The Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) Airport Committee meeting at San Diego International Airport last week to discuss potential increased usage of departure vector 250 has raised more questions from residents living in South Point Loma.
Some members of the community believe that an additional departure vector at 260 degrees has been covertly approved. Others are blaming the increased air traffic over their homes to either lack of compliance with the 275 degree vector, or variations and drifts due to winds aloft.
CAPTION: (LEFT) One of 24 noise monitor sensors near San Diego International Airport (Photo courtesy of San Diego County Regional Airport Authority)
An original slide show follows this article of San Diego Airport flight operations.
CAPTION: (RIGHT) Peninsula Community Planning Board Airport Committee meeting of 25 September 2009 at San Diego International Airport Commuter Terminal(Original photo by Joel Siegfried)
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More questions raised at Airport meeting
Details on airport growth projections
Community Planning Board September meeting
Noise flap raises flak at San Diego Airport
Citizens worry about more future flights
Profile of Airport's Quieter Home Program
TSA finds hand grenades and other oddities
Attempting to clarify some of these concerns, the San Diego Airport Examiner placed a call to the Airport Authority's Deputy Director for Public & Community Relations, Steve Shultz. Here's the gist of our conversation in question and answer format.
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Question: It seems to this observer, from the email messages and comments that I've been receiving, that people seem more confused and suspicious. Do you think this is a result of flawed communications, and what, if anything, might resolve these complaints? For example, do you think a workshop or public seminar would be useful?
Answer: "No, I think that the Airport Authority is proactively conveying information through a number of resources. We have an extensive noise web site. We provide an email link for noise reports, phone numbers and hot line for noise complaints, quarterly noise reports, an Airport Noise Advisory Committee (ANAV) which holds regular public meetings, answers to frequently asked questions, a Curfew Violation Review Panel (CVRP), newsletter and other publications available for viewing online, a Flight Tracker tool (by Passur, Inc.), and of course, continuing efforts at noise mitigation through out Quieter Home Program and environmental noise monitoring."
CAPTION:(ABOVE LEFT) Screen shot of San Diego Airport Flight Tracker public access tool (Original image by Joel Siegfried)
Question: I have heard dissatisfaction over use of the Airport Flight Tracker, which gives a rather broad picture of flight activity, at best showing a five mile scale. What do you call the Flight Tracker that was displayed at last Friday's Airport meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board? Might the public be able to have access to this tool?
Answer: "It's not called a Flight Tracker, but rather ANOMS, Airport Noise and Operations Monitoring System. It's a proprietary system which offers additional layers of information in real time, unlike the ten minute delay of the public access Flight Tracker. We do offer free demonstrations of ANOMS which can be scheduled by calling 619-400-2781. Due to proprietary restrictions, and real time data, it's not available or suitable for public use."
CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Screen shot of San Diego Airport ANOMS Airport Noise and Operations Monitoring System (Photo courtesy of Jeff Tittle, FAA Manager)
Question: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Answer: "We encourage use of the Airport Authority's noise web site, and ask the public to call or email further questions or noise concerns."
Question: Thank you for your time and responses.
CAPTION:(LEFT) Peninsula Community Planning Board Airport Committee meeting of 25 September 2009 at San Diego International Airport Commuter Terminal(Original photo by Joel Siegfried)
The next public meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board's Airport Committee will take place on Thursday, October 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Point Loma Branch Library, at 3701 Voltaire Street. We will continue reporting on this issue.
Please leave comments below or by email, and subscribe to get future updates.
Comments
Received via email on 10/1/09 at 9:31 AM:
Joel,
Yes, I think I've read all of your articles concerning the SDIA, and have appreciated the information.
But what I have not seen anyone address is the great increase in "260" flights that I have documented in detail, below, with respect to their absence on the Flight Tracker, and the absence of a credible response from SDIA (AA, etc.) beyond a simple attestation from Dan (Frazee) that this suddenly huge number of 260s is just in-flight wind-drift.
