Harrison Ford is the Charlton Heston for AOPA. AOPA now headed by winger. Fear Obama mailing

[thunder rising]

Got home from work, checked the mail and there's a letter from the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association)
"Enclosed: A special message from Harrison Ford about the looming threat of user fees."

Now to be truthful, user fees to an owner/pilot is as bad as gun restrictions to gun owners. However, under the old President of AOPA, Phil Boyer, I never saw a political hit piece, so this mailing really surprised me. I was very proud of the way Phil handled the General Aviation scrutiny after 9/11 and 8 years of Bu$hCo specifically targeting the FAA for privatization.

So the AOPA has a new President and guess what ... this MF is a Bush winger.

Craig Fuller: Chief of Staff to Vice President George Bush (Poppy) and now President and CEO of AOPA.
Hope and a New Beginning

So, here's a little message to Craig Fuller. As a Private Pilot with just over 1200 hrs and 8 year member of AOPA...I quit. I do not see you being a positive force for GA. You'll only bring contention and eventually the chasm will usher in the user fees. I only see you as successful at leading the AOPA as Bu$hCo was at leading the country.

Here's my thinking. What's the possibility he's there to destroy the organization since it is the single most effective deterrent to the privatization of the FAA? Who does Craig Fuller really work for?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I'm very sorry to hear that.

I've been an AOPA member for some 20 years. I don't like the idea of user fees, either, but it disturbs me to find out there's a Bushazoid running AOPA. I won't quit just yet because they do a lot of good stuff for aviation safety, but I will watch this Fuller character closely.

[thunder rising]

4. Phil would remind you of Obama (I never met him), but he was a very good spokesman for the

industry. He was steadfast against the encroachment of the commercial costs onto the General Aviation crowd. I trusted him without question ... he never embarrassed me.

[Aviation Pro]

22. I met Phil a couple of times.....

...both of them at Oshkosh. Truly a gentleman pilot and cut a fine figure in his Wright outfit that he wore during the first flight anniversary.

[DireStrike]

2. How does he get into that position?

Is it possible members could have him replaced with a huge outcry? Is it at all likely?

[thunder rising]

5. Phil was the President since I became a member. He did more in a day than anybody

I know.

I had heard the he was stepping down and trusted the judgment of the membership as to who would make a good replacement. Now it makes sense for the commercial entities to shoehorn him in. The is a big FU from the commercial side.

[Howardx]

3. thanks

my dad is an aopa member, i'll let him know.

[crimsonblue]

6. what exactly are user fees for pilots?

And how much do they cost?

[Dr.Phool]

7. There are non if the flight has a non-commercial purpose, at most airports.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. User fees, which are not yet in effect,

are fees for aviation services that are now provided free as a government function. For example, if you wanted to file a flight plan with a flight service station (a branch of air traffic control) you'd have to pay, say, $30. You'd have to pay another fee if you wanted to use air traffic control services to fly an instrument approach. As things are now, air traffic controllers, who are government employees (FAA), do not charge additional fees for their services. Charging fees for these government services would have a negative effect on safety because pilots would be tempted to avoid using them to save money -- for example, not filing a flight plan for a VFR flight (it's not required now, but it's strongly recommended), or flying an instrument approach without an ATC clearance. The fees would add up pretty quickly, possibly adding hundreds of dollars to a routine flight.

[crimsonblue]

10. that sounds stupid...

I take it this is being proposed by the FAA to make money?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Yes, and yes.

The Republicans actually wanted to privatize air traffic control. Fortunately that's not going to happen.

[crimsonblue]

12. but didn't Reagan federalize air traffic control?

granted, it was because they wanted to deny over-worked and underpaid controllers their right to strike and receive fair compensation.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. No, it's always been federal.

He fired all the air traffic controllers after they went on strike in 1981. Their work was then handled by managers until new controllers who didn't belong to the union (PATCO) could be hired and trained. He really screwed up ATC; it took years to recover. Just another reason to hate Reagan.

[thunder rising]

18. It's not so much the user fees as it is the privitazation efforts. Once money is involved private

contracts can be let.

[Aviation Pro]

24. Got that right.....

...ever since Lockheed screwed up AFSS and WXBRIEF I've been a screaming banshee against privatization.

