AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013 - 4

PRESIDENT’S POSITION

Paranoia?

CRAIG L. FULLER
AOPA President and CEO

General aviation is under an unprecedented assault

AOPA PRESIDENT

Craig Fuller is an
active general
aviation pilot who
has been flying for
more than 35 years.

4 | AOPA PILOT May 2013

DURING THE PAST FEW WEEKS, I have found myself
thinking more than once of the adage: “You’re not paranoid if people really are out to get you.”
For months, the administration in Washington, D.C.,
said sequestration simply would not happen. But, then
it did. Explaining that there were no good choices, the
FAA made a distinctly poor choice, unilaterally electing to shutter 149 air traffic control towers. Towers are
opened only when there’s a strong case for an added
margin of safety. So what were the principal criteria
used to decide which towers to close? Well, it was that
the airport primarily serves general aviation.
If the initial judgment was questionable, what happened next is even more disturbing. Sen. Jerry Moran
of Kansas offered a straightforward amendment to a
critical spending bill moving through the Senate. The
amendment, which would have given the FAA the flexibility to find other areas for savings and keep many of
the towers open, had 26 bipartisan cosponsors. Even so,
it was pulled from consideration—a move dictated by
the White House, according to many accounts.
If closing towers is not enough, backups to clear U.S.
Customs at general aviation entry points are becoming as painful as they are preposterous. Forced to stay
with their aircraft for an hour or more, pilots are finding the “welcome home” anything but welcoming. And
that says nothing of the pending battles over user fees,
aircraft taxation, and longer-term cuts to FAA staffing,
NextGen modernization, medical and certification services, and more.
Am I paranoid? No. General aviation is under an
unprecedented assault!
In Washington, D.C., it is widely accepted that
making sequestration truly painful will make budget
negotiations more fruitful. The trouble is, no one is
sitting down to work out how to actually end sequestration. That means, as disturbing as today’s reality is,
it could get much worse in 2014 when federal agencies
must cut their budgets by another 10 percent.
Now, some say that sequestration is the only way
to cut spending. And, while we are as anxious as anyone to see wasteful spending stop, unfairly targeting GA
for reductions, new fees, and higher taxes is simply not
acceptable. So what do we do? We fight!
Advocacy experts from our Frederick and
Washington, D.C., offices have been working with
members of Congress, FAA officials, and other aviation

organizations on everything from raising opposition
to user fees to assessing the potential consequences
of sequestration. We’re digging into the details, asking tough questions, and making sure decision makers
understand the ramifications of their actions. And we’re
doing something too many policy makers aren’t—proposing better solutions.
At some towers slated to close, we’ve teamed up
with groups organizing town hall meetings and we’ve
reached out to get elected leaders involved.
We’ve offered support to crucial allies in the House
and Senate GA Caucuses—now at 173 and 35 members,
respectively—as they have sent letters to the president
opposing user fees, offered legislation to protect GA,
and encouraged their peers to take action.
We continue to work closely with passionate and
high-profile figures in the GA community to get the
message out. Actor and aviator Harrison Ford recently
shared his views about the cuts with GA Caucus members, drawing attention to the GA perspective.
Supporting elected officials who support GA has
never been more important, and we’ve asked for your
help rebuilding the AOPA Political Action Committee. I
want to thank so many of you for contributing.
We’ve also been fielding questions from members
and the media. In just the past few days, our communications team has talked to CNN, CNBC, Fox News Radio,
NBC Nightly News, NPR, The Washington Post, Chicago
Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and many more.
At the same time, devoted AOPA members across the
country have worked with us to get the message out
to media in their areas, agreeing to be interviewed and
offering to share their own experiences with reporters.
Our whole organization has been engaged in this
fight—and we’re not stopping here.
This is much more than a skirmish over sequestration cuts. Without a doubt, we are engaged in a
long-term dispute with those who would limit our freedom to fly through regulations and fees. We need every
pilot and every GA supporter to join the fight.
At times, we may ask you to take direct action in support of general aviation. We’ll bring you details about
when and where help is needed in ePilot and here in
AOPA Pilot magazine. By standing together we can prevail—but it will take each and every one of us! AOPA
EMAIL craig@aopa.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013

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