Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
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The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is a not-for-profit organization whose membership consists mainly of general aviation pilots in the United States. The mission of AOPA is to effectively serve the interests and needs of its members as aircraft owners and pilots, and establishes, maintains, and articulates positions of leadership to promote the economy, safety, utility, and popularity of flight in general aviation aircraft.
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History
AOPA was founded May 15, 1939 in an effort to keep general aviation fun, safe and affordable. In April, 1939, the five founders went to work out the details of the organization and spent hours deciding on a fitting name. "Pilots, Incorporated" was favored by P.T. Sharples as it sounded businesslike and serious. After several days of debate C. Townsend Ludington yawned—it was about 2:30am—and said it should be named just what it is: the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The name was unanimously approved.
J.B. "Doc" Hartranft was AOPA's first employee, taking the title executive director and moving the offices from Philadelphia to Chicago, right next to the Ziff-Davis publishing house. From there, Hartranft launched a whirlwind of activity to benefit private flyers.
AOPA's first political activity was to urge passage of a Senate bill that would establish the Civilian Pilot Training Program. This important piece of legislation allowed thousands of people to earn their pilot certificates under a government subsidy. It also stimulated general aviation activity and aircraft sales, and provided a solid aviation education for those who would later serve in the air forces of World War II.
AOPA's first year ended on an upbeat note, with a membership of 2,000. Just three months later, that figure had doubled, and local pilot groups called "AOPA Units" were being formed around the country.
Pre-World War II
War was obviously on the way, so in 1940 AOPA formed the "AOPA Air Guard" to introduce civilian pilots to military rules and procedures, and form a manpower base from which the air forces could draw additional pilots. Some 5,000 pilots participated that year, taking three courses of instruction required by the military.
On December 7, 1941, America's entry into World War II brought a drastic change in civil flying. The government sought to ban all civilian flying, but AOPA helped in establishing an identification program that persuaded the CAA and the military to allow properly registered pilots to fly in all airspace, except for border areas now called Air Defense Identification Zones. AOPA offices moved to New York, then—in 1942—to the Washington, D.C. area.
Prior to the war, AOPA membership rose to about 10,000, but about 3,000 members dropped out to serve in the armed forces. When the war ended, membership once again started up, with about 20,000 active AOPA members by the end of 1946.
Post World War II
The years following World War II were years of explosive growth in aviation, and AOPA staff members worked long hours to help bureaucrats and lawmakers understand the special needs of general aviation pilots. The issue of required equipment surfaced early, when the CAA proposed shortly after the war that communications equipment be required for everyone. AOPA initially opposed this requirement, in part because the tube-laden radios of the day were very heavy and compromised a light airplane's useful load. Ultimately, a compromise required communication radios only in the busiest airspace.
By late 1948, AOPA was helping educate pilots about the new-fangled VHF navigation tool called "VOR" and published manuals on the subject. The association also helped in test programs for VOR and ILS equipment.
The late 1940s were also when AOPA assumed a major role in legislative lobbying. To help members of Congress understand general aviation, Hartranft pushed for formation of the Congressional Flying Club, which still exists. He persuaded manufacturers to donate aircraft and volunteers to teach both ground school and flight.
Also in 1948, Hartranft hired the legendary Max Karant, formerly managing editor of Flying magazine, to serve as assistant general manager of AOPA and editorial director for AOPA Pilot magazine. During the next three decades, the team of Hartranft and Karant would set a leadership style that would quadruple AOPA membership from 50,000 to more than 200,000 by the mid-1970s.
The Fifties through Sixties
As the 1950s rolled around, AOPA found itself in a leadership role whenever general aviation was threatened. Several midair collisions between airliners and general aviation aircraft led to a vigorous debate over a proposal by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) to ban general aviation from any airport used by air carriers. Partly as a result of this battle, the "party-line" unicom — a term invented by Hartranft and Karant — was brought into being to help pilots know of each other's presence.
AOPA created the AOPA Air Safety Foundation in 1950, and within 10 years there would be thousands of pilots who took advantage of the "180-degree" rating that provided basic instrument instruction for non-instrument-rated pilots. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation has gone on to become the world's largest and most effective nonprofit organization devoted solely to general aviation safety.
Offices moved several times in the 1950s, the first move from downtown Washington, D.C., to suburban Bethesda, Maryland.
Major battles fought on behalf of general aviation pilots in the 1950s included reductions in life insurance rates, charting of VOR stations, and retaining highways on sectional aeronautical charts. A military plan to scrap the evolving VOR-DME system in favor of TACAN only led to a pitched battle that resulted in a compromise still in use today.
