AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2014 - 4

PRESIDENT'S POSITION

My year in review

MARK BAKER
AOPA President and CEO

Where we've been and where we're going

AOPA PRESIDENT

Mark Baker is only
the fifth president
in the association's
75-year history. He
took office in
September 2013.

4 | AOPA PILOT October 2014

I'VE JUST COMPLETED MY FIRST YEAR as AOPA president, so it's a good time to pause and think about where
we've been and where we're going. When I arrived in
this role, there were a few key things on my agenda. I
wanted to understand what matters to you, our members. Then I wanted to reset the organization to get back
to our core competencies and align our resources with
your needs. Next, I wanted AOPA to do more to engage
with our members, and I wanted to give you more reasons and opportunities to engage with us. And, finally,
I wanted to position AOPA to move toward the future.
Since my first day at AOPA, I've traveled the country talking to members, and I can't tell you how much
I've enjoyed this part of the job. Our conversations have
covered a lot of ground, but a few themes keep coming
up-you're worried about the rising cost of flying; when
your freedom to fly is threatened, you want AOPA to
act decisively on your behalf; and you don't want to be
burdened with expensive or excessive regulations. I've
taken your words to heart and they've guided us to some
important victories in the past year.
We got the FAA to back away from a policy that
would have required thousands of pilots to go through
expensive and intrusive testing for sleep apnea, even if
they had no symptoms of the disorder. And we brought
a halt to the unwarranted stops and searches of domestic GA flights by Customs and Border Protection.
Then there's the biggest issue of all-third class
medical reform. I know this isn't moving as fast as many
of you would like. It's not moving as fast as I would like!
But we are making important progress. AOPA worked
with members of Congress to get the General Aviation
Pilot Protection Act introduced in both houses and build
support for it. We now have 146 bipartisan co-sponsors
in the House and Senate, which has helped put pressure
on the FAA to act. The agency has sent a proposed rule
to the Department of Transportation for review. But we
know just how slowly government can move, so we've
worked with the GA industry and key lawmakers to
send a series of letters urging Transportation Secretary
Anthony Foxx to expedite the review process and open
the proposed rule for public comment within 30 days.
We're also continuing to gather support for legislative
action. It's not easy to keep the wheels of government
turning, so we will keep up pressure from every direction. We want relief from this outdated, costly, and
burdensome rule, and we'll do whatever it takes to get it.

The steps we've taken to reset the organization grew
out of our recommitment to putting members first. We
started with a careful evaluation of all the programs,
products, and services we offered. And we took a good
look at our internal structure to make sure we had
the right people in the right places. Based on what we
found, we eliminated some positions, refocused on our
core competencies, recruited some new talent, and cut
our expenses to the lowest level since 2006.
Then it was time to turn attention to increasing
engagement. We started by switching from an annual
national convention to regional AOPA Fly-Ins-seven in
all for 2014. Each fly-in lasts just one day, but they bring
us to all corners of the country. So far they've been a big
hit. When we started planning these events, we thought
we might get 500 people to come spend a day at the airport with us. But every event we've hosted has had four
to five times that number of attendees. Best of all, many
are people we'd never met before, and they've told us
how pleased they are to have us at their airports.
These events have proven to be a great way to get to
know our members and strengthen the sense of community in the places we visit. And that's not only good
for engagement today, it's also an important part of my
last agenda item-moving to the future. The fact is that
to keep general aviation viable, we've got to increase
GA activity. So over the past year we've begun building
a comprehensive program to get people flying. We're
welcoming back lapsed pilots with the Rusty Pilots program, which gives pilots the information they need to
get back in the air after an extended absence. There are
58 of these classes scheduled around the country, and
more than 1,750 people have already signed up.
Through the AOPA Flying Club Initiative, we're
making it easy to find or start a flying club near you. And
our Reimagined Aircraft experiment is designed to tangibly bring down the cost of flying. Working with Aviat
Aircraft, we're updating Cessna 150s and 152s from tip
to tail (see page 66). When owned by flying clubs, flight
schools, or partnerships, these like-new airplanes can
be operated for as little as $65 per hour-including fuel,
maintenance, finance, and insurance costs.
I think we've accomplished a lot in this first year-
and it's just a beginning. I can't wait to see what we can
accomplish in year two.
AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2014

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