AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2022 - 14

AOPA ACTION
TOP STOR IES /
An 'important fabric of our nation'
Baker briefs Congress on the state of GA
A O PA P R E S I D E N T MA R K Baker was
among several general aviation leaders
who informed Congress on the
current state of the industry during
a House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee hearing in
July. Baker highlighted several issues
including GA's improved safety record,
aviation workforce challenges, airport
hangar shortages, and the most
pressing issue facing GA today: the
need for a safe and smart transition
to unleaded fuels for piston aircraft. In
his testimony, Baker called GA an important
fabric of our nation-a $247 billion
industry supporting more than 1.2 million
jobs and serving communities with
more than 5,000 public-use airports
across the country.
Baker outlined how GA weathered the
storm in the aftermath of the COVID-19
pandemic, with an increasing number of
aircraft taking to the skies without a compromise
to safety. In fiscal year 2021, GA
had the safest year ever with a fatal accident
rate of 0.74 accidents per 100,000
flight hours. That followed a decades-long
Avgas woes
trend of historically low accident rates,
which have declined by about 50 percent
over the past 25 years.
The hearing generated discussion
on aviation workforce challenges-especially
as travel woes such as weather, air
traffic control delays, and staffing issues
have come to the forefront in the news
media. According to Boeing Co., numbers
suggest a need for 612,000 new pilots,
626,000 new maintenance technicians,
and 886,000 new cabin crewmembers
over the next 20 years. Baker and the GA
leaders also fielded questions from the
committee on topics including costs of
flight training, diversifying the aviation
workforce, designated pilot examiner
shortages, and unleaded fuel.
aopa.org/pilot/congress
AOPA President Mark Baker warned
of the safety issue and dangerous
precedent that Santa Clara County
in California has pursued by banning
the sale of 100LL at the county's two
airports before a safe transition was
in place.
" This is an enormous safety
issue not to mention it goes against
AIP grant assurances and is
discriminatory. If not addressed, this
could lead to a domino effect at other
airports across the country, which
would devastate our industry while
we work in earnest to transition to an
unleaded fuel, " said Baker.
He also noted his position as
co-chair of the Eliminate Aviation
Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE)
initiative and discussed his
intention to work with the industry,
stakeholders, and the FAA to remove
lead from avgas by 2030.
aopa.org/100UL
ACTION IN THE STATES
California. Perched on the steps of California's state capitol,
the brightly painted Cirrus put a positive spotlight on general
aviation for California's Aerospace and Aviation Day. Hosted
by the Association of California Airports, the two-day event in
Sacramento was designed to educate legislators, staff, and the
public about the importance of aviation to the state. Along with
the California Pilots Association, the National Business Aviation
Association, and other industry stakeholders, AOPA played an
active role as sponsor in highlighting issues such as airport preservation,
aviation funding and infrastructure, renewable energy
policies in airport planning, the coming generation of electric aircraft,
and safely transitioning to unleaded aviation fuel.
14
AOPA PILOT / September 2022
New Jersey. AOPA submitted testimony in favor of a New
Jersey bill that would give small general aviation airports the
flexibility to roll over state grants into the next fiscal year. AOPA
testified that the bill would benefit smaller airports and keep
them competitive with larger ones in the state. " This modification
will bring much needed stability for the smaller public-use
airports that tend to lack staff to efficiently process the multitude
of tasks required for each eligible project. As such, passage
of A4092 will assuage fears about losing grants at airports
unable to process them with the same expedience as larger
airports, " AOPA said.
aopa.org/advocacy/state-advocacy
http://www.aopa.org/pilot/congress http://www.aopa.org/100UL http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/state-advocacy
AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2022
