Our skies are noisy.
Our response should be louder.
Overhead is a neighborhood-built app for California Heights and Long Beach residents tired of low-flying training planes. Snap, record, and send time-stamped, GPS-tagged reports straight to your council member — in under fifteen seconds.
6:42 AM · Sat May 4
Within quiet hours window
Altitude
980 ft
Pass
3rd
dB peak
78
Reporting to
Council District 5
less than 15 sec.
We love living here.
We just can't hear ourselves think.
In January 2026, a court tossed out a neighborhood lawsuit demanding stricter enforcement of LGB's noise ordinance. The judge said the city has no duty to act on patterns it can't individually prove.
So let's prove them. One report at a time.
Constant noise
Like a lawnmower passing every 30 seconds.
Residents have tracked over 900 small-aircraft training operations a day circling Bixby Knolls and California Heights — flight schools doing “touch and go” loops just hundreds of feet overhead.
From sunrise to bedtime
6:30 AM to 11:45 PM. Every. Single. Day.
Flight schools have surged post-pandemic. Long Beach Airport now averages over 30,800 general-aviation operations per month — the busiest in nearly a decade.
Leaded fuel, in 2026
We're #2 in the country for airborne lead.
Most piston planes still burn leaded avgas. Long Beach Airport ranks second in the U.S. for lead emissions — and Carver Elementary sits directly under the flight path.
Enforcement is broken
5,600+ flights during prohibited hours.
Between Jan and June of 2024 alone — but only a handful triggered violations. The city has the data. Residents have the evidence. It's time to connect the two.
Three taps from "ugh" to "on the record".
Designed by a neighbor for the moment your back patio becomes a runway. No forms. No phone trees. No ANOMS jargon.
Hear it. Look up.
When that lawnmower-in-the-sky starts circling, just open Overhead. The app instantly grabs your location, the time, and pulls nearby aircraft data.
Capture the proof.
One tap for a photo, hold for a quick video, swipe for an audio decibel sample. Everything is auto-tagged with GPS, altitude estimate, and timestamp.
Send it where it matters.
One tap opens your own Mail app, pre-addressed to the LGB Noise Office, your council member, and the AAC packet inbox. You hit Send — it goes out from your account as constituent correspondence.
Everything you need to build a paper trail the city can't ignore.
The City Attorney told the court they need specific, timed, location-stamped events. Cool. Let's give them ten thousand of them.
One-tap photo capture
Designed for the back patio. Open, point, tap — your photo is timestamped and geolocated before you blink.
Hold-to-record video
Capture the full pass overhead. Decibel meter samples the audio so the noise level is on the record, not your guess.
Auto GPS & altitude
Reverse-geocoded to your block. Estimates altitude using compass + elevation data so “low and loud” becomes a number.
Time & ordinance check
Cross-references LBMC 16.43 nighttime & weekend windows so you know the moment a flight crosses the line.
Aircraft auto-identify
Pulls from public ADS-B data to suggest the tail number, aircraft type, and operator — no squinting required.
One-tap routing
Files to LGB Noise Concern intake, your council member's office, and a public dashboard the city can't look away from.
Neighborhood dashboard
See the heat map for California Heights this week. Compare to last month. Spot the worst-offending tail numbers.
Privacy-first by default
Your home address is never published. Reports leave your device only when you explicitly send them.
Built with neighbors
Free, open source, and shaped by the SANeR community already organizing for quieter skies. No VC, no ads.
Every report goes to three places at once.
One tap opens your own Mail app, pre-addressed to all three. The Noise Office logs it into ANOMS. Your council member receives it as constituent correspondence. The AAC packet inbox routes it to the next public meeting. You hit Send.
Sent from your mail account — never via a server we control — so each report counts as an individual constituent voice. No one can sender-filter “the app”.
because volume = visibility.
Council District 5
Megan Kerr (Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos)
Your direct city representative — on the public record
LGB Airport Noise Office
(562) 570-2665 · LGBNoise@longbeach.gov
Logged into ANOMS for the monthly noise report
Airport Advisory Commission
via lgbarpt@longbeach.gov · routed to the AAC packet
Reviewed at every public AAC meeting
Things neighbors actually ask.
Is Overhead actually free?
Yes. Forever. It's built by neighbors, for neighbors. There are no ads, no upsells, and no data sales. If we ever need to cover hosting, we'll ask the neighborhood — not a venture fund.
How do my reports actually get sent?
Through your phone's own Mail app. Tap Send, and Overhead opens a pre-filled email — addressed To the LGB Noise Office, Cc to your council member, Bcc to the AAC packet inbox — with the photo or video attached. You hit Send, and it goes out from your account, with your name on it. Council staff treats it as constituent correspondence, not third-party automation.
Won't the city just ignore another complaint?
Maybe one. But not ten thousand, time-stamped, geo-tagged, with photo and audio evidence. The Long Beach noise ordinance (LBMC 16.43) is enforced from sensor data, but resident concerns are what shape the policy conversation.
What about leaded fuel — does this help with that too?
Yes. Every report you file includes the aircraft tail number when available, which lets us cross-reference operators still using leaded avgas. The federal EAGLE initiative aims to phase it out by 2030 — your reports help build the local case for sooner.
Will this get me in any kind of trouble?
No. Filing a noise concern is a fully protected, encouraged civic action. Overhead never publishes your home address and never shares your identity with the operator you're reporting.
Why California Heights and Bixby Knolls specifically?
Because we live here. The flight school training pattern circles directly over Cal Heights, Bixby Knolls, and Los Cerritos. We're starting where it's loudest — and opening it up to every Long Beach neighborhood next.
I'm a pilot. Are you trying to shut down the airport?
Nope. LGB has been here for almost 100 years and we love it. We're asking for honest enforcement of the rules already on the books — and a faster transition to unleaded fuel. That's it.
P.S. —
You don't have to move.
You just have to show up.
Download Overhead on the App Store and start building the neighborhood paper trail with every low-flying overflight.
Download OverheadFree, community-built, and privacy-first. See our privacy policy.