AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2017 - 27

AOPA helps battle egregious
pricing at Heber City FBO
Business topped member pricing complaints
OK3 AIR, the sole fixed-base opera-

tor at Utah's Heber City Municipal
Airport, has garnered the most complaints from AOPA members in an
AOPA review of high fuel prices,
egregious fees, and lack of competition. Located southeast of Salt
Lake City, the FBO provides essential access to Park City, Heber
Valley, and the famous Sundance
Film Festival.
After continued reports of having the highest fuel prices in the
region, tenants and based operators at Heber City filed an informal
complaint with the FAA in hopes of
finding a solution to the many problems they experienced at the airport.
According to the airport advisory
board's meeting minutes, OK3 Air

ACTION IN THE STATES

owner Nadim AbuHaidar tried to
justify keeping fuel prices artificially
high, stating that Heber was a desirable resort destination and wouldn't
want it to be known as the cheap
fuel source because traffic would
increase, and public complaints
would result.
In a letter to the Heber City
Council, AOPA General Counsel Ken
Mead wrote, "OK3 Air has openly
indicated its fuel prices remain
high for the benefit of the airport
to ensure any lower fuel prices do
not cause an increase in traffic and
noise." Mead also stated, "It's not
the place of a tenant FBO to regulate
traffic, let alone through their pricing practices."
www.aopa.org/pilot/hebercity

AOPA, COPA URGE
RECIPROCITY FOR GA
MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS
AOPA and the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association
(COPA) sent a joint letter to the FAA and Transport
Canada, urging their respective governments to develop
reciprocities with regard to each other's medical certification regimes.
"AOPA welcomes Canadian pilots to fly in the United
States, and I believe a new partnership will not only benefit both countries' economies but will also allow general
aviation to thrive well beyond U.S. borders," said AOPA
President Mark Baker. "Qualifications to obtain U.S. and
Canadian pilot and medical certificates are similar, and
I see no reason as to why we can't operate safely in each
other's airspace."
More than 12,000 pilots have taken advantage of the
new BasicMed medical alternative in the United States.
Not long after its launch, the Bahamas agreed to allow
pilots flying under BasicMed in their airspace.
COPA is asking the FAA to expand the special flight
authorization (SFA) regime to include Canadian certified,
limited, and amateur-built aircraft operated by Canadian
recreational pilots.

SECURITY TFRS SHOULD
DO NO LOCAL HARM
Six members of Congress have called on
security officials to work with the aviation community to lessen the economic
impact of President Donald Trump's
weekend trips to the Trump National
Golf Club Bedminster. In a letter to U.S.
Secret Service Director Randolph D. Alles,
the bipartisan group detailed the hardship that security measures, including a
few multiday airport shutdowns, inflict
on area general aviation businesses that
normally produce a combined annual $2.8
billion in economic output. A high priority
for AOPA is working to reduce the economic impact of security TFRs to provide
necessary security without imposing a
major financial burden on small aviation
businesses.
www.aopa.org/pilot/trumptfrs

GA SCORES SAFETY,
FUNDING WINS IN OHIO
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has signed a state
appropriations bill that assures general
aviation airports a fair share of grant funding through 2019, and enhances safety by
improving the process for reviewing proposed tall structures near airports. AOPA
Great Lakes Regional Manager Kyle Lewis
met with lawmakers during the appropriations process to defend GA airports against
an amendment that would have required
that 25 percent of all airport grant funds-
more than $2 million-be allocated to the
state's commercial airports to the detriment of community airports and AOPA's
approximately 9,200 members in Ohio.
www.aopa.org/pilot/ohiofunding

EAST HAMPTON, NEW YORK,
NOISE IMPASSE ENDURES
While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
favor of aviation freedom in declining
to hear an appeal of lower court rulings
against a curfew imposed by the town of
East Hampton, New York, the court ruling
could prove a pyrrhic victory. The National
Business Aviation Association hailed the
Supreme Court's one-sentence ruling as
a "resounding victory for public-use airports nationwide." But airport opponents
have turned to other means to achieve their
goal of silencing the airport. AOPA wrote
to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging a
veto of a bill that would require local voters
to approve any airport improvement projects requiring federal grants.
www.aopa.org/pilot/noisenewyork

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 27

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/hebercity http://www.aopa.org/pilot/ohiofunding http://www.aopa.org/pilot/noisenewyork http://www.aopa.org/pilot/trumptfrs http://www.aopa.org/pilot

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2017