After reading for about an hour, I finally decided to put in my 2 cents. I never made it to the end of the discussion, so don't get all mad if I say something that has already been said.
User Fees = Much more than the death of GA. Last I remember, on of the reason's for airlines wanting to put user fee's into practice was because of all the conjestion of the NAS. I just want everyone who reads this to think about this for a second. Do you realy think it is GA that is causing the delays at LAX, JFK, ATL, IAH, ORD, SFO, LAS, etc.? How many people actually fly into airports like that in even a G-5? Not to many. They don't want to hold for even 5 minutes because it's just as expensive for them as it is for an airline. It's not a matter of the airways being conjested. When was the last time there was a mid-air between a 737 and a 182? Or a 737 and any other airplane for that matter. The problem is not with the NAS. The problem lies in the availible sapce on the ground, and all the new regional airlines flying a larger volume of smaller airplanes into major airports. Why do you think that in ZLA there is always flow control restrictions into LAS/LAX? THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH RUNWAYS-TARMAC FOR ALL THE AIRPLANES! Is this the fault of the GA? No. It's the fault of those people who don't like hearing airplanes that bought a house next to an airport.
Lets use a semi-related example of places being shut down or restriced. I come from a family of drag racers. My grandfather was one of the founding members of the RoadKings, a well know car club from Burbank, Ca. He has pictures of him racing at Pamona Raceway as a young man, when it was surrounded by open fields. Now, as it sits today, there is houses all around, and you can no longer race there unless it's a nationally sactioned event. The neighbors who bought houses RIGHT NIEXT TO A DRAGSTRIP, no longer care for the noise. So it has essentially been all but shut down. The point is, shut down an airport, and everyone has to use the one next door which leads to conjestion. Conjestion is what the falacy of an overhaul of the ATC system is based upon.
It's not a matter of a bad ATC system, or conjested airspace. It's a matter of not having enough ground to park all the airplanes. Does any one remember how packed the tarmack was after 9/11. Airplanes were being parked on taxiways and closed runways. We currently operate the best, most efficent and safest air traffic system IN THE WORLD. The pictures of the airports in the days after 9/11 attest to that. An overhaul to newer technology might or might not be needed. But user fee's are not the answer. I am all for a "pilot tax." In other words, I'd be happy to pay a yearly tax to have the luxury to use my pilots license. And, I am what is considered a "professional pilot." I fly to make money. But I also fly for pleasure. And if I have to start to pay for a weather brief, or to file IFR, I won't. I won't fly. And this will have absolutely zero affect on the airlines. Because I don't use the same airports as the airlines, and I rarely use the same airspace (only when they are in a climb or descent leaving or comming).
For all of us who fly----DON'T LET USER FEE'S HAPPEN. I got into this industry because I like to fly, for work or for money. And if you take away the pleasure aspect of it, I, as well as many other pilots I know, will be hurt in the pocket book by this. And many of the schools that train pilots will also be hurt by it. The US economy as a whole will be hurt by it as well. It won't be a big impact at first, but the affects will be long lasting. In the US, we train as many pilots that stay here in the US as we do that live abroad. They will stop comming, because the cost will no longer be worth them comming and bringing there money here. Think of placees like Florida that flourish in the winter from snowbirds, and slow way down in the summer. Imagine a perpetual summer for those communities that are only there because the local airport trains 300-400 foriegn pilots a year. There money will no longer be put into the US economy.
Don't look at it just as "I don't want to pay user fees." Because it's not just about us paying. It's also about the deeper economic impact that it will have on Asian/Indian/Eropean/etc. pilots comming to the US to get their certifications as well.
Join AOPA, write your congressmen/wemon about this. And educate the public about it as well. When you start talking to poeple and they find out your a pilot, let them know about user fees, and why they to should be against it. And let them know that the videos that some of the airlines are playing about GA causing them to be delayed are completely false!
Just say no to User Fee's:nana2:.
Edit: Quote it if you want because you don't agree. I am not open for discusstion on this. Don't expect a reply.
