AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2015 - 18

ABOVE AND BEYOND

The front lines

BY JAMES MINOW
Executive Director, AOPA Foundation

Protecting general aviation's future
SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, a small band of aviators
joined together to create AOPA. The group's mission:
Protect and secure the future of what we now call
general aviation. What our founders sought to create
and then protect was a culture of safety and responsibility, an environment of thoughtful and reasonable
regulation, and a business model that would sustain
a robust aviation industry in states and communities
throughout the country.
We have not strayed from that mission, although
our work has become far more complex. Effectively
addressing the challenges that GA faces today
requires an army of missionaries to help AOPA
advance the faith.
Consider the business model: The number of active
private pilots in the United States peaked in 1980.
Decades of growth had been fueled by The Greatest
Generation's return from World War II-and later,
their boomer children-all seeking a piece of the
American Dream. Federal and local governments

Effectively addressing the challenges that GA
faces today requires an army of missionaries to
help AOPA advance the faith.

JAMES MINOW

joined the AOPA
Foundation in
September 2014.
He is an active pilot
who owns and
flies a Beechcraft
Sundowner.

18 | AOPA PILOT March 2015

expanded the commercial and general aviation infrastructure, through the construction of new airports
and creation of the FAA, resulting in an environment
for growth that was quite healthy.
These also were the halcyon years for aircraft manufacturers-especially the big three of Piper, Beech,
and Cessna-which could at that time afford to build
significant sales and training networks through hundreds of affiliated FBOs.
In the boom years, a pilot or student pilot could see
the flight path because the path was created and supported by the industry sales model. Manufacturers
could afford to build trainers and recruit the stream
of students who would graduate with their certificates and move into the chain of aircraft ownership.
Shock waves in the marketplace were coming, however. They signaled the need for a shift
from a for-profit model, increasingly difficult for a
now-diminished industry to sustain, to a nonprofit
model driven by end users and the association that

represents them-AOPA. The halcyon days are gone
(or at least in recession) and, in short, the future of
general aviation is in our hands-yours and mine.
Our industry is not alone. Anyone who has financed
a college education is aware that tuition alone
won't cover costs. The same is true for health care
delivery, medical research, performing art centers, and
museums, to name only a few. The price of membership
or admission is far less than the cost of creating first-rate
programs for members, guests, and customers.
In today's model, it is contributions from members
and philanthropists that assure AOPA has the resources
required to carry on the critical work of preserving, protecting, and advancing general aviation. Please consider
this: The next time you enroll in an AOPA Air Safety
Institute course or enjoy a video series, remember that
the Institute was created through and always has been
funded by private donations.
When you see one of AOPA's soon-to-be-ubiquitous
Cessna 152s at an airport near you, know that they are
the symbol of AOPA's leadership in building the pilot
population, lowering the cost of flying, and creating a
market for like-new remanufactured aircraft within
reach of almost all pilots and flying clubs from coast
to coast.
And on your next multistop cross-country, remember that AOPA's staff has been hard at work for decades
to protect access and fight user fees and other taxes on
pilots and aircraft owners.
None of this would have happened-nor will general
aviation be sustained in the future-without the generous financial support of members like you. So if you
have not already added "donor" to the type ratings in
your logbook, I hope you will join me this year to expand
AOPA's missionary front lines.
If each of us goes just a bit above and beyond, we will
accomplish great things together.
I always look forward to hearing from our members and donors, so please feel free to contact me
anytime with thoughts, questions, or ideas on ways in
which we can, together, preserve, protect, and advance
general aviation.
AOPA
EMAIL james.minow@aopa.org
WEB www.aopafoundation.org

http://www.aopafoundation.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2015

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