What Pilots Need to Do Now...
A week or so ago, the amendment to remove the per-flight user fee from the Senate’s bill to find the new FAA authorization bill failed by one vote. While AOPA remains hopeful that the overall battle against this type of thing will be won, I consider it a bad omen. General aviation pilots need to take political action like nothing they’ve ever done before, or general aviation as we have known it will disappear. It will only be a matter of time.
The progression of events will go like this. No noise will be made up on the Hill for abut three to five years, just enough time for the noise of our current battle against these fees to die down. Then, someone in Congress or the Senate (and more likely the latter since they are the least responsive to the needs of the little guy) will start beating the drum to also have piston driven aircraft pay the per flight fee “to be fair”. Even if the first moves will be against larger piston driven aircraft, sooner or later, the fees will filter down to all piston driven aircraft. This will, as it is intended to do, drive most general aviation aircraft out of the IFR system and out of the ATC system where there are enough small general aviation airports to absorb the evacuation. This is exactly what the FAA and the Air Transport Association want. It will solve a myriad of their problems, except the ATA will no longer have anyone else but the FAA to blame for their own financial hardships.
There are two ways we can lose out rights to fly. One is by direct legislation, i.e., making it illegal to do so. (This is especially easy to get the public to swallow when it is in the name of “national security”.) The other is by pricing us out of the system, and that is what the “per-flight” user fees are trying to do. It may be hidden behind the guise of financing ATC modernization; but make no mistake it about it, in this matter, the ATA and the FAA are not your friends. If it were not true, they would NOT be trying to finance the system this way.
So, back to what we need to do about it. Pilots, I rarely advocate voting for or against someone on a single issue; but if you don’t, your right to fly will be eventually subjugated. So, here’s what I think we need to do:
1. Defeat John McCain. The current President is the one foistering this attempt on the public (and we’re not likely to get any sympathy from John Q. Public, either); so, we certainly don’t need another President who believes in this system. John McCain was one of the 12 Senators and the only one running for President who voted for this solution. Find someone else in your party to vote for.
2. Apply the same logic to the other Senators who voted for this measure. Lott, Kerry, and other elitists voted to keep the user fees. And why not? None of them are general aviation pilots (which a major problem with the makeup of the current Senate Aviation Subcommittee—Whatever happened to no taxation without representation?) so they won’t have to pay the fees. I haven’t had a chance to see if the airlines or airline management contributed to their campaigns, but I’m willing to bet they did. If one of the Senators that voted for user fees is one of your Senators, write them NOW and tell them how opposed you are to those fees and that casting their vote for per-flight user fees will endanger your vote for them during the next elections. Then, be serious about it; start investigating candidates whom you can support who also support general aviation. These folks don’t.
3. Thank the Senators who did support the Sununu amendment. Tell them your story and the impacts that such fees will have on you if they are eventually instituted. They will be. Have you ever seen our Federal Government voluntarily release a tax once it’s been handed to them? Secondly, NO ONE is talking about the SAFETY impacts of driving users out of the ATC system.
4. Start thinking about other forms of protest we might perform. If anything, general aviation pilots have been too acquiescent over the years. We need to start thinking about ways to wage protests that will garner public attention and, if possible, public sympathy. But whether we garner public support or not, we need to be thinking about ways to put more heat on our public representatives or the system itself if they won’t listen to us.
Make no mistake about it. If we don’t move now and noticeably to protect our rights and ability to fly, we will lose them.
The progression of events will go like this. No noise will be made up on the Hill for abut three to five years, just enough time for the noise of our current battle against these fees to die down. Then, someone in Congress or the Senate (and more likely the latter since they are the least responsive to the needs of the little guy) will start beating the drum to also have piston driven aircraft pay the per flight fee “to be fair”. Even if the first moves will be against larger piston driven aircraft, sooner or later, the fees will filter down to all piston driven aircraft. This will, as it is intended to do, drive most general aviation aircraft out of the IFR system and out of the ATC system where there are enough small general aviation airports to absorb the evacuation. This is exactly what the FAA and the Air Transport Association want. It will solve a myriad of their problems, except the ATA will no longer have anyone else but the FAA to blame for their own financial hardships.
There are two ways we can lose out rights to fly. One is by direct legislation, i.e., making it illegal to do so. (This is especially easy to get the public to swallow when it is in the name of “national security”.) The other is by pricing us out of the system, and that is what the “per-flight” user fees are trying to do. It may be hidden behind the guise of financing ATC modernization; but make no mistake it about it, in this matter, the ATA and the FAA are not your friends. If it were not true, they would NOT be trying to finance the system this way.
So, back to what we need to do about it. Pilots, I rarely advocate voting for or against someone on a single issue; but if you don’t, your right to fly will be eventually subjugated. So, here’s what I think we need to do:
1. Defeat John McCain. The current President is the one foistering this attempt on the public (and we’re not likely to get any sympathy from John Q. Public, either); so, we certainly don’t need another President who believes in this system. John McCain was one of the 12 Senators and the only one running for President who voted for this solution. Find someone else in your party to vote for.
2. Apply the same logic to the other Senators who voted for this measure. Lott, Kerry, and other elitists voted to keep the user fees. And why not? None of them are general aviation pilots (which a major problem with the makeup of the current Senate Aviation Subcommittee—Whatever happened to no taxation without representation?) so they won’t have to pay the fees. I haven’t had a chance to see if the airlines or airline management contributed to their campaigns, but I’m willing to bet they did. If one of the Senators that voted for user fees is one of your Senators, write them NOW and tell them how opposed you are to those fees and that casting their vote for per-flight user fees will endanger your vote for them during the next elections. Then, be serious about it; start investigating candidates whom you can support who also support general aviation. These folks don’t.
3. Thank the Senators who did support the Sununu amendment. Tell them your story and the impacts that such fees will have on you if they are eventually instituted. They will be. Have you ever seen our Federal Government voluntarily release a tax once it’s been handed to them? Secondly, NO ONE is talking about the SAFETY impacts of driving users out of the ATC system.
4. Start thinking about other forms of protest we might perform. If anything, general aviation pilots have been too acquiescent over the years. We need to start thinking about ways to wage protests that will garner public attention and, if possible, public sympathy. But whether we garner public support or not, we need to be thinking about ways to put more heat on our public representatives or the system itself if they won’t listen to us.
Make no mistake about it. If we don’t move now and noticeably to protect our rights and ability to fly, we will lose them.
posted by Andy Foster at 8:14 PM
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