An "experimental" type of airspace that was the forerunner of today's Class B airspace was proposed in the mid-1950s for Washington National Airport. It would have extended 15 nautical miles from the airport in all directions and up to 3,000 feet agl. A full mile of visibility would have been required for VFR operations, as well as a speed limit of 180 miles per hour. AOPA successfully fought to keep Washington National Airport open to general aviation, and it was many years before terminal control areas (also forerunners of Class B airspace) were instituted.
Boom times came to general aviation in the 1960s, with aircraft manufacturers introducing new models left and right and producing an average of 9,000 airplanes a year. With the increased flying activity, communications became more important. AOPA pushed for additional radio frequencies for aviation. A plan to close many flight service stations was muted, and the first AOPA Airports USA airport directory was issued.
The International Council of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association was created in 1962, with the first members including Canada, Australia, and the Union of South Africa.
Various battles were fought over air traffic control, including proposals for mandatory transponders and new types of controlled airspace called "Terminal Area Radar Service." By 1964, the Atlanta airport was offering these services, and the program would soon be expanded nationwide.
Saving general aviation airports would also become a major issue all over the country and continues to this day. On average, the United States still loses one public-use general aviation airport per week.
Two midair collisions in 1967—one between a TWA DC-9 and a corporate Beech B55 Baron over Urbana, Ohio, and the other between a Piedmont Airlines B-727 and a corporate Cessna 310 over Hendersonville, North Carolina—helped push public opinion about transponders away from voluntary use and towards mandatory use. AOPA recommended creating dedicated climb and descent corridors for high-performance airplanes and put a high priority on development of an effective collision avoidance indicator.
In 1969, however, a collision near Indianapolis between an Allegheny Airlines DC-9 and a Piper Cherokee led to urgent calls for creation of the now famous (or infamous) terminal control areas around busy airports. AOPA worked in each case to maintain access for general aviation pilots and spent much of the 1970s trying to keep aviation safe without grounding many general aviation pilots.
The Seventies through Eighties
By the end of the 1960s, AOPA membership had climbed to 141,000. "Doc" Hartranft was still exercising bold leadership, and Max Karant was making pilots aware of the battles yet to come. The years of the 1970s would include some of the most important political battles AOPA had ever fought, including those over TCAs, the Airport and Airways Development Act, fuel crisis fallout, and ever-tightening federal regulations.
Proposals to squeeze more taxes and fees from "fat cat" general aviation pilots were fought back many times during the 1970s. A Nixon proposal to "raid" the aviation trust fund was also stopped.
The 1973 oil embargo took all of AOPA's persuasive power to prevent catastrophic cuts in general aviation activity, as Hartranft pointed out that "while general aviation has 98% of all aircraft, it uses only 8.6% of civil aviation fuels (while) 91.4% is used by the airlines."
In May 1977, Hartranft assumed chairmanship of the AOPA Board of Trustees, and former FAA assistant administrator John L. Baker took over reins of the association. Just two years later, at the end of the decade, more than 245,000 pilots were members of AOPA, and general aviation was a raging bull in the marketplace. More than 18,000 airplanes would be delivered in 1979, but the specter of product liability was on the horizon.
The AOPA Political Action Committee was formed in 1980 for more lobbying effectiveness. It would be needed, as an increasing number of politicians involved themselves in aviation technical matters in the name of aviation safety.
Air traffic controllers went on strike on August 3, 1981, and ATC underwent the most massive changes seen to date. General aviation was singled out for virtual elimination from the ATC system until AOPA helped work out a flow-control method that allowed IFR flights.
In May 1983, AOPA made its last move, from the Bethesda, Maryland, offices to new offices on the Frederick, Maryland Municipal Airport. It symbolized the growth of the association, which now had 265,000 members and was recognized as one of the most effective voices for any group in Washington.
Additional airspace restrictions—including ARSAs—were proposed, and AOPA fought to keep regulation to the minimum necessary for safety. AOPA urged that the FAA establish an office to monitor traffic in terminal areas, install more ILSs, provide more airport improvement program funds to outlying reliever and potential reliever airports, build more runways at existing airports, and designate more military airports as joint-use facilities.
In the middle of the decade, sad news arrived at AOPA. Alfred L. Wolf, the last surviving founder and one of the original trustees, passed away.
The effects of product liability really kicked general aviation in the 1980s, as airplane production declined rapidly. In 1985, Cessna Chairman Russell W. Meyer Jr., reported that between 20 and 30 percent of the cost of a new airplane represented product liability insurance. AOPA worked to introduce reform measures, galvanizing members to write their elected representatives.
By 1989, AOPA membership was close to the 300,000 mark.
The Nineties to Present
As the 1990s opened, the fight for general aviation airports accelerated. Closings and restrictions threatened many airports around the country, with development pressures and noise complaints heaping work on AOPA's plate.
