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United States Pilots Association |
The following letter citing the position of the New Mexico Pilots Association being against the FAA's proposal for user fees was sent to the five NM federal Congress members: Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, Congresswoman Heather Wilson, and Congressmen Steve Pearce and Tom Udall. NMPA believes that the institution of any form of user fees will have a disasterous impact on general aviation in the US and is only a ploy by the airlines to try to shore up the consistant financial mismanagement by commercial airline executives. General aviation in NM is very important because of our size in land mass, our geography, and our mostly rural environment. For many businesses, our state government, and individuals, general aviation is the preferred method of travel around our state.
You may publish this letter in your efforts to prevent the implementation of user fees by the US Government and the FAA.
Bob Worthington, President, NMPA rworthin@zianet.com 505 522 6785
New Mexico Pilots Association
Dear Senator, Congressman, Congresswoman, 7 July 2007
The New Mexico Pilots Association is very much opposed to the Administration’s and the FAA’s attempts to institute a fee-based method of charging pilots to fly in US Airspace. Anyone with knowledge of US aviation clearly understands that this is nothing more than a desire by the airlines to try to control the use of US Airspace and require others to pay for the financial disasters in the airline industry, primarily attributed to their ineffective management.
The FAA claims that this is needed because there is/will be a serious lack of funding to properly operate the FAA in the near future. Several competent surveys and studies have shown the FAA does have sufficient funding and the US has the best and safest air traffic system in the world and a fee based collection system is not needed. In fact; implementing a fee based system would harm our air traffic system, possibly beyond repair.
The airlines are notorious for being one of our country’s most mismanaged industries. It is the airline management’s desire to pass their fiscal incompetence on to other users of the airspace and since they can’t attack the military, the only other user left is us, general aviation. Numerous airline press releases and articles present to the American public the falsehoods that rising airline ticket costs and delays are all the fault of those small “hobby” planes flown by “amateur” pilots who are hogging the airspace and using the major hubs without paying their share. General aviation tends to avoid larger airports, most especially those that are swarmed by the airlines and most of our flying is by Visual Flight Rules, thus usually not needing air traffic control.
Let’s look at some of the facts and see what can happen if a fee based system is implemented in the US. First look at those countries where a fee based system is already in place, primarily in Europe. Now look at the size of general aviation in those countries. What, no GA? You are right. In those other parts of the world where every flight, regardless of what is flying, starts compiling a series of high costs , GA is totally shut out, except for the very richest of its citizens.
What creates the high costs of flying an airliner and how do these costs relate to GA? The Air Traffic Control system is in place, regardless of who uses it. We have the best system in the world and messing around with it will not improve anything. So where do all the costs come from? The larger airports need infrastructure and security. These costs are very high but does GA avail itself of these expensive needs? No. We don’t typically use O’Hare, JFK, LAX, Denver, Atlanta, San Francisco, etc. We use the outlying, reliever airports around the major hubs and therefore don’t add to the strain of the infrastructure of the large airports.
What costs does GA pay? We pay fuel taxes; we pay tiedown fees where we park. Many GA aircraft also pay state licensing (like New Mexico) or taxes annually just to own our planes. Where we keep our planes we either pay rent or we pay the airport owner (in most cases a local government) leases and or fees. If we land at some larger airports we also pay a landing fee. NMPA thinks its GA pilots are not getting a free ride for owning a plane.
If a fee based system is implemented one important question which I don’t think the FAA has even addressed is: how will the fees be assessed and collected? It is not beyond reason to recognize that the cost to keep track of and assess every pilot and every flight would cost more to institute and manage than would ever be collected in fees. As an example a few years ago the state of New York instituted a program to obtain a bullet and shell casing of every gun sold in NY and to also collect the same on every gun repaired by a gunsmith. The cost to implement and maintain this runs in the millions. Ask your NY colleagues in Congress how much this system has cost the NY taxpayers. Then ask how effective it has been. How many convictions have the courts found based on the multi-million collection of bullets and shell casings in NY? Most likely the creation of a special agency to track aircraft usage, assign costs, and implement a collection system will be a colossal financial disaster.
If a fee based collection system were implemented how would that impact GA? It is not difficult to predict the effect of charging every pilot and plane from pre-flight planning to start-up to shut-down. GA will become a concept of the past except for the very rich or those who can pass the costs on to others, like in a corporate jet. NMPA is made up of men and women who fly for both business and for pleasure; but we also do an awful lot of humanitarian flying, spending our own money, to help our fellow man. We are not rich and most of our planes are 30-40-50 years old, or older.
Those of us who fly our own planes in support of the US Air Force Civil Air Patrol do not get full compensation for missions we fly. The CAP not only searches for missing aircraft but does environmental flights to estimate damage after a natural disaster such as a tornado, flooding or hurricane, etc. There are numerous “Angel” type flights where sick people and body parts are flown by unpaid volunteers covering the flying expenses out of their own pockets. How many private aircraft flew hundreds of missions right after Katrina to bring needed medical supplies, food, clothing, and other necessities of life to the devastated areas of the southeast and southwest? Within the NMPA we fly around the state, monthly, at our personal expense, presenting aviation safety seminars to local pilots.
If every flight is going to result in a laundry list of fees for getting a weather briefing, filing a flight plan, flying IFR, using approach control and tower services upon landing; GA flying will almost come to a halt. Pilots won’t get briefings, flight plans won’t be filed and safety will be seriously eroded. CAP and Angel flight may disappear. If GA flying slows down significantly then all those small businesses supporting aviation such as pilot stores, Fixed Base Operators, maintenance facilities, avionics shops, all the companies that manufacturer planes and parts, and all the other businesses that support GA will also go broke.
In the state of New Mexico, GA is a way of life. We use our planes to conduct business, run ranches, visit friends and relatives, help others, spray fields, conduct medical evacuations and do dozens of other things that without a plane would take many hours or days to accomplish, or simply wouldn’t be done.
As our elected official we ask that you recognize the value of GA and fight off the Administration and the FAA and do not allow any type of fee based system to become enacted as it will eventually kill GA in the US. There are plans to implement a partial plan to only charge larger GA planes such as turbine or jet aircraft but this is only one step on a slippery downhill slope. Today, some proponents of the fee system say, we will only charge large jets; but we know that tomorrow they will want to get the two and four seat GA planes. Please do not let this happen.
NMPA would like a response from you and to understand exactly what your position is on this matter. We hope you will recognize the serious adverse consequences of implementing any type of fee based system for controlling aviation in the US.
The New Mexico Pilots Association is a not-for-profit voluntary organization formed in 1985 for the purpose of providing safety education for aircraft pilots in NM, to protect the rights and privileges of pilots in NM, and to encourage the use of airplanes for business and pleasure within the state. NMPA presents FAA safety seminars monthly around the state for pilots to promote safe flying habits and to improve the skills of NM pilots.
Sincerely, for the New Mexico Pilots Association,
Bob Worthington
Bob Worthington, PhD
President
1136 Cave Springs Trail, Las Cruces, NM 88011
Phone 505 522 6785
Email rworthin@zianet.com