Get your 5 percent rebate
There are few pilots and flight instructors who haven't heard about the four forces of flight. Lift, thrust, drag, and gravity are those forces, and there's a sound scientific basis for each of them. But when you actually get behind the yoke of an airplane, it doesn't take long to understand the real force that keeps airplanes aloft: M-O-N-E-Y. As one pilot ruefully remarked, "I know there's money in aviation. I put it there!"
Flying has never been inexpensive, nor is it now. Exactly why has been the subject of intense - and occasionally acrid - debate among pilots for years. One of the reasons is the low unit volume of aviation products; another is the heavy expense many of these products (airframes, engines, avionics, etc.) incur to meet FAA requirements, both for initial certification and for production.
A third reason is almost certainly the 800-pound gorilla in the debate - lawsuits. Unfortunately, AOPA can't change the larger society, even though we had a big hand in the 1994 passage of aviation product liability reform legislation. Without that reform, I believe general aviation would not be as well off today.
Of course, cost is relative. In the mid-1960s, I rented a Cessna 150 for my student training in Sacramento, California. The price was $11 an hour. Flight instruction was $7 per hour.
And today? Today, if there are any C-150s around, they rent for about $50 per hour, with an instructor at an additional $25 per hour. It's not an exact comparison, but it appears that airplane rental costs have more than quadrupled since the 1960s, and expert guidance from an instructor has gone up as well.
Four times higher in price seems awful, but remember the effects of inflation. Using a consumer price index calculator (http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/economy/calc/cpihome.html), it's easy to figure that an $11-per-hour airplane in the 1960s should today go for about $57, and a $7-per-hour CFI in the old days ought to be worth nearly $33.
So many of us who have been in aviation don't realize that the costs of flight training have not risen as fast as other commodities. But don't think I'm trying to say flying is not expensive, no matter how you measure it. And although pilots have grumbled since 1903 about the cost of flying, when was the last time anybody did anything to lower it?
I can answer that. It was AOPA, in 1997. That's when we teamed up with one of America's leading credit card companies, MBNA, to create the AOPA FBO Rebate Program - a plan that actually puts flying money back in your pocket. I am proud that AOPA was the first aviation membership association to stop just talking about the cost of flying and actually do something about it.
The program works like this: When you use your AOPA MasterCard or Visa to purchase anything at a "qualified" FBO, you can get a 5 percent rebate credit on your next statement. Aha, "qualified" must be the catch, you are probably thinking. Not so. There are more than 4,000 businesses offering the program, and you'll find them with a rebate symbol in AOPA's Airport Directory, both in print and online (http://data.aopa2.org/airport/index.cfm). The test of a qualified FBO is easy: Any business that sells aviation fuel and/or rents aircraft is qualified. The money going back into your pocket comes from MBNA America Bank, and not from AOPA member dues or the FBO. It's an honest reduction in your cost of flying and another first for AOPA members only.
Claiming the 5 percent rebate is easy. When you get your AOPA credit card statement, simply circle the eligible charges and either mail or fax a copy to MBNA America Bank. The rebate shows up on your next statement.
Your purchases of up to $5,000 per year are eligible for the 5 percent rebate. Let me repeat: that's any AOPA credit card purchase at a qualified FBO: fuel, rental, instruction, parts, charts, maintenance, rental cars, gadgets, etc. You name it, and if the FBO sells or rents it, you can get the 5 percent rebate.
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