Harrison Ford’s Still Working - For AOPA
Yes, I’m being tongue-in-cheek. Ford, a pilot, helps out AOPA’s GA Serves America effort with a promo on their website.
The US has had a general aviation industry and presence that is larger and more diverse than most countries. This is partly due to both the larger population and land mass, but also due to the lower political control over free movement too. We have historically been open to using small planes for business, photography, pleasure, transportation, and charitable work. And as a result, until fairly recently, it’s been easier to train pilots in the US. Many non-US pilots learn to fly in the US.
After 9/11 things started clamping down. In some cases correctly: the 9/11 hijackers learned to fly here and had visas despite being on a watch list. And in some cases incorrectly: there were TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions) that became permanent like the Washington DC ADIZ - now SFRA (Special Flight Rules Area) and TFRs around Disneyworld, etc that were more politically motivated than from actual risks.
I’ve written about the ADIZ earlier in several posts. Suffice to say that it defends against small planes which are not a significant risk while doing little against large commercial aircraft which are the only ones used in terrorist incidences. When the ADIZ went into place a number of aviation businesses shut down in the area, some GA airports barely avoided shutting down too. It wasn’t till many years later that GA traffic levels got back to the same at the less affected local airports.
And now TSA rules plan to impose the same safety regulations on small planes as they do large commercial aircraft. This is like imposing these TSA rules when you give a friend a lift in your car! And user fees threaten to curtail aviation as well. Imagine paying a toll every time you left your driveway in your car. And a smaller toll for bike riding!
The GA Serving America effort is a good one and a good thing that AOPA is doing. However, Ford’s plug is directed at pilots. We’re small numbers in general and he’s preaching to the choir. This effort needs to educate those people that think a “small airplane” is one with fewer that 50 seats. Most people don’t know their town has an airport if scheduled commercial traffic doesn’t stop there. And anyone who flies an actual small plane must be rich and it’s probably a corporate jet. After all, that’s all most people hear about.
GA Serving America looks like it will be headed in that direction and I’m glad to see it moving that way.
Some things you can do: If you’re going for a $100 hamburger, then take a friend or neighbor flying with you. Let them see how it all works. Explain things that are obvious to you as a pilot - it’s all new to them. Put them at ease and make them comfortable. If you’re not a pilot and want to go flying - you might well know someone who flies. Ask for a ride! Your friend will probably be delighted to take you flying.
Use your plane for business travel, get people used to thinking of planes as alternate transportation. Push air taxi operations for others in your workplace. Propose solutions to business problems with small aircraft. Do charitable flights with FlyingPaws.com or AngelFlight or some other volunteer pilot organization.
These are all grassroots things that can be done to help get the word out. And they’re things we can all do with relatively little extra effort. Just go flying, and we already wanted to do that right?