AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 4) PRESIDENT’SPOSITION BY PHIL BOYER PUBLISHER Some things never change T here are some constants in aviation, things that never really change no matter how much we advance. The laws of aerodynamics haven’t The government was contemplating requiring that every aircraft be equipped with DME as the “price of admission” for IFR operations. Nothing else would provide the degree of navigation precision that the military and the CAA thought would be needed for air traffic control. Now it’s abbreviations such as ADS-B and RNP (required navigation performance). To reduce radio frequency congestion, the CAA thought a lot of air traffic control information should be transmitted automatically on “telemechanged since the Wright brothers first started Phil Boyer serves ters,” and ultimately with “data link.” Well, we their careful wind tunnel observations. Thrust still as publisher of haven’t gotten there yet, and are still talking about has to exceed drag and lift must exceed weight in AOPA Pilot it a half-century later. order for you to take off. Other laws may not be so magazine. The CAA was asking AOPA for help in reminding well grounded in hard science, but are nevertheless just as true. You can fill all of the seats and baggage areas, or pilots that they needed to have both their pilot certificates and you can fill the tanks, but you can’t do both. If you have a head- a government-issued ID card to be legal to fly. Of course, AOPA was in the thick of all of these issues and wind going out, you’ll have a headwind on the return trip. A pilot’s reach will always exceed his wallet. And the aviation sys- more. The association was fighting all attempts to close off airports and airspace to general aviation. It argued that the DME tem is in a crisis. As I was going through aviation magazines of 50 years ago requirement was unnecessary and unworkable, particularly preparing to write this editorial for our fiftieth anniversary edi- since at that time there was no DME equipment available for tion of AOPA Pilot, it struck me that while so much about avia- light aircraft. A quick look at a few of the other things AOPA was involved tion has changed in half a century, in truth, much hasn’t changed at all. Guess what the big issue was back then? Air traf- with at the time: The association was working with the government Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) to fic congestion. Sound familiar? There was a “crisis in the making,” said Edward P Curtis in a investigate the faults and problems with the then relatively . special report to President Eisenhower, as a result of the inability new “omni” navigation system (today more commonly called of the airspace management system to cope with growing con- VOR). Today, I serve as the chairman of RTCA. The AOPA Foundation (which later changed its name to gestion. “I believe we are going to be faced with a traffic problem much larger than the Curtis Report,” stated James T. Pyle of the the AOPA Air Safety Foundation) had been created eight Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) in an interview in that years earlier, in 1950. And the association and the foundafirst edition of The AOPA Pilot magazine. And Eisenhower told tion were actively educating all pilots. By the late 1950s, the Congress that the airspace was, “already overcrowded and that foundation was sending AOPA Pilot Safety Service Bulletins the development of airports, navigation aids, and especially the to all aviators, regardless if they were AOPA members. “We air traffic control system, was lagging far behind aeronautical believe that anything done for the betterment of GA as a whole benefits our membership,” said AOPA’s first president, developments and the needs of our mobile population.” The fix recommended was a radical restructuring of the J.B. “Doc” Hartranft. AOPA’s 24-hour watch was selling like crazy. The 17-jewel CAA. And of course, the CAA (or its successor) needed a lot water-resistant Elgin watch sold for $49.50. Today the AOPA more money to fix the problems. So 1958 actually marks the fiftieth anniversary of two avia- watch from Sporty’s goes for $99.95. In today’s dollars, that tion institutions—AOPA Pilot and the Federal Aviation Agency Elgin would cost $358. And when AOPA Pilot magazine was born, AOPA dues were (later to become the Federal Aviation Administration), though AOPA Pilot is slightly older, having been born in March (the $10 a year. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $72 today. FAA didn’t come into existence until August). I’ll leave it to you Makes your $39 annual dues look like a real bargain, doesn’t it? So while times have changed, the look of AOPA Pilot has to judge which institution has aged better. Other similarities between now and 50 years ago? Well, there changed, and the Web has come to augment our print publicawas heated discussion about closing busy airports to all but tions—in a sense, much has stayed the same. But, AOPA conaircraft flown by “highly skilled professionals” (read that as air- tinues with the same mission that has served us well since our liners only). Some thought that little airplanes were clogging founding in 1939: information, education, and advocacy. The up the big airports and causing a hazard. This perfectly match- half-century of AOPA Pilot magazine has been our primary and most effective way to fulfill the “information” goal. es our battle with the airlines in the New York airspace. AOPA PILOT • 4 • MARCH 2008
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