President's Perspective

New Web Site Explains Role

As a reader of AOPA Flight Training magazine, you're likely either learning to fly, teaching flying, or working on advanced certificates and ratings to make yourself a better pilot.

Did you ever stop to think how awful it would be if you couldn't fly? Personally, I shudder to even consider that possibility. Yet unwarranted public paranoia about general aviation, ignited by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is a serious threat to our privilege and freedom to fly. Security officials anxious to be seen "doing something" are imposing arbitrary flight restrictions in a helter-skelter fashion, and legislators seem hell-bent on passing laws that make little or no difference in security but horribly threaten your flying.

AOPA played a leading role in restoring GA to as close to "normal" as it is now. But while other AOPA staff members and I were working long hours toward that goal, one discouraging fact very quickly became clear: General aviation remains misunderstood - by nearly everyone. At a congressional hearing last year, I told the House members, "Shame on us," referring to the GA industry as a whole, "for not having created a better understanding of the value of general aviation to the public."

Our national and local opinion leaders, the news media, and even many of our neighbors still have little appreciation of the importance and variety of GA activities in this country. Unwarranted fears and misconceptions about our flying persist.

AOPA's response was to form the General Aviation Restoration Fund. We asked AOPA members for support, and they enthusiastically responded with donations totaling more than $500,000. With those, we set up a world-class Web site: "General Aviation: It's working for America" ( www.GAservingamerica.org ) and launched a major publicity campaign to promote it.

The advertisements promoting a better understanding of GA, paid for by AOPA members from this fund, are not fancy. There are no bright fluffy clouds or beautiful aircraft winging their way through the sky. The ads are simple but dramatic, black and white, no-nonsense messages - one message per ad. They are designed to grab readers' attention long enough to make a critical point about light planes and hopefully pique their interest enough to go to the Web site and experience the full breadth and depth of what GA means to the United States.

We placed the advertisements in leading publications, almost exactly a year after the terrorist attacks, to catch opinion leaders around the country. These included The Wall Street Journal and Business Week magazine, as well as major newspapers and business publications across the nation. In Washington, D.C., decision makers saw our messages in The Washington Post and Roll Call.

But it didn't end with the advertising. A news media campaign and Web-based publicity efforts are spreading the word about the GA site, and you can play a part, too. Use the site and quote from it. Refer your nonpilot friends to it. If you can, influence other non-aviation organizations to include the Web address in their publications and link to it from their Web sites. When making presentations to local opinion leaders about your neighborhood airport, use the Web site. Refer to it whenever you have contact with your political representatives. By spreading the word locally and delivering the message to the right people, we will provide positive arguments to counter unnecessary restrictions and needless and ineffective security measures that may still arise.

The Web site itself is designed to answer the essential question, "What is general aviation and why should you care about it?" The opening title is "General Aviation - It's Working for America." Subsequent easy-access headings such as "GA: Serving all Americans"; "GA: Serving You and Your Community"; "Advantages of GA"; "The Future of GA"; "Is It Safe?" and "How's It All Work?" bring the reader quickly to the point.

The Web site clearly illustrates that the quality of life in America would be vastly reduced without general aviation. Crop yields from our farms would drop by 50 percent. There would be no overnight shipment of packages to and from outlying communities. Business and industry would lose their competitive edge in world markets. Lives would be lost without emergency medical flights. And 145 million people a year would have no practical way to reach their travel destinations.

Through this effort, decision makers and the public can better understand what general aviation is, how it works, and what it does for America. Let's help them to better understand general aviation's critical role in our national economy and the essential role it plays in the daily lives of all Americans. Let's help them to see that a vital link in our air transportation system is "GA serving America."