Regards,
Colin
That "Flight Tracker" isn't called ANOMS, it's the Airport Monitor Website -and it stinks! The airport continues to tell stories!!! Why don't they show the community real details of flights over my home???
Dear Jennifer,
Thank you for taking the time to comment. As the article points out, there's the Airport Flight Tracker which the public can access, but it is not as accurate and doesn't show as much information as the measuring system used by the Airport Authority. That system is called ANOMS, which stands for Airport Noise and Operations Monitoring System. You can get a free demonstration of ANOMS by calling 619-400-2781 to schedule an appointment. The Airport Authority will also pay for your parking.
I appreciate your leaving a comment and expressing your views and feelings, which are shared by many others.
I hope you will continue reading these articles for the latest updates.
Vector, Victor. Victor, Vector. Makes me think about the movie "Airplane"!
It's a difficult task to reduce airplane noise when they fly all over and there are huge sprawls of cities everywhere.
On 30 September 2009 at 10:44 AM PDT, Colin Purdy wrote (to Dan Frazee and Jeff Tittle, among others):
Good morning everyone. Could anyone please provide me a list of the FAA approved take-off vectors for SDIA, please?
As I have been attesting to, every morning, at least for the past few weeks, beginning at 0630, numerous jet aircraft depart San Diego by overflying Sunset Cliffs well south of the 275 vector, which Dan has claimed these jets are on (and that if they appear south of the 275, it's because they're all "wind drift" cases). The Flight Tracker screen capture below shows a representative 275 departure (green track, far left), which coincides with the 275 as drawn on the map attached to this email. This green track is representative of the furthest south jet departure as shown on the Flight Tracker this morning (and there are many on shown on exactly that same green line), replaying the Tracker at 10x speed for the half hour between 0630-0700...
...(if you replay the tracks you'll also notice the more occassional tracks that depart more northerly, right off the north most tip of Ocean Beach, which I assume is the 290, also drawn on the attached map).
So, I am trying to reconcile in my mind how the supposedly accurate Flight Tracker is showing numerous 275 departures that fly over the Pacific on a vector whose OB endpoint is the tip of Saratoga Ave. (or somewhere between Newport and Saratoga Aves.) and yet I am physically watching from my doorstep on Bermuda Ave. (at least 10 blocks south of that Saratoga point, represented by the red house image, below) one jet after another, almost as many as the many green 275 tracks on the Tracker, overfly the Pacific on a Sunset Cliffs endpoint that obviously looks to the naked eye to be at the end of Orchard Ave (or between Orchard and Del Mar Aves.), which is just 2-3 blocks north of Bermuda, and 8-9 blocks south of the 275 Saratoga endpoint that the Flight Tracker consistently shows
The Flight Tracker shows NO Pacific overflights that depart over the Ochard-Del Mar endpoint, only Saratoga, and yet there I am standing in my Bermuda doorway watching flights on exactly that Orchard vector, one after another, starting at 0630 pretty much every morning.
If all of these flights were really departing over Saratoga on the 275, I wouldn't even be able to see them from my doorstep on Bermuda!
Well, I looked over the maps again to determine what vector this Orchard overflight really looks like, as it is obviously well south of the Flight Tracker-represented 275. And I noticed that X marks the spot! These southerly, and nearly due west flights that are south of the 275 are probably flying out on a 260 vector that roughly aligns the end, or near end, of the SDIA runway with the big yellow X (on both maps) that is the intersection between Chatsworth and Nimitz.
And, that in all likelihood, considering the much-ado-over-nothing 250 issue (as SDIA has truthfully said they're not really increasing), what SDIA is really doing is using a 260 vector that is the FAA-approved 15 degree separation from the 275. And they can probably do this even though only 10 degrees separates this 260 from the 250 since the 250 is in fact rarely used.
So, an interesting question remains: Is SDIA planning on using this 260 in perpetuity, or is it just to accomodate the "construction" issues. I admit, I am not entirely informed on that issue, as it pertained to the concern regarding the 250. But I think the issue was a nine month runway refurbishment project that was causing concern over SDIA needing to stagger more aircraft over to the 250.
