AOPA Action

Longtime pilot becomes new AOPA president

Raising visibility of general aviation a priority for Craig Fuller

AOPA this month ushers in only its fourth president in the organization's 70-year history. Craig Fuller takes over the association from Phil Boyer, who retired at the end of 2008 after 18 years of leading the world's largest aviation association.

Like hundreds of thousands of pilots over the decades, Fuller in his youth acted on a desire to learn to fly. The son of a World War II Army Air Corps flight instructor, 16-year-old Fuller began flight lessons in a Cessna 150 at Buchanan Field near San Francisco. At age 17, in 1968, he earned his private pilot certificate and general aviation has played an important role in his life ever since.

"It has changed my life," Fuller said of his aviation experience. As a teenager and while a student at the University of California at Los Angeles, he began taking air-to-ground photos for real estate companies to help pay for his flying expenses. That entrepreneurial spirit would serve him well in a career spanning consulting, Fortune 500 corporations, and government. Fuller served as President Ronald Reagan's secretary of the cabinet and as chief of staff for Vice President George H. W. Bush, spending a total of eight years working in the White House. He later led a large association representing drugstore chains, where he worked on health care and other important issues. "I'm comfortable with the ways of Washington," he said.

Fuller sees one of his priorities as educating influencers at all levels of government and communities about the benefits of general aviation. "Policymakers and opinion leaders need to understand the contributions general aviation makes," he said. "Because we are not understood, we become vulnerable to user fees and the closing of airports. Our advocacy position is job number one."

AOPA's new president plans to regularly meet with members and influencers around the country to spread the word about general aviation. As a 40-year pilot and 35-year AOPA member, he plans to use general aviation to his advantage. Fuller's first airplane was a 1980 Cessna 172RG Cutlass that he purchased new and flew on business trips throughout the western states for his consulting company. In 2003, after several years without an airplane, he bought a new Beechcraft Bonanza A36 that he flies some 200 hours a year with his wife, Karen, as a frequent passenger.

Look for more information on Fuller's plans for AOPA in his monthly "President's Perspective." --Thomas B. Haines

Foreign flight students get alternative to J-1 visa

In an effort to allow foreign flight school students to continue flight training in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said that it will create new visa category M to replace the J-1 visa, set to end in June 2010. The new visa will be administered under the DHS instead of the State Department, which had been granting J-1 visas. The Transportation Security Administration will conduct criminal history checks on all applicants before visa issuance. Since 2006, only eight schools in the United States have had permission to train students with J-1 visas; however, DHS said it will remove the cap and expand the program if needed. AOPA will continue to meet with industry leaders and government representatives to iron out the details for the flight schools that can train foreign flight students.

Don't forget to use discounts, rewards from your AOPA credit card

It's easy to forget that AOPA membership provides you with discounts and rewards that come in handy. Reward yourself while shopping for others at the WorldPoints Mall and earn bonus points for purchases made at more than 200 popular retailers.

The WorldPoints Mall helps you to avoid crowded stores and shop from the comfort and convenience of your home or office. Earn up to 10 bonus points for every qualifying dollar spent, in addition to double points for aviation purchases. Points can then be redeemed for cash, travel, brand-name merchandise, and gift cards.

And, if you're going to be traveling, use the AOPA WorldPoints credit card to fill your car with gas and receive a point for each dollar spent, or double the points by fueling your airplane at one of more than 4,700 participating FBOs nationwide. Visit the Web site to learn more.

Learn to make better cockpit decisions

Bad decisions in the cockpit cause far too many aircraft accidents. It's a serious problem for aviation safety, which is why the AOPA Air Safety Foundation is trying a new kind of solution. The new online course, Do the Right Thing: Decision Making for Pilots, starts from the premise that making good cockpit decisions doesn't require tons of experience or exceptional judgment--just the ability to anticipate and recognize basic problems, and then take timely action to correct them.

The course provides plenty of real-world advice to help you do that, but the highlight is undoubtedly the interactive video scenarios. Created using Microsoft Flight Simulator, the five scenarios let you "choose your own adventure," making choices for fictional pilots, seeing where those choices lead, and hearing feedback on how you did.

The course takes approximately 45 to 60 minutes to complete, but there's no need to finish in one sitting. Check it out online.

FAA backs down on new rules for testing centers

Thanks to intervention from AOPA, the FAA is not going to require knowledge testing center employees to become FAA designees or set mileage requirements between centers.

The association strongly opposed a plan to make testing center employees become FAA designees, similar to aviation medical examiners and designated pilot examiners, because the process would have required days of travel and training for each employee.

AOPA also opposed changes to another order that would institute a mileage requirement between testing centers, arguing that the number of centers in an area should be decided by market demand.

This summer, the FAA revoked administration privileges for nearly 160 centers that had given fewer than 25 tests during the past year. Since then, AOPA has successfully worked with the FAA to get testing privileges reinstated for more than half of the centers that challenged the revocation.

For the latest on AOPA's advocacy efforts for pilots, visit AOPA Online.

Free AOPA ASF Safety Seminars
Date	Location
1/12/2009	Mesa, AZ
1/12/2009	Reno, NV
1/13/2009	Sacramento, CA
1/13/2009	Tucson, AZ
1/14/2009	El Paso, TX
1/14/2009	Milpitas, CA
1/15/2009	Albuquerque, NM
1/15/2009	Rohnert Park, CA
1/20/2009	Raymond, MS
1/21/2009	Baton Rouge, LA
1/26/2009	Fort Worth, TX
1/26/2009	San Diego, CA
1/27/2009	Costa Mesa, CA
1/27/2009	West Houston, TX
1/28/2009	Ontario, CA
1/28/2009	San Antonio, TX
1/29/2009	Austin, TX
1/29/2009	Burbank, CA
These programs are made possible by gifts from individual pilot donors to the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. Seminar dates are tentative. For final dates, please visit the Web site.