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Tue, Jan 21, 2025

Barnstorming: Our Best Days Should Not Be In Our Past

"Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End." - Seneca

01.09.25, Planet Earth: Despite the best bets that many people have made about me over the years, I stayed alive and in one piece (more or less), and turned 68 years old as I wrote this. 

That includes 54 years since the inexcusably cold day over New Jersey when I soloed a glider and claimed my right as an aviator to play in the sky. I am amazed at what I've seen in the last half-century or so, and I'm even more amazed at the extraordinary experiences and people who became a part of my flying life -- and to whom I owe so much even though way too many of them are but a memory.

And as a result, I'm giving into a bit of a senior moment and reflecting on all that has passed while still trying to cast my eyes to the future.

The aviation I see before me is not the aviation of my youth, and in many ways while the capabilities of this industry have increased dramatically, the future seems dimmer to me now than it has been in a long time.

And I find that unacceptable.

For the last few years I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what needs to change and how I might help it along… Not for my own self-aggrandizement, but because of the immense debt I owe so many who looked out for me and helped me get to where I am today. And while I have a number of amazing things planned for my personal future, many seem to pale in comparison to the importance I feel about affecting some kind of positive change for the aviators who are either struggling to stay in aviation now, those who are trying to get into it as we speak, and those who will try in all of our tomorrows.

In the meantime; there is some desperately bad nonsense going on out there that threatens that future.  

At the helm of Aero-News, there's not a day that passes without some kind of problem or complaint coming to our attention. And among the hundreds, even thousands, we've documented over the years, we have aircraft manufacturing companies that have cheated customers out of millions or built lousy products, endangered flyers the world over, or behaved in ways that are un-befitting our community.

All around us the costs of aviation are being driven inexorably to an unsustainable level, as airports are collaborating with company(s) that seems intent on instituting user fees at some of the smallest most fragile GA airports in the country and using ADS-B (which was promised never to be utilized for such purposes), to support their billing practices. Worse than that, at least one of the same companies already has a billing system in place to bill for the use of airspace itself, much less runways… And with that, the worst of slippery slopes lays before us.

Without restraint, developers build houses and buildings next to airports, people buy them and move in, and then somehow insist that an airplane should not make any noise and then impinge on our rights as aviators and aircraft operators by asking us to go elsewhere when they do.

The regulatory environment gets more ponderous by the day, and the old joke about not being able to fly an aircraft until the weight of the paperwork exceeds the aircraft's allowed gross weight doesn't seem so funny anymore.

The FAA, which used to partner with us, in a reasonable fashion, to build and promote aviation, has now become an opponent… Not just to us but even to their own staffers. And even those things they might do that might benefit aviation are mired in bureaucracy… MOSAIC anyone?

And while there are those groups who claim to be there to support parts of the aviation community, whether it be business jets, turboprops, or other more expensive aspects of aviation; the little guy… The grassroots aviator… Is pretty much left to fend for him or herself.

That's just plane wrong.

I could go and on about the woes we’ve seen…

We can do better than this, we must be better than this, and yet there are holes to fill in the support and defensive mechanism that aviation needs to find and build a better future.

As I consider all this, I must admit, for all my best intentions, I don't think I've done nearly as much as I can or should, and so, for the last many months I've been working with some of the finest people I know to consider and design some kind of alternative structure for the least supported aspect of aviation, the grassroots flyer, with the hope that the rest of aviation will find someone to support them as well. There a number of disciplines I can devote time and attention to, but I do not believe that any aspect of aviation is as important to our future as the grassroots aviator the very foundation of which provides the building blocks that make up the entire aviation world.

And that’s where my heart lies.

I am certain that unless we have a solid foundation for grassroots aviation, for the Sport and GA flyer, our entry-level flyers, the guy or gal who may not be the richest person in the world or the most experienced, that we are doomed to wither away… There needs to be a strong support structure so that this part of the aero-community can grow to become whatever they desire to be, recreationally or professionally, and to be able to contribute to the Aero–Verse of the future.

So… What the heck am I getting at?

All the consultations I've mentioned previously have allowed me to consider a fourfold concept that encapsulates the need for a new program that will…

  1. Enhance aviation education in ways not previously addressed,
  2. Support the Sport/LSA/MOSAIC/GA community with technical support/ consumer protection and other resources,
  3. To build a an aggressive NEW political strategy that takes on pivotal and notable problems and fights we need to engage in to let the non-aviation world know that we won't be playing pushover any longer – but to do so in a strategic and legally viable manner,
  4. And finally to rebuild the community and its spirit… To find a way for us all to work together for the common good… To engage in activities that allow us to work, fly, and enjoy the skies together, and build the camaraderie that I've seen all too seldom in the past couple of decades.

The foregoing seems a little brief, but it makes a whole lot of sense when the full program is laid out. With the help of some extremely potent aviation personalities like former AOPA Pres. Phil Boyer, Cirrus Founder Alan Klapmeier, Sun n Fun boss Gene Conrad, Society of Aviation and Flight Educators headman David St. George and quite a number of others I've been lining up… Maybe, just maybe, it's time to take the biggest risk of my career at the tender age of 68, and see just what I and my friends are really capable of.

The most important aspect of this, and I'll be more specific about the rest of the concept in the not-too-distant future, is that we’re going to need a lot of help… Aviators and aviation persons who care deeply about the future of aviation, and the welfare of their fellow flyers, men and women who are willing to pitch in and be a part of something greater than themselves – and of even greater service to the Aero-Verse. We’re going to need all the help we can get… And when we put the call out for assistance, I hope you'll take a moment, consider our intent, and give us a hand by pitching in.

There is an overriding, and highly emotional component to my feelings about all this…

Over the years, one of the greatest and most fortunate accomplishments in the last half-century plus, and nearly 20,000 flight hours, was my dear dear friendship with Bob Hoover. Bob took great delight in the fuss I created, at times, trying to find the right way to correct wrongs, and gave me a lot of support, critique, and encouragement. And even in his final days, at a time when he knew his life was ending, his comments were often about hope. He really didn't have a whole lot of care about how he would be remembered, I think he had some confidence that all of us who knew and loved him would be sure that he would be remembered with pride -- but the concerns he expressed were about building a better aviation in the future than we had in the past. It wasn't enough not to lose ground, or fight to maintain a status quo, it was both necessary as well as an imperative, to build a better future for every kid who would stand somewhere, someday, outside an airport fence and dream of getting to the other side. I remember these conversations vividly and take his advice, counsel, and confidence in what he hoped I might do, as my mission statement for the future.

I will not, can not, let Bob down…

And, mind you, there are hundreds, literally, of others that I am similarly indebted to, to ‘give back’ just as they gave so generously to myself and to so many others.

Aviation is not dead. It has had better days. But, it is up to us to build much better days into our future.

Stay tuned, I'll have more to say shortly, and I kid you not, this is the most aggressive undertaking I've ever considered but one that I am rapidly concluding it must be pursued.

 

Blue Skies; Jim Campbell, ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief/Unrepentant Aviator

FMI: jim@aero-news.net

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