AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2013 - 20

FOUNDATION FOCUS

What have we done
for you lately?

BY BRUCE LANDSBERG
AOPA Foundation President

Thank you for adding your voice to ours

BRUCE LANDSBERG

was named
president of the
AOPA Foundation
in January 2010.

WHAT HAVE WE DONE FOR YOU LATELY? That's a question that every membership association and charitable
foundation should be prepared to answer. It also translates into, "Why should I invest some of my hard-earned
dollars with you?"
It's been a year of transition at AOPA as Craig
Fuller retired and Mark Baker stepped into the batter's
box. Some of the tactics have changed but the mission remains the same-to preserve your freedom to
fly. There are good reasons to wonder what the government is thinking in that regard. Early this year, we
saw a short-sighted decision to shut down all contract
towers in response to a budget shortfall. There was no
logic from a user safety or operational perspective but
rather a knee-jerk reaction. AOPA and the other aviation
groups swung in to action to get this temporarily fixed.
Thank you for being there and adding your voice to ours.
Many airports remain under pressure. The AOPA
Foundation assisted AOPA with education programs
in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to keep the Queen City
Airport open after the airport commission lost a lawsuit
years ago and needed to pay a court-ordered settlement.
The mayor's "solution"? Let's sell one of our active airports! Brilliant! Reminding the city of the airport's
benefits and that grant assurances don't allow such
things persuaded the city management. Education and
telling the non-political side of the story really helps.
The AOPA Foundation's Air Safety Institute
provided after-accident support in New Haven,
Connecticut, where a circling instrument approach
went awry, leading to a crash into a house off the runway's end. We conducted numerous media interviews
and a live seminar on flying in urban environments.
In Santa Monica, California, this fall, a Cessna
Citation exited the runway at high speed and hit a hangar, resulting in four fatalities on board. Santa Monica
Airport is embroiled in a campaign by neighbors to shut
it down, being encroached on all sides by housing resulting from poor zoning practices. The opposition renewed
calls for closure, this time on safety grounds rather than
its usual refrain of noise and pollution.
Mark Twain advised to "Get your facts first, then
distort them as much as you like." The fact is that there
have been no ground fatalities off-airport since 1983
(when modern NTSB record keeping began) by any

20 | AOPA PILOT December 2013

aircraft departing or landing at Santa Monica. That's
not what was being portrayed by anti-airport activists.
Again, ASI was there to provide perspective,
interviews, letters to the editor, and to review safety
procedures. This year ASI will have conducted more
than 180 free safety seminars nationwide and hosted the
largest GA safety website, open to all pilots. This year
more than 700,000 online courses, videos, and quizzes
will have been completed. Thank you for making that
possible-membership dues do not fund ASI.
Without more pilots to justify the GA infrastructure-especially airports-it will inevitably decline.
Mark Twain also noted that we "Should buy land
because they aren't making it anymore." Guess where
cities and developers are looking? We need a constituency to press for logical zoning laws and FAA grant
assurances. Pilots are that constituency and provide the
business case for producing, selling, and servicing avionics and aircraft and maintaining FBOs. Without pilots
the need for many airports goes away.
Cost and complexity are some of the reason that only
20 percent of the people who start flight training make
it through. AOPA and the AOPA Foundation developed
the flying club network. It's a work-in-progress to promote cost-effective alternatives and camaraderie to
keep pilots engaged and flying. AOPA is also promoting
the best flight schools and providing business guidance
on success stories. You make that possible.
The AOPA Foundation's new "Giving Back" program spotlighted the priceless benefits that GA pilots
provide for disaster victims, medical patients, young
people who aspire to become pilots, and others. This
year the AOPA Foundation granted 10 $10,000 grants to
non-profits engaged in education, environmental, and
humanitarian work to showcase GA at its finest.
AOPA dues alone can't do all this and much more I
haven't mentioned. That's why the AOPA Foundation
exists, and if everyone gives a little it can make a huge
difference. As 2013 ends, I want to say thank you to
those of you who contribute to the AOPA Foundation
for helping us to protect airports, for supporting critical
safety education, for sharing your love of aviation with
others. To those of you who still considering a donation,
remember what we've done for you lately to preserve
your freedom to fly.
AOPA

AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2013