AOPA Pilot Town Meeting 04/23/08 @ MSP
Last night Dazzler and I attended the PTM that AOPA puts on. The main focus of the meeting was user fees and then they touched on some other topics. Being the geek that I am I took notes and figured I would compile them for the masses to share here at JetCareers. Actually taking notes helps keep my mind on the event at hand. The notes may seem a little jumbled, but I tried to catch the highlights. Anyhow, here you go.
Highlights:
AOPA represents 73% of the pilots nationwide and 58% of the pilots in Minnesota (which is under the average for most states), they did not mention that average though for the states.
Last year for the 1st time in the last two decades the number of certificated pilots in the U.S. dropped below 600,000.
Senator Rockefeller (W.VA) is the main individual pushing the user fee’s legislation through Congress. They showed several video clips and his main focus appears to be limiting GA access to congested (Class B) airspace.
The majority of the media blitz is concentrated in the D.C. area as that is where all the Congress members are living and working during their session. There was about $32.2 million spent last year in pushing this legislation. The lobby groups pushing have their website: www.smartskies.org.
Truths:
AOPA and NBAA have combined forces and created a website to combat the media blitz from the lobby groups pushing for the user fees: www.aviationacrossamerica.org.
In the past years the airlines have received $38 billion in funds in a number of different ways. That number has come from: tax breaks, pension relief, and a number of toher sources.
John D. Rockefeller chairs the Senate Aviation Sub-committee. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson is the ranking member of this committee. She is playing a pivotal role for GA and Phil had nothing but good things to say about her.
Two Key Bills:
S2345 – Some of the key points for this bill:
S1300 – Some key points for this bill:
The FAA funding bill could reach the Senate more than likely sometime next week as and early as Monday 04/28. Phil mentioned that AOPA feels they have enough votes in the Senate to reject the bill that includes the user fees.
He also spoke briefly about the new FSS and how things are getting better on a nationwide basis. There is a complaint line for any issues that arise with FSS. If you have any concerns whether it be a bad briefing, busy signal, on hold to long, etc…..1-888-FLT-SRVC. The metric that Lockheed Martin is trying for is an answer within 20 seconds. They are not there yet, but the majority of calls being surveyed are answered within 1 minute.
The last topic he mentioned was that the ASF. A lot of good information there for the members to use. I read the NTSB reports regularly but the one fact that I cannot get over is that every week there is an average of 3 or more accidents due to improper fuel management.
During the program they had this cool anonymous survey running. When you checked in you were given an answer keypad and when questions came up you just answered. Duh! There was probably 150-200 people there. Most of the question related to the topic at hand but one that caught my attention was who would you vote for in the presidential election. As for the crowd it was generally an older (many retired age) group. There were not many younger pilots in general. I have been to a couple of these meetings and that seems to be the norm here in MSP as far as attendance. The results in this non-scientific poll:
Last night Dazzler and I attended the PTM that AOPA puts on. The main focus of the meeting was user fees and then they touched on some other topics. Being the geek that I am I took notes and figured I would compile them for the masses to share here at JetCareers. Actually taking notes helps keep my mind on the event at hand. The notes may seem a little jumbled, but I tried to catch the highlights. Anyhow, here you go.
Highlights:
AOPA represents 73% of the pilots nationwide and 58% of the pilots in Minnesota (which is under the average for most states), they did not mention that average though for the states.
Last year for the 1st time in the last two decades the number of certificated pilots in the U.S. dropped below 600,000.
Senator Rockefeller (W.VA) is the main individual pushing the user fee’s legislation through Congress. They showed several video clips and his main focus appears to be limiting GA access to congested (Class B) airspace.
The majority of the media blitz is concentrated in the D.C. area as that is where all the Congress members are living and working during their session. There was about $32.2 million spent last year in pushing this legislation. The lobby groups pushing have their website: www.smartskies.org.
Truths:
- GA accounts for only 4% of traffic at the major airports today.
- Airlines schedule more flights than there is capacity for in VMC. Now you add in weather, etc…and the delays start to add up.
- 25% of the delays are the fault of the airlines
- 70% of the delays are the result of weather.
AOPA and NBAA have combined forces and created a website to combat the media blitz from the lobby groups pushing for the user fees: www.aviationacrossamerica.org.
In the past years the airlines have received $38 billion in funds in a number of different ways. That number has come from: tax breaks, pension relief, and a number of toher sources.
John D. Rockefeller chairs the Senate Aviation Sub-committee. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson is the ranking member of this committee. She is playing a pivotal role for GA and Phil had nothing but good things to say about her.
Two Key Bills:
S2345 – Some of the key points for this bill:
- no airline tax break
- 65% jet fuel tax
- no avgas tax
- no user fees
S1300 – Some key points for this bill:
- airline tax break
- jet fuel tax
- no avgas tax increase
- $25 user fee for turbine a/c on an IFR flight plan
The FAA funding bill could reach the Senate more than likely sometime next week as and early as Monday 04/28. Phil mentioned that AOPA feels they have enough votes in the Senate to reject the bill that includes the user fees.
He also spoke briefly about the new FSS and how things are getting better on a nationwide basis. There is a complaint line for any issues that arise with FSS. If you have any concerns whether it be a bad briefing, busy signal, on hold to long, etc…..1-888-FLT-SRVC. The metric that Lockheed Martin is trying for is an answer within 20 seconds. They are not there yet, but the majority of calls being surveyed are answered within 1 minute.
The last topic he mentioned was that the ASF. A lot of good information there for the members to use. I read the NTSB reports regularly but the one fact that I cannot get over is that every week there is an average of 3 or more accidents due to improper fuel management.
During the program they had this cool anonymous survey running. When you checked in you were given an answer keypad and when questions came up you just answered. Duh! There was probably 150-200 people there. Most of the question related to the topic at hand but one that caught my attention was who would you vote for in the presidential election. As for the crowd it was generally an older (many retired age) group. There were not many younger pilots in general. I have been to a couple of these meetings and that seems to be the norm here in MSP as far as attendance. The results in this non-scientific poll:
- 60% McCain
- 29% Obama
- 7% Clinton
- 4% Nader
