For nearly a decade we played the product liability game to win, and we have done just that-won! Our opponent was the powerful Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), and up until now it had gone undefeated in the tort reform game. Its team is backed by one of the richest political action committees in Washington. Yet, in a classic "David vs. Goliath" story, the game plan executed by AOPA, along with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and supported by all the aviation organizations, has been successful. The support of the International Association of Machinists was also valuable in emphasizing the bill's importance in creating jobs.
What happened? Why did the last two years bring enough yardage to score the winning touchdown? The answer: AOPA members. First, you told your association loud and clear that product liability reform was your number one concern. As your advocate, we heard this message and helped build a consensus that differed from failed, past efforts. This was the concept of a bill that contained a single component: a 15- to 20-year statute of repose.
In research, 92 percent of you indicated your support for this legislation, and we pursued this course of action. Throughout the last two years we asked for your support in many ways, and you responded.
With the members' mandate in hand, the AOPA Legislative Action staff made the statute of repose bill its number one priority. Our own AOPA Political Action Committee, small in size compared to the trial lawyers', received overwhelming support the last two years. AOPA PAC contributions provide campaign funding for critical candidates, but the funds, by law, are kept separate from your AOPA membership dues. The fund helps us obtain access.
Contrary to many opinions, PAC funds don't buy votes, but the dollars do give us the opportunity to get on politicians' crowded schedules. Then, it's up to us to convince them of our position. And that's just what we did on this issue. We told them that our membership, consumers of the manufacturers' airplanes and parts, was willing to strike a fair balance between its own legal redress and the revitalization of the GA marketplace.
More important, you assisted us in telling them. Some of you responded to the telephone campaign we conducted on four day's notice at a critical point in the Senate strategy last March. And, many pilots wrote more than 30,000 all-important letters after we mailed an AOPA Legislative Action Pilot Alert in April.
Other articles in this month's Pilot detail political support, naming four key members of Congress and survey the manufacturers who were key players in the process of winning.
When you look at the force numbers, AOPA members provided the brute strength to overcome tremendous odds. With this legislation, our members gain no economic benefit (but the manufacturers do); nor the possibility of future jobs, as does the machinists union. Our 330,000 members who hold votes this November were an important ingredient in swaying the opinion of our elected officials.
Is the statute of repose the total solution? No, but it's a chance to build a new strategy for an industry that, without this reform, was sure to die. There is much work to be done, and AOPA Project Pilot, with more than 10,000 participants to date, may be perfectly timed to give manufacturers new pilots just about the time they step up production of new airplanes. It's a fact that the under-100-hour, fresh private pilot is the most likely buyer of a new single-engine piston airplane.
Perseverance paid off for us in this product liability battle and will serve us well as we enter the era of opportunities and problems that lie ahead.
During my impressionable childhood years, I came upon a phrase that fits perfectly all of our past effort, present success, and future work: "A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits." Whether it be continued work on product liability laws, fighting off excessive regulation, trying to curb higher costs, countering administration ATC corporatization efforts or other critical aviation issues, with your continued support and backing, AOPA will never quit.
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