Franklin County, NC Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Chapter 14, Article III, the Noise Ordinance of Franklin County adopted under G.S. 153A-133, lists ten categories of noise the article does not reach, and section 14-59(5) puts aircraft on that list: all noises coming from the normal operations of properly equipped aircraft are exempt, so pilots and airports in unincorporated Franklin County are not subject to enforcement under section 14-58's loud and disturbing noise standard for ordinary flight operations. The exemption is narrow in one respect: it expressly excludes scale model aircraft, meaning remote-control planes and similar devices do not get the benefit of the carve-out and can still be cited under section 14-58(a)'s general prohibition on noise detrimental to health, safety or welfare if they disturb a neighborhood.

The same section 14-59 list also exempts manufacturing noise during regular operations, emergency vehicles, permitted construction, farm and landscape equipment run with standard mufflers, emergency work including generator use, government services, holiday noisemakers and fireworks under a state permit, and railroad operations, so aircraft sit alongside a broader set of activities the county has chosen not to regulate as noise nuisances. Because Franklin County has no separate airport ordinance restricting flight paths or hours in the code reviewed, and the state occupies most aviation regulation, section 14-59(5) functions as the county's complete local position on aircraft noise: it is affirmatively excluded from the misdemeanor enforcement scheme that otherwise governs loud and disturbing noise under section 14-56 in the unincorporated area.