AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2013 - 18

WAYPOINTS

Diversity

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Aviation is our common ground, but not much else

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Tom Haines has
been reporting on
the general aviation
industry for nearly
30 years.

18 | AOPA PILOT August 2013

WE ARE A DIVERSE LOT, we AOPA members. From
student pilots to astronauts, our skills, interests, and
political leanings are all over the map. Two recent trends
involving the federal government highlight how philosophically diverse we are. Unable to make the hard
decisions necessary to reduce an out-of-control federal
budget deficit, Congress and the White House crafted,
approved, and ultimately allowed to go live sequestration legislation that forced small to sometimes dramatic
cuts to the budgets of various agencies.
As we have written about the effect on the FAA, some
members want to argue about whose fault it is. Some
accuse AOPA of favoring the Obama Administration,
believing that the White House wrote and implemented
this legislation all by itself. Others say, no, it started in
Congress and the blame should go there. They accuse
AOPA of “siding” with Congress. Truth is, as planned
by the founding fathers, it took both branches to get this
legislation written and implemented.
Among the FAA’s responses to sequestration were to
cut the contract air traffic control tower program, one
of the biggest federal outsourcing success stories ever.
Study after study shows that contract towers operate
more efficiently than federally staffed towers with no
degradation in safety. But because it was a contract, it
was easy for the FAA to lop off that expense. AOPA and
other aviation associations said, “Hey, wait a minute,
those are almost all general aviation airports. Why are
you focusing the cuts on GA?” The associations urged
the FAA to develop some metrics around which towers could be closed without impacting safety; after all,
there is a process for determining when an airport gets a
tower. While times change and some towers may no longer be necessary, others in fact do contribute to safety.
Some AOPA members believed that all of the towers should be closed. They cheered the FAA’s plan and
were disappointed at what they believed to be AOPA’s
position in favor of keeping them all open. AOPA’s position always reflected the probability that some towers
could be safely closed; we just didn’t agree with the
FAA’s approach of using a chain saw where a scalpel
was needed. Many other members welcomed AOPA’s
position, especially those who operate at busy airports
with contract towers. Meanwhile, the towers are now
funded through the end of the fiscal year.
Recently, some pilots have been met by brownshirted, armed federal agents upon landing. The agents

frequently detain the pilots, sometimes for hours, while
they go over documents and search the airplanes—
sometimes calling in local law enforcement to assist.
They never seem to state the reason for the stop, or
their authority for detaining pilots. AOPA Government
Affairs and Pilot Information Center staffs began to
compile the reports from members. We reported on
the incidents on AOPA Online and AOPA Live This
Week, causing a sensation among other media. After
we broke the story, publications from AvWeb to The
Atlantic reported on the plight of pilots harassed by federal agents. Most frustrating, the agents sometimes are
working with incorrect information about what documents pilots are required to carry in their airplanes. Two
years ago, AOPA staff pointed out errors in the guidelines used by Customs and Border Protection agents,
yet the agency corrected only some of the errors—and
the original guidelines are still in circulation. To assist
pilots in a stop, we created a guide in a kneeboard format. See the guide following page 96.
After not receiving a response for months about our
Freedom of Information Act requests for the agencies’
authority for the stops, AOPA sent a strongly worded
letter to the acting CBP commissioner demanding an
answer and threatening to elevate the situation to a
Congressional investigation.
The response from our diverse membership is
equally interesting. Regarding the Congressional investigation, some are asking, “What are you waiting for?”
Regarding the stops, one member wrote: “Conditioning
for the police state; no one is left out. You don’t have to
look far for the answers.”
Others welcome the additional security they perceive from the stops. “I have to ask one question. If you
are a law-abiding pilot and are stopped by border patrol
or homeland security, what really is the problem?” And
another: “Stop being such pansies. If law enforcement
is conducting a search of one’s aircraft, they must have
a legal reason. If you have nothing to hide, who cares?”
Whatever your point of view, somewhere there is
another AOPA member with an equally strident opposite position on the subject.
High wing versus low wing, anyone?
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2013

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