View from capitol hill: Pay it forward

It’s an unfortunate situation, but what we have here in the United States is not the norm around the world. Many new pilots are unaware of the challenges and threats we face as a community. Often, those who get started in GA become successful commercial or military pilots, and many others—but not all—tend to leave GA as a memory, even though many started at their local flying field with a dream.

General aviation in this great country is the exception rather than the rule. I’d like to think it is the combined efforts of AOPA pilots over the past 83 years that have ensured our system is the envy of pilots in other countries.

As our population grows here in the United States, especially around urban areas, the challenges facing general aviation will continue to grow and threaten our fragile general aviation ecosystem. It will take the combined efforts of each AOPA member, and those to come, to help protect what we have today and improve it for future aviators.

AOPA has the influence and respect of policy makers and we have the interest and heart of pilots across the nation, all because we have an engaged and passionate membership.Pilots join AOPA not only for the extraordinary association benefits but because they also have a passion to fly—or maybe a family member is a pilot, and they simply are aviation enthusiasts. For many years, pilots got into aviation through the military, but today general aviation is where most commercial and airline pilots get their start, and the trend is growing.

In my humble opinion, and being in the political arena, it is time for all pilots to pay it forward and join this community because quite simply, we are stronger when we work together at the local, state, and federal levels. AOPA has the influence and respect of policy makers and we have the interest and heart of pilots across the nation, all because we have an engaged and passionate membership. Spread the word to your fellow pilots who are not AOPA members, because it matters.

I will be the first to admit, we certainly don’t have a perfect system and much work remains. We have the benefits of a safe and efficient airspace; we have more than 19,000 landing areas including airports both public and private, heliports, seaplane bases, and backcountry strips. Many face the constant threat of poor land-use decisions by local politicians or a developer who sees profit in shopping malls or housing tracts.

Yes, we have challenges and battles that pop up every day in every form. Policy makers need to understand and all pilots must appreciate the social and economic benefits of GA.

While other nations have seen overregulation and increased government fees, which have led to significant declines in GA, we have been able to stave off many unwanted and unneeded ideas here in the United States. General aviation in other nations is suffering because of very high fees, steep rental costs, and stifling government oversight and regulation. Even amid a global pandemic, GA thrived for the past two years here in the United States, while total hours flown by some other countries decreased by almost one-third. No doubt, aviation is a very regulated industry and while we support regulations that make sense and improve safety, we continue to work to alleviate, reduce, or eliminate duplicative and needless regulations or processes as much as we can, such as in third class medical reform and other issues.

We are now deep in the trenches to develop and implement a safe and smart transition to an unleaded GA future. I cannot think of another issue at this moment that is more important to our general aviation system. It is issues like this that can help if all pilots and aviation enthusiasts join our AOPA ranks and help us advocate for this freedom to fly, whether you are in GA now or flying commercially. Help keep the passion for flying available and accessible, not only for today’s aviators but also for those to come.

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