"Getting involved in your airport means you're contributing, doing your part to make aviation more inviting and more rewarding for the next new pilot," columnist Mark Twombly observed in the October 2004 AOPA Flight Training.
As a student pilot, or perhaps a low-time private pilot who does not own an airplane, why should you get involved in your airport? There are lots of reasons. General aviation airports are under almost constant threat from numerous sources: residential development, poor zoning, radio towers constructed too near the traffic pattern, and the like. If your airport should be affected by any of these, your flight training could be interrupted, costing you time and money.
What can you do? For starters, consider joining the AOPA Airport Support Network. ASN is a group of volunteers who act as a liaison between local pilots and AOPA. They monitor city and county meetings and keep on top of such issues as proposed curfews, noise abatement procedures, and operational restrictions.
"Isn't it AOPA's job to monitor these issues for the members?" you may ask. AOPA can help to stop many of these threats, but without the eyes and ears of local pilots, "it would be nearly impossible," according to Roger Cohen, AOPA vice president of regional affairs.
How do you get started? See AOPA Online for a complete list of airports that need ASN volunteers. The program's goal is to have a volunteer at each public-use airport in the United States. Review the requirements (ASN volunteers must have access to e-mail, for example). Complete and submit the online volunteer nomination form. If your airport already has an ASN volunteer, you'll find contact information so that you can report anything of interest to him or her.
Involvement reaps many rewards, Twombly says. And he should know--he's the ASN volunteer for Page Field in Fort Myers, Florida.
Find out how you can be an Airport Support Network volunteer at AOPA Online.
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