AOPA has the answers
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 an airplane 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 a weather briefing, or asking an airframe and powerplant mechanic. But sometimes it's not a simple answer. Then where can you turn?
For more than 400,000 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 telephone hotline for members.
Twenty years ago, the Pilot Information Center (800/USA-AOPA, 800/872-2672) was by far the easiest way for members to get quick, accurate answers to aviation questions. Today, the Internet offers additional avenues for AOPA members to get immediate answers to pressing aviation questions. Although the new AOPA Flight Training Web site offers all the resources you'll need to complete your primary flight training, AOPA Online can take you anywhere else you'd like to go in aviation -- and your membership includes unlimited free access to both.
The vast resources of AOPA Online can be thought of as AOPA's 24-7 resource center. The door to this electronic library offers more than 50 links; one goes to a database of frequently asked questions, searchable by keyword or topic. At last count AOPA's aviation subject reports menu provided one-click access to more than 80 comprehensive documents addressing specific aspects of aircraft operation and ownership.
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 AOPA Flight Training introductory members.
Some of the questions AOPA receives by phone and e-mail are picked up anonymously and answered in the "Quiz Me!" section of AOPA ePilot, our weekly association member newsletter -- or "Final Exam," which appears in this magazine each month; a question is also included in AOPA ePilot Flight Training Edition each week. Recently a pilot asked, "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.
The listing of more than 30 aviation scholarships is available to you online. By the way, our own AOPA Air Safety Foundation administers two of the annual scholarships. The next submission deadline for the McAllister and Donald Burnside memorial scholarships is March 31, and applications are available on the Web site.
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.
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