WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Small Business Committee recently held a hearing about President Obama’s proposal to charge a $100 per flight user fee for some flying. Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) came out strongly against the proposal, as did many of the committee members. Some people involved in general aviation believe that since […]
Opinion
NBAA denounces President’s attack during debate on business aviation
User fees on general aviation are still a threat as President Obama raised their ugly head in his comments on taxes during the debate Wednesday night (Oct. 3) with Mitt Romney. The President’s statement brought a quick condemnation from Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association. In his remarks about taxing […]
GA’s next generation of entrepreneurs: PilotMall.com’s Neil Glazer
I always marvel at how anyone makes a go of it in aviation. I’m especially cheered by young people who stake their claim. I’ll be writing about a young aviation entrepreneur or leader from time to time. The first represents success on the Internet: Neil Glazer, the founder of PilotMall.com. Last month, I visited the […]
Stand back, Jack
It goes without saying, of course, but every now and then it’s a good idea to stand down, relax, maybe even take a nap. No matter what you’re working on, or how important you perceive it to be, there is a point of diminishing returns if you push too hard. You’re only human after all. […]
Cessna tops LSA market list
Anticipation is always high for the latest market share information and I am happy to provide an update, thanks to my European associate Jan Fridrich who does the hard work of sifting through FAA’s database. I remind you that his efforts are not merely tallying whatever FAA publishes. In fairness, Jan has to evaluate many […]
Family tradition
Back before David “Shorty” Wilkinson had a reason to be nicknamed “Shorty,” (because he is, after all, bean-pole tall) he thought every family traveled by airplane, because every family he knew had one. This made sense to him since his mom and dad were from Texas but lived in Georgia. An airplane made visiting relatives […]
Be persistent, but be there
Someone asked me recently what I would say if asked for advice about how to be a good advocate for general aviation. The answer is simple — and it doesn’t matter if the advocacy you intend to do is on behalf of general aviation, a local bowling league, or anything else. The advice is the […]
Wait your turn (or don’t)
The vast majority of us were raised by civilized mothers and fathers. That’s a good thing. We belonged to the Boy Scouts, or the Girl Scouts, or a sports team of some kind. And of course all of us had some sort of educational experience, which almost always consisted of at least one adult who […]
Recession, fuel costs ground pilots
WASHINGTON, D.C. — General aviation is going to have an uphill struggle to get back into the growth mode, according to a 92-page report released late last month. The report is based on the thesis of two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which delves into the current and historic trends in GA […]