Waypoints: Exercise your freedom to fly

While the AOPA headquarters building at that time was only five years old and looked thoroughly modern on the outside, inside it was a hodgepodge of refurbished desks and filing cabinets, vinyl chairs, and peculiar cubicles made of plywood and corkboard. Apparently someone misbudgeted the amount needed to furnish the building with new furniture.

I was shown to one of those plywood cubicles, complete with an IBM Selectric typewriter and a tan telephone with five translucent buttons across the bottom and a red hold button. “This one is the WATS line if you need to make a long-distance call. Don’t forget,” a fellow staffer urged. “The fax machine is in the closet.” I was handed a stack of press releases and told to write the news section for the next issue of AOPA Pilot magazine.

Ah, the life of an associate editor.

Six years later when I was appointed editor in chief and senior vice president of publications, almost nothing was the same. The offices had been refurbished with modern furniture, the phone system had been replaced, and the Selectrics had given way to networked desktop computers with word processors installed. Within a couple of years, some press releases would begin arriving by this new thing called “email.” However, the names of those companies submitting press releases were mostly the same.

Three decades after that first day, and as we celebrate AOPA’s eightieth anniversary, change has continued—and at an accelerated pace. Almost nothing, though, has changed more in those decades than the way we consume information. And we here at AOPA have kept up and even led in some instances. In addition to AOPA Pilot, we now have Flight Training magazine; a robust website; and multiple daily, weekly, and semi-weekly email newsletters for news, travel, drones, and a host of other subjects. Video segments are posted multiple times a week, including AOPA Live This Week, our video news magazine. Multiple podcasts and blogs are updated throughout the month. And we occasionally host live webinars on YouTube. You can access it all through our app. Content is shared daily—sometimes hourly—on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram—and probably a few other sites.

The ways in which you can learn from AOPA about what is happening in general aviation have changed dramatically, but the issues the organization takes on for general aviation are shades of the same ones the founders faced in 1939. As you will read in this special anniversary issue, things like access to airspace, challenges from the airlines, safety, and protection of airports all were issues that led to the founding of AOPA (“The Foremost Advocate,” p. 50). And if you follow along in those media channels described above, you will see frequent coverage of those same issues here in the twenty-first century. The difference is now you hear about it nearly by the minute, instead of waiting until next month to read about it in the magazine.

Even after all these decades as a part of AOPA and 25 years as editor in chief, I continue to be impressed by and proud of the work the organization does to protect the rights and safety of general aviation pilots. Because of our strong membership and the professional staff on our advocacy and safety teams, we here in the United States enjoy a freedom to fly unlike that in any other nation. Over the decades, I’ve flown or flown in GA airplanes on six continents and met many passionate and enthusiastic pilots around the world. Despite the difficulties of flying in their home countries—wallet-draining fees, steely eyed and uncaring bureaucracies, and regulatory micromanagement—they continue to find ways to get an aviation fix through flying clubs, microlights, and creative financing. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that they are all envious of what we have here. And many of them carve out time and finances every year to come to the United States to rent airplanes and fly around, enjoying the amazing access we have in this country.

Pilot organizations in other parts of the world are not nearly as effective in standing up for GA pilots because they simply don’t have the numbers or the resources as does AOPA in the United States. As a longtime GA pilot and one who wants to pass this legacy on for another 80 years, thank you for your support of AOPA and the work we do. For without the power of your membership behind us, we would face the same restrictions as pilots elsewhere.

Go out now and enjoy your freedom to fly.

Email [email protected]
@tomhaines29