AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 18
SAFETY PILOT
Searching for balance
BRUCE LANDSBERG
President, AOPA Foundation
Perfection at any price?
BRUCE LANDSBERG
is president of
the AOPA
Foundation, which
funds the work
of the Air Safety
Institute.
18 | AOPA PILOT April 2014
ONLY IN WASHINGTON, D.C., would two seemingly
intelligent parties devise a poison budget pill called
sequestration. It was designed to be so bitter that no one
would ever ingest it, and then the players would get serious about running the country. But they swallowed that
sucker! After seeing that mindless solutions of simply
cutting expenses across the board was stupid, Congress
backed off and started spending money that doesn't
exist, in places where it shouldn't be spent (again)! The
justification often is safety, so let's explore that.
We can no longer afford a system that has grown
irrational as far as Part 91 operations are concerned.
The FAA has many essential roles in the functioning of
the national airspace system, aircraft certification, and
safety efforts, but much of it has morphed into paperwork and payroll. In 1980 the FAA's budget was $3.2
billion, or about $3,900 per pilot. In 2014 (projected)
the budget was $15.9 billion and the cost per pilot had
risen to about $26,000. Those are crude measurements
and there may be other ratios that portray a better picture-but while the pilot population declined about 25
percent, the dollars increased more than six times. The
infrastructure and capital costs don't quite seem to support that level of increase.
I have many good friends in the FAA who want to do
the right thing. They need that opportunity, so here are
a few items perhaps the FAA leadership could address-
in collaboration with the users:
* Review of the third class medical for Part 91 operations. The number of annual pilot-incapacitation
accidents is down in the "noise level." Typically, it's
about four fatal accidents per year and these are pilots
with a medical certificate. Several friends, who are aviation docs, have openly admitted their inability to predict
a catastrophic medical meltdown in flight. During the
past 10 years, the Light Sport aircraft (LSA) experiment in medical self-certification has been a success
by any measure. Lighter-than-air and glider pilots have
always had this privilege, and guess what? No carnage.
The medical certification process costs the FAA millions and the pilot community many millions more. It
provides little safety benefit-especially to non-participants, who are the people we want to protect. In 35
out of 40 medical-incapacitation accidents in the past
decade, only the pilot was killed-no passengers and no
people on the ground. Time for a change?
* Part 23 needs to be overhauled to lower the cost of
GA aircraft, both for initial construction and for retrofit. Modifications to old aircraft today must meet overly
cumbersome specs even though the proposed modification might be a huge safety or operational improvement
over the original equipment.
* The current GA business model for light aircraft
doesn't work. Cessna (Beech), Piper, and Cirrus are
not selling many piston aircraft. There are many reasons why the costs are high, including product liability,
expensive parts supplied by equally strapped manufacturers, and corporate overhead. It doesn't help that the
base product in too many cases hasn't changed much in
decades-while the price has quadrupled. That isn't a
successful retailing strategy. Time for a change?
* Stop the reissuance of flight instructor certificates. Why is it necessary to reissue flight instructor
certificates every two years? There is no quibble with
the requirement for a biennial CFI refresher, but a
new plastic certificate is not needed to determine if
a CFI has had a refresher course and is legal to teach.
Handle it exactly as a flight review. A decade ago we
estimated that thousands of hours of FAA time went
into the paper (now plastic) chase with no measurable
benefit to safety. Time for a change?
* Right size the number of towered airports. Let's
drop the charade that no towered airports are expendable. There are legitimate criteria that go beyond several
air carrier flights per day, or that a location is GA only,
or that it's a contract or federally staffed tower. Activity,
traffic mix, and complex airspace are starting points
for a reasonable discussion. The majority of big airports don't need staffing around the clock. Many places
except the freight hubs could close up at midnight and
reopen at 5 a.m. Time for a change?
This is only a thumbnail outline of things that could
be addressed, and AOPA is looking at a much broader
list. It's time to stop the government's quest for perfection at any price. Regulation, training, and aircraft
construction should be proportional to the activity to
enable-not inhibit-improvement. A slavish mindset
that what we have today is somehow better is paradoxically blocking the innovative thinking that would allow
the industry to grow. It can be much better, but the current constraining environment makes it really hard to
get new ideas off the ground.
AOPA
WEB www.airsafetyinstitute.org
http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014
Contents
President’s Position
Letters
Waypoints
Proficient Pilot
Safety Pilot
License to Learn
Pilot Counsel
Endeavor Awards
Debonair Sweepstakes
Pilot Products
Events
People
First Look
Test Pilot
Industry News
Airport Stories
AOPA Action
GAMA report
Regional Events
Fly-Outs
Time Traveler
Craftsmanship: Where Wacos Take Wing
Luxury-Level LSA
Culture of the Smallest Corps
Cost Comparison
Proficiency
Dogfight
Wx Watch
Avionics
Never Again
AOPA Action
State & Local Action
AOPA Foundation
Member Services
Insurance Services
Fly by Wire
Tips from PIC
Pilots
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - President’s Position
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 9
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Letters
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 11
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 12
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 13
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Waypoints
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 15
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Proficient Pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 17
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Safety Pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 19
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - License to Learn
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 21
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Pilot Counsel
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 23
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Endeavor Awards
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 25
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Debonair Sweepstakes
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 27
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Pilot Products
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Events
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 30
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - People
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 32
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - First Look
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Test Pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 35
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Industry News
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 37
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Airport Stories
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 39
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - AOPA Action
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - D1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - D2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 41
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 42
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 43
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 44
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - GAMA report
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 46
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Regional Events
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Fly-Outs
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - R-1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - R-2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - R-3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - R-4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - R-5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Time Traveler
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 51
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 52
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 53
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 54
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 55
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 56
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 57
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Craftsmanship: Where Wacos Take Wing
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 59
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 60
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 61
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 62
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 63
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 64
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 65
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Luxury-Level LSA
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 67
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 68
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 69
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 70
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 71
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Culture of the Smallest Corps
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 73
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 74
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 75
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 76
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 77
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 78
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Cost Comparison
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 80
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 81
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Proficiency
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 83
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 84
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Dogfight
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 86
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 87
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Wx Watch
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 89
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 90
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Avionics
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Never Again
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 93
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 94
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 95
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - AOPA Action
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 97
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - State & Local Action
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 99
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - AOPA Foundation
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 101
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Member Services
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 103
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Insurance Services
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 105
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 106
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Fly by Wire
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Tips from PIC
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 109
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 110
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - 111
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Pilots
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2014 - Cover4
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