latest rumors-planning legal harassment of the airport. Mel asked the tower watch chief, "How many calls bave there been?" Even before the answer, he decided glumly that still more hours of his working days were going to be consumed by delegations, argument, and the same insoluble discussions as before. "I'd say fifty at least, we've answered; and there've been others we haven't. The phones start ringing right after every takeoff-our unlisted lines, too. I'd give a lot to know how they get the numbers. » «I suppose you've told the people who've called that we've a special situation-the storm, a runway out of use.» «We explain. But nobody's interested. They just want the airplanes to stop coming over. Some of 'em say that problems or not, pilots are still supposed to use noise abatement procedures, but tonight they aren't doing it.» «Good God!-if I were a pilot neither would L" How could anyone of reasonable intelligence, Mel wondered, expect a pilot, in tonight's violent weather, to chop back his power immediately after takeoff, and then go into a steeply banked turn on instruments-which was what noise abatement procedures called for. "I wouldn't either," the tower chief said. "Though I guess it depends on your point of view. If I lived in Meadowood, maybe I'd feel the way they do.»