[thunder rising]

13. Skyplane 08 Tango Romeo change frequency 123.45 and state credit card

[Aviation Pro]

23. Why in the heck....

...would ATC jam up the pilot to pilot frequency?

Oh, wait.

[thunder rising]

28. If you can't contribute ... stay out of it. (pilot-to-pilot freq? please state FAR)

[Aviation Pro]

30. Uh, try ICAO protocols.....

...don't know who you are, but you've pretty much removed all doubt that you should go back and ask your instructor about 123.45 considering you're pretty darn close to Miami's Class B flyways, corridors and transition routes. You can find them in the AIM and I'll let you be a good student of aviation and find them for yourself.

[jljamison]

16. description of user fees

Today general aviation pays for FAA services through a fuel tax. As a result, in most situations FAA services are "free" in that there no charges paid at the time of service for
- weather briefings
- flight planning
- takeoffs and landings at most airports
- radar services, flight following, instrument and approach clearances
We GA pilots pay for it when we fill up the gas tanks on our airplanes.

Commercial and freight carriers pay for FAA services through different mechanisms. Carriers for example are charged per passenger. Together these taxes pay for about 80% of the FAA budget, the rest comes from the general fund. Congress has oversight over how the taxes collected get spent.

Air carriers don't like the arrangement. They want the per-passenger taxes to go away. The make the argument that a general aviation aircraft on an instrument flight plan utilizes the same amount of services as a passenger jet, but pays vastly less in fees for that same flight plan. And technically this is true. Warren Buffet flying on a gulfstream IV jet from Nebraska to New York probably pays a lot less in fuel taxes than a United 737 carrying a full passenger load, but both aircraft talk to ATC about the same, get probably the same weather briefings, use the same runway, etc.

The FAA needs to invest a lot of money to pay for what they can NexGen, which is a GPS based air navigation system. They really want this to allow more point-to-point routing between hubs, rather than the round-a-bout system of airways defined by legacy navigation equipment (typically VOR "VHF OmniRange" - which are radio beacons that send out directionally encoded beams and of which there are a few hundred around the country). With GPS the distances between aircraft on the same route can be shrunk due to better accuracy of position. But its going to cost billions. And they want to pay the least amount as possible. The airlines complain that today they pay 90% of the taxes for aviation but only account for 65% of the usage. Well...

The problem with their analogy though is that they are by far the most benefitted by the new system, and they by far the biggest cause of grief in the current system. GA aircraft do not, for example, schedule 50 departures at the same time in the morning from O'Hare or JFK, or try to land 25 flights at 6:50 AM at LAX. The resulting delays cost them money big time. By far and away most general aviation aircraft do not utilize radar separation services from ATC.
What is very frustrating is that if you survey pilots and owners they pretty much agree that user fees would suck and be a major annoyance, and we as a group would much prefer to simply raise the fuel tax and keep the existing system.

There is somewhat of a safety concern as well - if you know you are going to get dinged every time you call for a flight briefing, you might skip a few calls and miss out on dynamic conditions. Or if landing at Big City airport on an instrument approach costs a lot of money, you might try to push into nearby Little Satellite Airport even though the weather there is worse.

The other attraction of a user fee based system for airlines and the FAA is that it puts the control over the setting of fees within the hands of the FAA. Today Congress sets the aviation tax rate and directs the allocation of the "trust fund". The airlines would prefer that control to pass to the FAA which gives them a much improved ability to influence and control.

User fee based systems have effectively killed general aviation in other countries that have adopted such a system, such as Canada and Europe. Flying on instrument flight plans in europe is prohibitively expensive for the everyday Cessna pilot. It is so expensive there that just about 100% of non military flight training in the use of instruments takes place here in the united states - all those GA pilots in Europe take trips, come to the US to do their flight traning, then go home.

GA pilots (and hence the AOPA) argue that we have quite simply the best aviation system in the world with the current structure, so why change it. GA pilots are also loathe to see the airlines shift the burden of the next generation air traffic system on to the shoulders of GA when it is the airlines who benefit. The airlines have stated a desire to shift $3 billion onto GA.

