President's Perspective

AOPA Is Here For You

In just the first few flights after earning an FAA private pilot certificate, most pilots experience a flash of understanding about learning to fly. It's summed up in the phrase "license to learn." It's something old pilots understand very well, and most new pilots discover it quickly. It embodies a basic truth that this magazine has long recognized: A good pilot is always learning.

But after the checkride, finding reliable answers to perplexing aviation questions can be a challenge. Your flight instructor may no longer be available and other pilots may give you a "hangar flying" answer that may not be entirely correct - or worse, is downright wrong. I remember once being solemnly assured by an older pilot that the pilot in command for any flight was the pilot with the most hours in that aircraft type, even if that pilot was sitting in the back seat. (That's not true, by the way.)

Does all my cross-country time count toward an instrument rating? What's the break-even point for buying versus renting? Am I legal to fly while taking a prescription drug? What if some dour-faced guy with a narrow tie and an FAA name badge greets me on the tarmac? What would I do? What could I do?

Correct answers help pilots to make good decisions. And finding an answer might be as simple as referring to a pilot's operating handbook, calling Flight Service for weather, or

asking an A technician. But sometimes it's not a simple answer. Then where can you turn?

For almost 380,000 member-pilots, the answer is easy: Call AOPA. Since our founding in 1939, a key AOPA mission has been to provide answers that will help keep our members' flying fun, safe, and affordable. In fact, in the early 1980s, AOPA was the first aviation membership association to set up a toll-free Pilot Assistance Hotline for members. Until recently, that Hotline (800/USA-AOPA, 800/872-2672) was by far the easiest way for members to get quick, accurate answers to aviation questions.

But with the advent of the Internet, there are additional avenues for AOPA members to get answers to pressing aviation questions. The vast resources of AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org ) can be thought of as AOPA's 24/7 "electronic library." The door to these pilot resources is www.aopa.org/members/files/, and it has more than 30 links; one goes to the AOPA AvFacts menu, which offers "only" 225 different links to just about any imaginable aviation content. Need information on aviation medical issues? There are no fewer than 39 links to AOPA medical-information sheets, covering everything from special-issuance medicals to FAA-accepted drugs. Take your pick!

The vastness of the AOPA electronic library, as the pitchman on television says, "must be seen to be believed!" Access is available to any AOPA member, including our special AOPA Flight Training trial members.

Some of the questions AOPA receives by phone, e-mail, and fax are picked up anonymously for the "Quiz Me!" section of AOPA ePilot, our weekly association member newsletter. Plus, late last year we began a companion electronic newsletter aimed at the student-pilot readers of this magazine: AOPA ePilot-Flight Training Edition. In a recent "Quiz Me" a pilot wrote, "Can you provide me with some type of information or list of aviation scholarships or loans? I am interested in continuing my flight training." The answer: "AOPA is asked this question numerous times each week. We have developed a subject report on this topic that includes a list of available aviation scholarships" and goes on to point to that subject report online.

By the way, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation annually administers more than $11,000 from several aviation-related scholarship funds. Categories for the financial aid include pilots, A technicians, and aviation managers. Additional information is on the Web site ( www.aopa.org/asf/scholarship ).

A variation of the "Quiz Me!" questions, called "Final Exam," appears in the new AOPA Flight Training edition of ePilot, and concentrates on member questions of interest to those still in primary flight training.

You've probably already spotted the common thread in all this: A large part of learning is in simply knowing where to get the right answer. With our vast collection of general aviation resources, AOPA is a virtual "one-stop shop" for answers to your aviation questions.

For as the pilots and flight instructors at AOPA know so well, a good pilot is always learning.