Is It Time for GA to Boycott the Airlines?

Money talks. That’s the message our Federal Government and the FAA specifically is sending to the aviation community. It’s why the airlines have been so successful in trying to shift the burden of their financial mismanagements onto general aviation via user fees. And maybe now that user fees have become such a threat to the everyday guy’s right and safety to fly, it’s time to take that theme and turn it around. Maybe it’s time for every general aviation pilot, enthusiast, and their families to boycott the airlines to show our displeasure.

My first dealings with airline management came when I was the EAA representative on the FAA’s San Diego TCA User Group over 20 years ago. They had the attitude then as now they were the rightful heirs of the skies. And why not? The very charter of the FAA states its purpose is to develop air commerce, and they were obviously the biggest air commerce on the block. They have developed the attitude of the bully, and the FAA and our government has not done anything to mitigate that attitude. They have, by the institution of what is now known as Class B airspace based largely on passenger enplanements, encouraged it. It is a great illustration of the classic Achilles Heel of the American Political System, i.e., its biased prioritization and corruption due to big money influences. Because of that, the government has tacitly agreed for decades the term “air commerce” applies to the airlines alone.

If that were not true, why would we have seen the shuttering of so many general aviation airports in the Washington DC area, when the airlines were allowed to operate almost without impact, especially when the events of 9/11 were their problem? Why are we now seeing the FAA’s biased user fee approach that simply discounts general aviation by saying it won’t impact us? They didn’t even ask. How do they know? I don‘t even think their administrator is a pilot at all, much less a general aviation pilot who would have to pay the fees they’re proposing. Several of the senior staff officers are ex-airline and military pilots, and it’s not clear if any of them are active general aviation pilots. I suspect not. Washington nearly always exempts itself or ensures it is otherwise not impacted by the laws and proposals they hoist on us.

I’m sure a call to boycott the airlines probably doesn’t scare them much because they don’t think much would happen. After all, there are only maybe a half million of us pilots who care. But what would happen if we all asked our family members to boycott the airlines, too, for say, a month? Maybe two. If we know that our employers favor general aviation, why not ask them to use some other means to send their employees about on business trips by granting a great per diem if you use your car or take the bus, the train, or better yet, a general aviation aircraft? Why not tell our friends about the propositions the airlines are backing and make them out to be the bad guys? They are! All businesses are responsive to public image. If you don’t think the airlines have ever painted general aviation in a bad light, think again. They have every time it has benefited them to do so. It’s time we returned the favor.

I’m thinking, too, that if the user fee proposal goes forward, the general aviation community also needs to consider blocking it with a class action suit. We need to insist that car owners, motorcycle owners, boat owners, and bicycle owners are treated by the Federal Government the same way we are. After all, if equality is not at the heart of the American way, what is?

Hey-La! The Cheetah's Back!

We finally got the Cheetah back yesterday from its latest repair which involved replacing the right brake cylinder on the passenger’s side. The part itself cost $180, but the labor to replace it and bleed the Cheetah’s hellacious brake system will probably triple the cost. Hopefully, we won’t see any more brake problems for a while; but there’s no safe thing to assume about this airplane.

Understandably discouraged considering the airplane’s failure history, I asked Robbie, an A&P and IA in the shop we take it to, if every airplane was as bad about breaking as ours. Every airplane is bad, he replied, but ours was definitely in the “upper echelon” when it came to shop visits. He tried to caveat the statement by saying he hadn’t seen the airplane in there for a while, but I reminded him that was because it had been down a month due to starter problems and sitting in Pearland. When I also stated that this was happening because previous owners had decided to avoid fixing the airplane, he agreed, saying I was “the guy who was getting to fix it up”. Great!! Just what I had hoped to avoid…

It would be nice if my situation was an anomaly, but I just saw e-mail bitches from another Grumman owner about corrosion on a Tiger he hadn’t owned long. Some owners put no money into an airplane if it flies, and some A&P’s pencil whip the annual sign-off’s.

It would be one thing if I hadn’t had a pre-sale inspection performed by a shop with a reputation for being strict in such things, but I did. Our purchase agreement with the seller restricted mandatory repairs as those only that affected airworthiness. The seller was pretty confident he wouldn’t have to fork out much since the airplane was only three months out of annual. But my shop found $1600 worth of needed repairs, including a hole punched in the bottom of the wing. I didn’t see that as a “red flag” but needed to because it meant it had either been missed by the previous mechanic (bringing into question the quality of the annual) or there had been an unreported incident/accident since the annual. Either of those things, when properly assessed, might have pointed toward this purchase being a “not-so-good” deal and a need to waive off.

That said, it’s all spilled milk. We own the airplane now and have to fix it up to keep it flying. I don’t mind doing that as long as it’s not demanding repair at a pace our finances cannot sustain; and right now, it is. I keep hoping the airplane will settle out, but it hasn’t so far. The only thing really saving us financially is our income tax refund for this year. It will pay for all the electrical work, though the brake work will still take a clump out of the funds we had saved for the annual.

Spring has also arrived, and it has come in like a blanket of mud. We’ve been plagued by low, grey ceilings and rain with only little spurts of sunshine poking through misty skies. Flying the airplane back from Galveston was an exercise in low-level navigation and low visibility flying. I managed to do some touch and go’s at Pearland from both the right and left seats. My flying from the right seat is a little off; it’s going to be a while before I’m used to that perspective. I plan on doing more of that. I want to be really good at flying from that seat. As I’ve mentioned in this blog, Connie has started her flight training; so, I’m endeavoring to put her in the left seat as much as I can. The last thing I want to do right now is sell the airplane while she’s training, but it’s a real possibility. I might have no choice if there’s another major maintenance hiccup before the annual.

We love having our own airplane available to us, but there’s a point where finances will cause us to give it up. We’re struggling to hold on, and the threat of increased gas taxes and ATC user fees adds to a great concern about whether owning an airplane is worth it or not. Despite what our current FAA administrator may tell you, user fees are a big impact to “Joe Smith Grumman Cheetah pilot”. They need to be of great concern to the Fixed Base Operators we visit, the aircraft mechanics that benefit from our mechanical misfortunes (even though they may not wish them on us), and the various $100 Hamburger Restaurants and hotels we visit. There are a whole bunch of people whose livelihoods will be decimated if we all stop flying.