Local planners are keeping the issue of the airport’s use of the 250-degree flight-departure heading in the ear of state legislators this month. On Oct. 10, members of the Peninsula Community Planning Board’s (PCPB) Airport Committee met with Congresswoman Susan Davis to discuss use of the heading during the airport’s Taxiway C construction. “We asked her if we can speed the construction up as well as utilize the curfew hours to do the majority of the construction so that they don’t have to use the 250 (-degree) heading,” said PCPB Airport Committee chair Suhail Khalil. “She said she would look into that.” PCPB’s Airport Committee has opposed use of the 250-degree heading since before construction began in August. Use of the heading puts an expanded area of the Peninsula directly under the flight path and exposes it to greater jet noise, with flights going over Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. “They’re utilizing that and they shouldn’t be,” Khalil said. “They should just queue (set up) the planes and make sure that they’re separated. There’s more preemptive planning that needs to go in place. They need to stage those airplanes better and that way they can avoid using the 250 (-degree) heading.” At the September PCPB meeting, representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority addressed the six suggestions the airport committee provided to minimize use of the heading. Khalil, who monitors daily use of the heading on Flight Tracker, said he has noticed an improvement since the issue was brought to the FAA’s attention. “I’ve noticed daily improvements,” Khalil said. “But they could be better.” Khalil said the airport committee’s main suggestion at this point to limit use of the heading is that construction be completed during curfew hours — 11:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Khail said that as a result of their meeting, Davis said she would will further examine the possibility. “They need to complete the construction of Taxiway C during those curfew hours so they don’t have to contend with planes flying out during the time that they’re working,” Khalil said. On Oct. 22, a handful of the airport committee’s members also will meet with Sen. Christine Kehoe to discuss the 250-degree departure heading, among other topics. Khalil said the focus of the meeting is going to be on the governing body of the airport, in which Khalil sees a conflict of interest. Currently, the Airport Authority, which oversees the operations of the airport, also oversees the Airport Land Use Commission. Khalil will suggest to Kehoe at the meeting that these bodies be separated, citing that they cannot be objective when voting on issues such as land-use compatibility. “We believe there is a huge conflict of interest when the Airport Authority is charged with operations and efficiencies and the Land Use Commission is charged with protecting safety and land-use restrictions,” Khalil said. “If one’s going to be the Airport Authority looking over the operations, then there needs to be a different body commissioning on the land-use matters.”