AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014 - 18

WAYPOINTS

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Bring it on
Ready for the next 75 years

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Tom Haines started
flying at age 16 and
began writing and
working for AOPA
Pilot at age 26.

18 | AOPA PILOT May 2014

MESSY, THIS LEARNING TO FLY BUSINESS. I was 15
years old and completely lost and overwhelmed by
ground school. The ground instructor might as well
been speaking Latin to this kid from rural western
Pennsylvania, the notion of VORs, NDBs, wind
triangles, magnetic variation, and E6Bs-and I
don't mean the electronic kind-was that foreign. I had been in an airplane twice at that
point, for a total of maybe 30 minutes. My father sitting next to me in ground school was there not to
learn to fly, but because he had to drive me to class
anyhow, so why not take the class? He was absorbing
the information a lot better than I was, as would be
particularly evident weeks later when he would pass
the written on the first try and I would not.
I started flying the next summer as I turned 16,
soloed a few weeks later, and continued plowing
through the private pilot curriculum as finances and
social life allowed. Flipping burgers at McDonalds
and much moral and financial support from my parents helped. With only one day left before my written
exam expired, I passed the private pilot checkride on
a gray, overcast April 29, 1979. I went home and filled
out the application to join the Aircraft Owners and
Pilots Association. You won't be surprised to find out
they had been hounding me by direct mail for months.
I don't recall the dues in those days, but I know it was
multiple shifts at McDonalds, where minimum wage
was $2.90 an hour.
It was not a completely altruistic act. The premium to join was an aluminum kneeboard. I was
convinced I needed that in the cockpit of the Cessna
152 I was flying-and certainly in the big Cessna 172
I was getting checked out in so I could take family
and friends for rides.
Through college and attempting to get a career
going, flying took a backseat, with me barely staying
current. Like many, I didn't renew my AOPA membership during those years until aviation came strongly
back into my life-when I started working here in
1988 as an associate editor. Throughout those years,
though, I was comforted to know that a large national
organization had my back when it came to protecting access to airspace and airports, keeping onerous
regulations in check, educating pilots about safety,
and encouraging the esprit de corps among pilots that
makes aviation unique and inviting.

I started working here
in time be involved in the
planning for the special issue of AOPA
Pilot for the organization's fiftieth anniversary. The
October 1989 issue was a barnburner at more than 200
pages. This May 2014 seventy-fifth anniversary issue
syncs with the organization's founding in May 1939 at
Wings Field outside of Philadelphia.
As you'll read in the following pages, the organization's goals have not changed in the intervening 75
years-protecting the rights and freedoms of general
aviation pilots, encouraging safe flying, and reminding pilots of the fun of flying. Twenty-six years after
I walked in the door as an employee, I continue to
be proud of the work we do both here in our Media
group, which has expanded from just one magazine to a dozen channels for sharing content, and
throughout the organization. I'm as impressed today
with the wealth of knowledge and the subject matter experts throughout these halls as I was on day
one. As an AOPA member, active pilot, and aircraft
owner, I'm fortunate to have folks like them looking out for me every day.
We don't win every effort and we certainly don't
take a stand on every issue that syncs with the desires
and expectations of every member. But know that
every decision is made with the goal of protecting
and fostering the advancement of general aviation.
Challenges ahead? You bet. But that's always been the
case and for 75 years this institution has taken the lead.
The result is a freedom to fly in this country that is
greater than anywhere else on the planet. We're ready
for the next 75 years. Bring it on.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

SOCIAL

Follow on twitter.com/tomhaines29

http://www.twitter.com/tomhaines29

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014