AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014 - 4

PRESIDENT'S POSITION

Working together

MARK BAKER
AOPA President and CEO

The importance of partners

AOPA PRESIDENT

Mark Baker is an
active general
aviation pilot
and a native of
Minnesota. He
took office in
September 2013.

4 | AOPA PILOT January 2014

AMERICA may be the land of the rugged individualist,
but there are times when it's best not to go it alone.
That goes for organizations as well as people.
As AOPA's president and CEO, it's my job to look
out for the interests of our members-you always come
first. That can mean we need to blaze our own trail,
with or without the support of others. But when AOPA
member interests coincide with the interests of others in the aviation community-as they often do-we
need to work together.
Fortunately we are unified much more often than
we are at odds. And that's not really surprising. Pilots,
aircraft owners, GA business operators, and manufacturers have similar needs when it comes to right-sizing
regulation, access to airports and airspace, and keeping
costs under control. What you fly almost always matters less than the fact that you do fly.
You don't need me to tell you that general aviation
is facing a lot of tough challenges. And that means finding the best solutions can be equally difficult. When
we put our minds and our skills together, we end up
with better results.
Some of our efforts are truly huge undertakings-
such as our work to grow the pilot population. No one
person, or organization, can take on the pilot population
challenge and win. Lots of factors have led to the decline,
so it would be naïve to think there's one magic bullet
that will turn it around. It's equally naïve to imagine
that one organization has the resources to tackle every
aspect of this issue. So rather than throw our hands in the
air or try to reinvent the wheel, it makes sense for each
organization to work in areas where we can make a real
difference-and to support the efforts of others.
In just my first few months on the job, I've spent a
lot of time with my counterparts at other general aviation organizations, sharing ideas and looking for places
where collaboration makes sense. I took part in the
National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) annual
convention, speaking as part of a panel with other GA
leaders. I also spent some time meeting with the board
of directors for the General Aviation Manufacturers
Association (GAMA) and participating in the National
Air Transportation Association (NATA) roundtable.
I've also spent time with the leaders of the Helicopter
Association International (HAI), the Recreational
Aviation Foundation (RAF), and Women in Aviation
International (WAI), among others.

In a few weeks' time, key members of my leadership team and I will make the trip to Oshkosh to
meet with Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Chairman Jack Pelton and his top leaders. We'll be
looking for ways we can do even more together to support our members.
There's a lot of variety in the projects AOPA and
other organizations collaborate on-everything from
supporting scholarship programs to major regulatory
and legislative initiatives. Perhaps the highest profile
collaboration right now is our work with EAA to get the
FAA to expand the driver's license medical standard.
This has been a hard slog, but both organizations are
in it for the long haul because we believe it will benefit our members in ways that make a real difference.
But that's not the only place AOPA is partnering
with others. We're also working with other GA associations to finalize a cost-cutting proposal for the FAA.
Under sequestration, the FAA will need to cut some
$600 million from its budget, and we all agree that we
need to take matters into our own hands if we're going
to survive those cuts unscathed. By working together
to propose measures we can agree on-cuts that won't
hurt general aviation-we not only make the FAA's job
easier, we give the agency little choice but to take our
recommendations seriously.
By staying in contact and collaborating where it
makes sense, we can make the GA community more
influential when it counts. There's nothing quite like
being able to present a unified front to Congress and
regulators.
I think collaboration needs to be a cornerstone of
protecting our freedom to fly, so you'll be hearing more
about this in the coming weeks and months. And it's
a topic that we'll discuss at AOPA's regional events in
2014-we may even have a few of my fellow GA leaders on hand for you to talk to.
Speaking of regional events, we're finalizing
the dates and locations now. Members have offered
great recommendations about where to hold these
exciting new gatherings, and the airports we've
approached have all said they want to take part. So
look for an announcement of the dates and locations
soon. Then make plans to come out and join us. Hope
to see you there!
AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2014