News Archive
AOPA president will hold September pilot meetings on Long Island and in northern N.J. and Harrisburg, Pa.
Phil Boyer, president of the 350,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, will hold three AOPA Pilot Town Meetings in September, consulting with pilots in New York state, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He will update pilots on current developments in national aviation legislation, policy, and regulations and will solicit pilots’ views of the general aviation situation in their local areas.
The dominant national issue will be the Senate-House conference expected to convene in September to reconcile Pennsylvania Representative Bud Shuster’s AIR-21 bill (H.R.1000), passed by the House in June, with the Senate’s short-term FAA reauthorization bill (S.1467) or perhaps a new bill the Senate may bring to conference.
AIR-21, strongly backed by AOPA and other aviation organizations, would take the Airport and Airway Trust Fund off budget, unlocking its $9 billion surplus for aviation projects and “fire-walling” its funds against diversion to non-aviation programs. This proposal is opposed by a number of key senators and the Clinton administration.
At the Pilot Town Meetings, Boyer will update the progress of the AOPA Airport Support Network, which now has recruited nearly 700 volunteers to help in AOPA’s defense of beleaguered GA airports.
And as a principal element of the meetings, Boyer will invite discussion of local issues of concern to pilots and aircraft owners.
An unusual feature of Boyer’s presentation is an interactive technology system that provides immediate audience feedback—interesting, provocative, and often very amusing.
The Pilot Town Meetings are scheduled in Hauppauge, Long Island, Monday, September 27; in Secaucus, N.J., on Tuesday, September 28; and in Harrisburg on Wednesday, September 29. The meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. and are open to all pilots without charge. [See the schedule for details.]
The Monday meeting will be held in the Islandia Marriott, at Exit 58 off the Long Island Expressway, about 7.5 miles from MacArthur Airport (ISP).
On Tuesday, the meeting will take place in the Crowne Plaza Meadowlands, near the intersection of I-95 and New Jersey Route 3, about seven miles from Teterboro Airport (TEB).
The Wednesday meeting will be held in the Holiday Inn Harrisburg East, one mile north of Exit 19 off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, at the intersection of I-283 (Exit 1) and Pennsylvania Route 441. That’s about 10 miles from Capital City Airport (CXY).
Phil Boyer, a 30-year veteran aviator and former network television senior executive, is the third president in AOPA’s 60-year history. Instrument and multiengine rated, he has logged more than 5,500 flight hours, including two transatlantic crossings. He has been president of AOPA since January 1991.
AOPA represents pilots and owners of three quarters of the 187,000 general aviation aircraft that constitute 96 percent of the U.S. civilian fleet.
99-3-026
August 26, 1999
