By ANN Correspondent John Ballantyne

The Grand Ball room of the Long Beach Convention Center is techno-futuristic with jumbo screen monitors on each side of the generous stage, sweeping background props creating a sense of wind and motion, and two manned video cameras on platforms out in the audience area. We are in Long Beach, California, as more than 1,100 aviation folks fill the room before 9:00 am in anticipation of the opening presentation of AOPA Expo 2004.

AOPA President Phil Boyer's opening comments are in his usual rapid-fire manner as he welcomed everyone to the annual event. AOPA Expo is an impressive gathering with more than 250 exhibits, 75 hours of seminars plus banquets, award ceremonies and notable speakers all packed into 3 uplifting days.

Boyer then introduces FAA Administrator, Marion Blakey, who is in remote attendance via a video link with FAA headquarters in Washington, DC.

Blakey provides a synopsis of FAA successes and issues. She includes subjects such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) which is offering GPS approaches to airports where ILS just isn't financially or technically possible. She said that industry is now providing GPS units that provide both lateral and vertical guidance allowing Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance (LPV) approaches. Blakey encouraged pilots to begin to use these approaches as continued funding for FAA to establish LPV approaches requires that they are being utilized.

The Administrator also speaks about airspace restrictions and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) involvement since 9/11. She commended AOPA for scheduling an open membership meeting Friday with Rear Adm. David Stone, USN (Ret.), Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for TSA. She even hinted on how best to influence him on behalf of private aviation in America.

Administrator Blakey applauded general aviation for such a safe last year, with only 340 fatalities, somewhat lower than the "very ambitious year's target" of 348. However, she cautions that more improvement is necessary to prevent runway incursions and penetration of TFRs.

Then she candidly fields many wide-ranging audience questions from the need for FAA to increase on-line application forms all the way to how FAA can begin to re-open facilities, such as control towers, to groups like the Boy Scouts. One deaf person expressed frustration at the inability to communicate with FAA services and asked if FAA is planning to provide information using methods suitable for the hearing impaired.

Blakely and Boyer interact about the European GPS system (Galileo) and stress its compatibility with existing GPS receivers and that even the European version of WAAS will also work with U.S. equipment. A question of possible ATC privatization is met with assurances that FAA is seeking the best value for the public, not the cheapest bidder. Also, Blakely and Boyer emphasize that privatization of FAA services does not mean user fees.  Instead, ATC will remain funded by aviation trust fund which comes from all tax-payers, not just users of the ATC system.

Finally, a question to the Administrator from the Senior Editor of this publication [and we do mean "senior"] about the "kinder, gentler FAA" promised by FAA with regard to medical issues with Sport Pilot. Blakey assures the audience that FAA wants to help quickly resolve simple problems of partial or incomplete applications, but FAA does not expect to allow those with medical problems known to FAA to be flying without resolution.

The session closes with AOPA President Boyer welcoming all, and thanking each one who came. Boyer said it, "I think you'll agree it's a challenge to keep up our fast-changing industry…There's so much to know!"

To meet this challenge, AOPA has provided a venue which is much more than high tech glitter and pretty stages.

FMI: www.aopa.org/expo