...And Here, Darn it, Are The Heartbreakers

by ANN News Editor Tom Patton

 It is both the most "fun," and most difficult task, facing the ANN staff at the end of every year -- determining who, or what, did the most to promote the cause of aviation in the past 365 days... while also chastising those people or entities that did all they could to undermine the many successes the aerospace community has managed to accomplish.
 
Alas, 2010 saw more than its fair share of downers, aviation-wise. Sure, "stuff" happens... but a few folks, issues, or entities seemed to go out of their way to create problems for the world of aviation.

So... it is ANN's annual obligation to recognize a number of our Aero-Heroes/Heartbreakers for 2010... in something of an informal order -- Saving the 'best' for last.

Let us know what you think of our selections... whom YOU would have liked be included, or omitted, from such a list. In the meantime, we hope those who had something to do with this year's selections think a little more positively about the welfare of this industry, so that future lists become harder and harder to catalog.

Be it ignorance, arrogance or just plain incompetence, these were the folks or topics that made our lot a whole lot more difficult and immeasurably injured the aviation world in the past year.

Shame on those issues, folks, or groups that made our lot so much tougher in 2010...

Aero-Heartbreakers: US Congress

The national legislative body was something of a mixed bag for aviation this year. There were some successes, notably the extension of the accelerated depreciation rules in the tax code which was widely praised as a potential catalyst for new airplane sales.

But one thing they couldn't do is pass a reauthorization measure for the FAA, and the only real sticking point is nothing really to do with aviation at all ... a labor provision that has become a tug-of-war between UPS and FedEx Express.

The FAA has been operating on continuing resolutions since the end of FY2007. What that means is, the agency has been funded at the same level as that year. Through the course of the year, we heard over and over that the House or the Senate had passed the FAA reauthorization bill, but when it came to the all-important conference committees, the issue of whether drivers for FedEx Express should be allowed to organize in the same way as UPS drivers stood in the way.

There's no way to know exactly how the lack of an authorization bill for the FAA has affected things like moving forward with NextGen. But the situation has gone on far too long, and we hope it will be a priority for the incoming congress.

When Congress was paying attention to aviation, it wasn't necessarily in a good way. A Texas Congressman reacted to an incident in which an airplane was flown into a building in Texas in a tax protest to calling for hearings into the "threat" posed by private airplanes. The incoming chair of the House Transportation Committee called the new pilot's license a "fiasco," and now an NPRM to require a pilot's photo on his or her license after having made the switch to a plastic license just last year ... a move which will definitely dip into pilots' pockets.

The passage of the NASA authorization bill drew mixed reviews. The proponents of the Constellation program said that cancelling it would be money wasted, but commercial spaceflight backers were pleased with the support for COTS and Commercial Crew.

Dithering continued over the F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Lightning II. Defense and administration official continued to say that the program should be shelved, but representatives from areas where GE is building and testing the F136 continued to get funding.

Meanwhile, the body forced the issue of mandating crew rest and set a minimum of 1,500 hours before a pilot can serve as First Officer of a commercial flight, a rule that drew mixed reviews from pilots and unions. The biggest concern was that increasing that requirement from 250 to 1,500 hours would shut a lot of dedicated, qualified, safe pilots out of the cockpits where they can build hours while earning a living.

We know that the national legislative body can be an easy target, and sometimes ... heck, most of the time ... when it comes to legislation, slower is better. But with all of the supposed concern about environmental issues, and NextGen offering a solution that will help airlines, and aviation in general, use less fuel and operate more efficiently, the lack of an FAA Reauthorization bill -- primarily over a labor dispute -- lands our elected representatives back on our "Heartbreakers" list. We sincerely hope we're not writing this same column this time next year.

But we're not sure that's a bet we'd take.

FMI: www.house.gov, www.senate.gov