Inside the Fence

Aug. 26, 2009

Looking for inspiration ...

When speaking with various folks for our annual Canadian issue, it was inspiring to hear that Canada’s domestic airline travel is not in a spiral — down some 4 to 6 percent. Traffic coming from the south, however, is off some 14 percent. We Yanks aren’t taking in the walleyes this year.

It’s also inspiring that when speaking with folks in Canada you don’t hear big complaints about air traffic control, or modernization thereof. A big complaint is that the U.S. requires double bag checks for passengers crossing the borders. Jim Facette at CAC (page 26) calls it low-hanging fruit. An inspiring thought, in terms of eliminating unnecessary regs, until one recognizes that the TSA obviously considers Canadian security second rate. They think otherwise.

Didn’t get the opportunity to talk about national health care. (Might have been inspiring.)

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An inspiring thought is that Congress is finally serious about passing long-term (three years?) FAA/system reauthorization. An uninspiring thought is the ‘cap and trade’ bill bouncing around Capitol Hill and the impact it could have on aviation.

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A recent DOT Inspector General report essentially lashed out at the Part 135 on-demand charter industry, much to NATA’s displeasure. The association suggests that the I.G. had an agenda or didn’t do its homework. Not comparing apples to apples, says NATA’s Jim Coyne.

Then comes a fixed wing flying out of Teterboro, directly into a tourism helicopter. Now Congress wants hearings, specifically with on-demand. A perfect storm for legislative regulation is brewing.

The irony is that the FAA has been breathing fire at 135s for some time. The industry has been very responsive in making recommendations by participating in an aviation rulemaking advisory committee, which has made a laundry list of recommendations.

At NATA’s Air Charter Summit, FAA admitted they were way behind in acting on the recommendations, which they say have merit.

There is a disconnect. The problem has to be in that the process moves too slowly — now events are taking over. It doesn’t matter that what happened in the Hudson River is a local airspace issue at the end of the day. The industry needs vision —inspiration — on this one.

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Finally, when people want to stay home and don’t want to pay to fly, they do something crazy like ... drive to Oshkosh for the annual EAA AirVenture fly-in, camp-out, air show — a week-long hangar talk. For those who have never been, put it on the calendar for July 2010.

What’s inspiring is that attendence had a big boost at Oshkosh this year. The same is happening at many air shows across the country — assuming the airport still has the finances to do the drill. Turns out, people still like aviation. Something to build on.

Thanks for reading.