As part of encouraging favorable attention to general aviation airports, AOPA in 1990 instituted journalism awards named for retired Pilot editor Max Karant. Separate awards are available each year for radio, television/cable and print journalists.
In 1991, another milestone in AOPA history occurred when Phil Boyer, former senior vice president with ABC Television, assumed the reins of the association from John Baker. The next year, he launched AOPA Pilot Town Meetings, bringing AOPA's leaders to the members at meetings throughout the nation.
In 1995, AOPA launched its Web site, AOPA Online.
Surveys conducted by AOPA revealed that protection for local airports is one of the greatest concerns among pilots of all experience levels. In the United States, we have for some time been losing public-use airports at a rate of almost one per week. Many of these are privately owned airports, but there has been an alarming increase in efforts to close public facilities. One prominent example is Meigs Field, Chicago's lakefront general aviation reliever only minutes from the downtown business district. Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered the airport closed so that a $28 million park could be constructed on the site. But the airport reopened on February 10, 1997, after a major effort by AOPA, local airport support group Friends of Meigs Field, and the State of Illinois. That battle was not over, however; Daley said that he would again seek to close the airport when an agreement with the state expired in five years.
To further increase effectiveness in local airport issues, in 1997 AOPA launched the Airport Support Network. The goal of this very important program is to identify one volunteer representative at every public-use airport in the country. These individuals serve two primary roles, informing the association of potential threats to the airport and, when necessary, rallying the support of local pilots.
AOPA staffers fought hundreds of battles for pilots in the first half of the 1990s, including funding for DUATS and effective opposition for both a "shoot-em-down" proposal from U.S. Customs and a suggestion for costly renewals of pilot certificates.
The biggest "win" for all of general aviation, however, was the 1994 passage of product liability reform legislation, which led directly to an announcement from Cessna that production would resume. AOPA presented the first new Cessna 172 off the production line to Sharon Hauser, February 1, 1997 as the 1995 membership sweepstakes winner.
General aviation showed some very significant growth during 1998. More new aircraft were delivered than in any year since 1984, and the number of student pilot starts was up for the first time in years. Students are completing their training, too — the FAA issued 22 percent more new private pilot certificates than during the previous year. The number of new instrument ratings increased an impressive 36.6 percent. AOPA continued its industry-leading "Platinum Level" support of GA Team 2000, the cooperative program to increase student pilot starts, which was renamed Be A Pilot. AOPA also recognized the need to increase the value of what they have to offer for student pilots, and laid the groundwork for AOPA's purchase of Flight Training magazine, the only magazine dedicated to the student pilot and certificated flight instructor. The purchase was completed in January 1999, and the http://flighttraining.aopa.org Web site was launched.
During 1998, AOPA obtained a change in status from a not-for-profit to a tax-exempt organization, under Section 501(c)4 of the Internal Revenue Code. This change freed more funds that can be spent on important general aviation initiatives. An additional amount was credited to membership equity as a benefit of the change. Other tax-exempt organizations include the American Association of Retired Persons, International Bar Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and National Rifle Association.
AOPA moved as fast as modern communications technology demanded when the national spotlight focused on John F. Kennedy Jr.'s tragic crash off Martha's Vineyard in July 1999. As the world awoke to news of the search for Kennedy's missing airplane, association staff began what would total 150 media interviews in four days. The emphasis was on countering misconceptions and bias against general aviation and small-airplane flying. The unprecedented effort won kudos throughout the aviation industry, including editorials from aviation officials and editors across the nation. Most gratifying was a coveted Aviation Week and Space Technology "Laurel"—essentially an aviation Oscar—awarded to members of the AOPA team.
In late 1999, AOPA launched yet another publication—its weekly email newsletter, ePilot.
AOPA closed the 1990s with 357,644 members.
For more than a decade, AOPA had been working to unlock the aviation trust fund. That effort paid off with passage of the Aviation Investment and Reform Act (AIR-21), which authorized funds for airport and airway modernization. Although AOPA staff personally worked with members of Congress to gain their support, AOPA members' grass-roots efforts to contact elected representatives and senators helped to make the difference. This marked only the third time in the past 10 years AOPA had rallied the membership to write on a national issue. In addition, AOPA waged a public campaign for AIR-21, with press releases, interviews, and a special "advertorial" published in the aviation trade magazines that carried the message to thousands of nonmembers, prompting them to write their legislators in support of this important bill.
The government's aeronautical charts provided AOPA a chance to combine work in both the legislative and regulatory arenas on an important initiative in 2000. For many years these charts were produced and distributed by the National Ocean Service, a unit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The professionals at NOS did a good job and consistently produced a reliable product. When funding and budget issues led NOS to propose the discontinuation of important charting products, however, AOPA realized that this critical safety function should be an FAA responsibility. As a result, the association secured legislation that transferred aeronautical charting to the FAA's new National Aeronautical Charting Office.