The current system is also very simple to administer - .001 percent, whereas a user fee based system you have to put collection, cash management and audit infrastructure at all of the service points (airports, towers, ATC, etc).

Basically it is your coin operated government at work.

[thunder rising]

19. That is a very good description of the problem. I'll add the "flight following" situation

where I just want the "join the conversation" with the controller; like, I'm out here and listening and cooperating. If the FAA is charging I'm not using the service and that IS a problem.

To get into the conversation in a hurry you have to call PAN PAN (if you even have a freq other wise over Guard band) then ...

"Center Skyplan 08 Tango Romeo is a Super Skyplane /golf , 5 mi south some point , at <number> ft request emergency services"

Now, try getting all that out when your upside down, being thrown around like a leaf cause a cloud "blew up" and brought an embedded tornado with it. The best plan is to encourage pilots to be in contact any time they want.

The flip side is that there is a certain anarchy available to the VFR pilot. Flying with no contact forces the controllers to shuffle the airplanes they do control away from you.

[AdHocSolver]

26. And, who best to administer this system than a subsidiary of "Ripoff" airlines by no-bid contract.

n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. I'm a long term AOPA member, but am going to wait this out andf see what comes of this

General aviation, particularly personal aviation has been under long term attack. The aviation trust fund looted to pay for paperclips in Oak City by every administration, Repuke and Democratic. Maybe a little noise is a good thing.

[thunder rising]

14. This time the attack is from the inside. Republicans lie and privatize .. .'nuf said

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. You may well be right, but given the current administration, there is no risk in waiting. AOPA has

been too use for too long to bolt.

[thunder rising]

27. Sorry to disaggree ... Phil is gone, new management is Winger ... I'm gone. AOPA dues will be used

to fund Republicans.

[lib2DaBone]

17. General Aviation is the Life-Blood of America....

The 'Security over Freedom ' Politicians want to cancel and/or strangle our private aircraft traffic.

Does anyone remember when the TSA Security Goons climbed up on the Pitot Tubes of American Airlines?

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5613502&page=1

Need I say more? People that do not understand General Aviation should not be making rules and regulations.

[AnnieBW]

20. I lost all respect for Harrison Ford when he took up with Calista

the Skeleton. I mean, shit, she's younger than his sons by his first marriage!

[AdHocSolver]

25. User fees would be bad for a struggling U.S. economy. The airlines want to eliminate any competiton.

The inflation of the 1980's and 1990's took a serious economic toll on general aviation.

The new Light Sport Aircraft standards pushed by general aviation and finally adopted by the FAA is making learning to fly more affordable for the "average" person.

I have had a few friends over the years who were pilots. While they were affluent, only one qualified as a millionaire, and his airplane ownership necessitated a "frugal" life style.

General aviation supports a large segment of the economy. Sales of aviation equipment and accessories, servicing of aviation equipment, airport operation businesses, hotels and restaurants near airports, small businesses in small towns served by non-airline commercial aviation companies, flying schools, and others would all take a serious economic hit if user fees were implemented.

The airlines want to eventually privatize the FAA so that only they will be able to afford to fly. Already the airlines are outsourcing airliner repair to low-pay, third-world countries (such as El Salvador, IIRC) outside of the jurisdiction of FAA safety inspectors. (The FAA has allowed the airlines to get away with this, which shows how much influence they already hold over the FAA.)

User fees are an ongoing threat of a corporate takeover of what should be a government service for the benefit of all.

The average American falsely believes that all pilots (whether airplane owners or not) are a wealthy elite who are taking advantage of the system. The average Congressperson does not necessarily understand the economic ramifications of general aviation, or the hit that general aviation would take if user fees were implemented.

This is no time to be complacent. Contact your local politicians and set them straight on the negative consequences to the economy, aviation safety, and jobs if user fees are implemented.

[NashVegas]

29. I'm Sorry - Could You Please Clarify This OP?

I looked at the page you link to, and can't see anything remotely controversial about Fuller's letter.

[thunder rising]

31. The link was to verify Craig Fuller was indeed a sap from the repugs. This means his mission is to

destroy the organization to further privatization of the FAA.

The piece was written about an AOPA mailing that is an Obama hit piece.