The people of Mudjimba, Marcoola, Twin Waters and Pacific Paradise have noticed a significant increase in nocturnal helicopter activity over the past year. The accompanying helicopter noise is loud, constant and stressful. Helicopter noise is not a peaceful, nor soothing sound. It is interfering with our sleep and our children’s sleep, which in turn, is interfering with our work and the ability of our children to function at school. Many of us must wake up early to attend to our commitments and the noise from the helicopters is hindering us. We value this area for its tranquillity, for its sense of community, for its laid-back atmosphere, for its beautiful natural environment. We have a large number of tourists that visit this area for these very qualities; the expansion of the caravan park in Mudjimba attests to this fact; however, the tranquillity is being very quickly eroded, and the helicopter noise at night is a big contributor to the problem. We have made complaints to the airport, to no avail. We understand that much of the noise is due to helicopter pilots practising their flying at night. We understand that night flying hours are necessary to achieve competency, but we argue that the hours of operation do not have to be so extensive. Indeed, Sydney Airport, which services almost 5 million people, and Coolangatta Airport, which is embedded in a community double the size of the Sunshine Coast, both have strict curfews. As a much smaller community, where the lifestyle and business are heavily based upon the pristine and tranquil nature of our environment, we strongly request that a 9pm-6am curfew, which applies to all aircraft,  be placed on the Sunshine Coast Airport. In particular, as tax-paying members of this quiet community, we ask that, barring emergency flights, helicopters from the Sunshine Coast Airport are grounded from 9pm until 6am.