President's Perspective

Do Your Share In This Critically Important Task

The last time I introduced a nonpilot friend to the joys of flying in a general aviation airplane, his ignorance of general aviation was merely amusing.

"How can you take off without a control tower?" he asked. "What if the engine quits? How do you know where other airplanes are? What's keeping other airplanes from running into us?" His ignorance of how GA works was typical of most nonpilots.

I've always enjoyed taking my nonpilot friends on such "educational" flights, sharing with them the beauty and utility of GA flying. Many other pilots feel the same way, but few ever felt any extreme urgency about the education process.

Until January 5, that is. That was the day a seriously disturbed 15-year-old boy stole a practically new Cessna 172 from a Tampa, Florida, flight school and ran it into the side of a tall office building, mimicking the horrifying terrorist attacks in New York nearly four months earlier. Although the boy did little damage to the office building, the psychological impact of his misdeed on the nonpilot public was devastating.

Before Charles Bishop's spectacular suicide, a light airplane flying overhead might elicit curiosity or even envy from nonpilots - who, by the way, constitute 99.7 percent of eligible U.S. voters. After, with that horrible image of a Cessna 172's twisted fuselage hanging from an office building seared into their minds and terrorist paranoia everywhere, they no longer saw beauty or utility. Instead, they saw only a threat to themselves and their homes and families. In fact, a CNN.com poll conducted immediately after the incident showed that a depressing 64 percent of respondents favored harsher restrictions on "those little airplanes."

Pilots, on the other hand, could only shake their heads and mutter, "They just don't understand GA." People have always been afraid of what they don't understand.

As the leading advocate for general aviation, AOPA weighed in early and often after the January 5 crash to keep media hysteria down. You may have heard or seen me, our Senior Vice

President of Communications Keith Mordoff, or Vice President of Communications Warren Morningstar on the news, on television and radio talk shows, and in newspapers and magazines. Our message, repeated over and over for those who do not understand GA, was simple and direct: The Tampa tragedy was a suicide, not a terrorist act, and while greater GA security would be desirable, the kind of security at O'Hare International isn't needed and won't work at a 2,000-foot grass strip.

As famous American public rights advocate Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) said many years ago, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal - well-meaning, but without understanding."

The time to educate the nonpilot public on the beauty and value of GA flying is now. AOPA has for years offered a multitude of educational materials that can help pilots to explain GA to their friends. They are available electronically on AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org/info/comres4u.html ). Make good use of them as you dispel misconceptions about private flying among your friends and acquaintances.

On the national scale, AOPA is building a sweeping public education program to help calm Americans' fears about GA. Financed by contributions from GA pilots who understand the urgency, it will reach out to the American public and our elected officials by broadcasting public service ads on television and radio, producing newspaper ads in major markets, and organizing a grassroots campaign among pilots.

AOPA will tell the public and our elected officials about the true face of aviation. We will tell them about the businesses that rely upon GA. We will tell them about the charitable work of our pilots and assure them of the safety of our airplanes and airports. But your immediate support for the General Aviation Restoration Fund is needed. To contribute, navigate to www.aopa.org/ga_restoration.html .

We cannot expect anyone to do this job for us. It is up to all American pilots to get the true facts to the public. To preserve our ability to fly, we must initiate this campaign, both on the local and national levels, right away. Do your part: Use AOPA's resources to help nonpilots you know understand and appreciate the value of GA, and contribute today to the national General Aviation Restoration Fund.

Ignorance is not bliss.

How To Help

Do your part to share accurate information about GA. To learn how, visit AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org/info/comres4u.html ).