However, I think the more obvious hypothesis is that SDIA is quietly making permanent an increased use of a 260 vector that is either already approved by the FAA for SDIA, or SDIA is exploiting some FAA provision that allows a certain volume of "wind drift" departures from the approved vector, the 275 in this case, and SDIA and AA are "truthfully" telling the community that these increased 260s are just wind drifts from the 275. Perhaps due to the uproar over the 250, SDIA decided to pursue one of these 260 tacks, and SDIA may be attempting to make this permanent, because, if I recall correctly, SDIA is adding 10 more gates by 2013, which intuitively leads me to believe that SDIA will have a permanent need to depart more flights off the single runway, and the only way they can do that is by having that southerly, due west, vector, the 260, for another flight corridor off the runway.
So, again, I ask you, Airport Authorities and ATC Chiefs (Dan, thanks for suggesting I contact Mr. Jeff Tittle, ATC Chief; however, he has been cc'ed on all of my email correspondence to you, even as you stripped him off the distribution list in all of your individual replies to me)...Could you please provide me a list of all FAA approved departure vectors for SDIA, so that I may attempt to square these with the easily observed reality from my Bermuda doorstep?
Mr. Tittle, please take this occassion, if you may, to respond on this issue with what I am sure is the expert knowledge and opinion of personnel who actually run this busy ATC.
Thank you all for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Colin Purdy
All of the preceding said, I wouldn't object to a fair share of increased overflights on the 260 (or whatever it is that SDIA has so far refused to acknowledge), but I do object to the lack of transparency and honesty by SDIA and the so-called AA.
They need to work with the community on this issue, as it will not go way since SDIA has nascent long-term plans to "optimize" the existing airport in order to consistently/daily maintain passenger volume (take-offs) at a level that is historically considered occassional "peak" volume.
You can learn about this "Destination Lindbergh" plan by Googling that phrase.
Naturally, the plan begins by stating that all of the goals of the plan are intended to ensure the quality of life of San Diegans. But, so far, the reality as I have described in my previous comments regarding the surreptitious increase of 260 overflights on the 260, is that SDIA will do what SDIA wants to "over do" the capacity...
...and potentially destroy what so many San Diegans appreciate about the airport as it is: It's small size and accessibility.
So, potentially, what the SDIA is going to do with Destination Lindbergh is make a pleasantly small airport too large, add to much volume, for the downtown (!) space it occupies.
I am sure that all one has to do is follow the money to ascertain the real goals of Destination Lindbergh: Increased flight volume and added long term parking facilities (a huge revenue generator for SDIA) means more profits for the proprietors.
Now, nothing wrong with trying to maximize the profit's of one's product, but that maximization becomes nettlesome when the SDIA's plan does not acknowledge that the plan will mean a greater number of community overflights in South Mission Bay, North Ocean Beach, and Point Loma/Sunset Cliffs.
And that truth is born out by my experience with SDIA's and AA's current refusal to acknowledge the reality I am observing right out my door.
This community's in Denial-saying 'it'll never happen'-well, at $10,000/sq. ft., this 'Charade' of 'needed service expansion' only increases Lindbergh's take-off capacity. Now Unsafe-over a highly-populated area, the Airport Authority still quotes in 6/09's Quarterly Noise Report-online-Deceptively, Demographics from 1990's CENSUS! Make the Airport Authority tell the truth-that 60,000+ persons will soon be affected, increasing crash risks from Only ONE RUNWAY! 'Wind Shear' or 'Separation' spreads flights over all the Peninsula, from in front of La Playa, to LJ's Birdrock! Wake up people-tell them "NO" as LAX's 'neighbors' just did! San Diego annually LOSES MULTI-$BILLIONS in Trade, Tourism, Cargo, Transportation and Jobs. New housing Developers 'control' San Diego-past and future-for short-term profits, as Infrastructure is never put in by those who increase its Demand! It's been said repeatedly from pilots, Lindbergh is the most Dangerous Major Metropolitan Airport in the WORLD
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