September 11, 2001
When we awoke on September 11, 2001, none of us expected the world to change so completely and irrevocably as it did that day. Even as we moved through the haze of shock and grief at the tragedy that had befallen our nation—and mourned the fact that aviation was used as a weapon of destruction—AOPA staff got to work, keeping pilots informed, working to lift unnecessary restrictions, and defending the right and privilege to fly.
In the days and weeks immediately following the terrorist attacks, one of the greatest needs of members was for accurate, clear information regarding airspace, temporary flight restrictions (TFRs), airport closures, intercept procedures, notams, and more. AOPA was ready with AOPA Online. Not only could members find plain-language translations and graphical depictions of notams and TFRs, they could get answers to their questions about the rapidly changing environment. In September alone, the Web site hosted more than 2 million sessions.
At the same time the AOPA Pilot Information Center was flooded with as many as 1,600 member calls per day and stayed open over two weekends for the first time in the association's history. Staff members volunteered to postpone vacations and other personal activities to keep the phones operating at full capacity.
Accurate information about general aviation and how it operates was also critical to lawmakers, the public, and the media. Information from AOPA Online appeared in such newspapers as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune, as well as on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, ABC, and other television and radio news outlets. In addition, AOPA representatives conducted more than 500 media interviews in which they cut through the fear and overreactions to tell the real story of general aviation and how it serves America every day. In interviews with television, radio, and printed news media, as well as in an editorial for USA Today, AOPA explained GA's importance to the national transportation system and argued against unnecessary restrictions.
Just as important as staying informed was getting back in the air and flying safely. AOPA Legislative Affairs, the association's lobbying arm on Capitol Hill, got to work right away, arranging meetings with influential policy makers and telling general aviation's side of the story. Boyer personally met with a number of legislators to provide them with insight as to how GA operates and the enormous economic impact of keeping lightplanes on the ground. As the flood of complex, confusing, and sometimes misleading notams threatened to overwhelm pilots who were allowed to return to the skies, a staff member was stationed at FAA headquarters, where she was able to help clarify these rules, often before they were released. With an on-the-spot advocate for general aviation, AOPA was able to tell the FAA about the realities of operating general aviation aircraft and uncover some of the hidden implications in their proposals. Those efforts also helped stop some of the most onerous proposals from ever becoming reality.
In the weeks following the attacks, as much of aviation returned to some semblance of normalcy, a handful of airports tucked under so-called enhanced Class B airspace and within temporary flight restrictions around Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston remained closed. AOPA worked with policy makers, airport managers, and business owners to come up with proposals that would address security concerns while making it possible to get those businesses back to work. Persistent, determined efforts eventually reopened those fields.
To make sure that the money needed to fund public awareness and educational campaigns is available, AOPA launched the General Aviation Restoration Fund, which had raised some $500,000 by the end of 2001. Plans for 2002 included major newspaper advertisements extolling the positive role GA plays in America and directing readers to a newly designed Web site devoted exclusively to describing all aspects of general aviation, http://gaservingamerica.org.
Even as AOPA fought to keep restrictions imposed on GA to a minimal, reasonable level, some pilots ran afoul of the complex and rapidly changing rules. The AOPA legal services team was able to work with the FAA to establish no-violations agreements for certain transgressions caused by faulty information passed to pilots through flight service and other official channels.
Publications
AOPA has two monthly periodicals: "AOPA Pilot" and "AOPA Flight Training". The former is targeted at certificated pilots and contains reviews on new products, airplanes and more. The latter is meant to encourage student pilots with fun stories, safety tips and advice on training. Members of AOPA are eligible to receive either magazine for one year with their paid member dues.
Sweepstakes
Commander112-panel.jpg
Each year AOPA refurbishes and gives away an airplane to one of its members. This year the sweepstakes is "2005 Commander Countdown" and the grand prize is a Commander 112 single-engine, retractable gear aircraft. Modifications to the aircraft include a new glass cockpit—common in large airliners—with Chelton FlightLogic EFIS (electronic flight instrument system). Also included in the panel is Sirius satellite radio, Garmix MX-20 multi-function, two SL 30 Nav-coms and a Garmin GTX-327 transponder.
The aircraft was originally N1169J and built in 1974. After AOPA gets done with the refurbishments the tail number will be N112WN. The drawing for the sweepstake will be in early 2006. More information can be found at AOPAs Sweepstakes (http://www.aopa.org/sweeps/) page.
External links
- AOPA official site (http://www.aopa.org/)
- AOPA Air Safety Foundation (http://www.aopa.org/asf/)
- Be A Pilot (http://www.beapilot.org/)