It took me the better part of 30 years to finally “get into” general aviation flying. A Cessna will get you there (eventually) and the Mooney 201 is a slick piece of gear to dream on, but compared to twin, afterburning GE404 engines wrapped in twin-tailed titanium and graphite epoxy, eh.
You need two things to fly: Airspeed and money. My timing, she is impeccable. Because, it appears, you may also need “user fees” to support the FAA:
President Barack Obama’s proposed budget is calling for aviation user charges starting in 2011. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the proposal Feb. 26, and although there is not much detail, the document makes it clear that the administration wants to replace some of the aviation excise taxes with “direct user charges.”
“It is often said the devil is in the details, but even with only a few details, we are concerned,” said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “We have been working constructively with the Obama administration and Congress about moving forward with air traffic control modernization and airport development. However, the warning light went on with the budget briefing documents and the plan for imposing billions in user fees on the aviation community.”
General aviation already supports the federal transport network through excise taxes on aviation fuel, while the aircraft industry is already reeling from the impacts of the recession. It’s difficult to believe that these “user fees” will substitute for the excise tax on a one-for-one basis.
The power to tax is the power to destroy.
-snip- because somehow the EDIT thing caused a duplicate. !$@%#^ computers anyway…..
Ahhh “user fees”. When is a tax not a tax? When its a “fee”. Seems every year I make an annual pilgrimage to some western state to visit a national park or BLM area….and constantly run into this “user fee” nonsense. I paid my taxes and now I have to pay AGAIN to visit what my tax bought? Pretty much, yep.
And that “It’s difficult to believe that these “user fees” will substitute for the excise tax on a one-for-one basis.” D!mned right. Rarely is a tax eliminated. I shudder when they speak of a national sales tax to replace the income tax. As my cynical friends say: “Yeah. Right.”
So what O’brobin Hood can’t take in the front door, he’ll have congress extract it from your *. Welcome to the new, more fair, redistributive Amerika comrades!
(I REALLY have to get my prescription refilled…….)
But, but these fees are only on people who, you know, fly airplanes and we all know that if you fly an airplane you just must be rich.
Being a, relatively speaking, tiny minority (only around 600,000 licensed pilots in the entire US of ALL flavors) it seems that dumping this kind of tax on them will hardly get any sympathy from the masses.
I recall a measure proposed in the DC Council where smoking was to be banned everywhere because – well it was bad for you, evil, and besides Nanny government knows best. In a council meeting one member who was philosophically opposed to such things stck to her principals by adding an amendment to ban all alcoholic beverages as well stating, in effect, “if we are going to ban things that are bad for you let’s do everything”.
Measure was withdrawn quietly at once.
I’ve thought maybe AOPA should take a similar tact – proposing users fees on all boats and cars as well. Maybe that would bring the infringement home to the masses. But this crowd would probably welcome any proposed intrusion into the lives of the citizenry…
God help us as we seem so incapable of helping ourselves.
As if the general aviation industry wasn’t in bad enough shape.
Expenses continue to climb with really high Avgas / JetA costs and the increasing price of certificated airplanes due to liability. Cessna had made this statement in Flying Magazine and also was in an article in Trade-A-Plane, that some $50,000 of the cost of a new aircraft was attributed to expenses for liability. Another $25,000 for the defense fund for in-house and retained lawyers for the aircraft manufacturing company to fight lawsuits.
Total active pilots 1991 was 571,731
Total active pilots 2007 was 503,740
This can’t help
While in college in the early ’70s, I worked at an FBO adjacent to the college, partly to be around anything that flew. The slight discount on rental time and instruction was almost better than getting paid.
The FBO bought a Piper PA28-140 Cherokee Fliteliner about the time I got there, for $24K total. Eventually got my checkride in N44450.
Two years later, they got a PA28-151 Warrior. For $104K. Which is a lot for two more seats and slightly longer wing. Much of the extra cost, we were told, was related to liability concerns.
Those proposed user fees aren’t going to help us, nor much of anyone else, I’m sorely afraid.
They probably figure if you’re well enough off to afford to fly planes, then you are a natural target for additional taxes. And not a big enough voting block to matter.
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”
Thomas Jefferson
Closely followed by:
“On the Plains of Hesitation lie the bones of countless thousands, who – while waiting for someone else to act – died.”
G-man
Well, I guess I know when my father-in-law (who will probably read this) will stop flying. Hopefully he can sell the bird before then.
I’m not very bright, but there seems to be a pattern emerging. How rich d’ya hafta be before the “Tax Only the Rich” program is successful in screwing everybody, except for those that do not pay taxes?
Eh, indeed.
Saffer,
That’s been one of my favorite stories since I first read it…
Thanks for reminding me of it.
This is more than a tax the rich plan. It is an exercise in unintended consequences. What do you think will happen when it costs $5 every time you talk to ATC, and it costs $10 for a weax briefing from FSS, and it costs $15 to file a flight plan?
That’s right, you will have hundreds, if not thousands, of flights “avoiding” those costs by not talking to ATC, and not gettingweax brifings, and not filing flight plans. Thus creating a safety hazard for other aircraft as well as innocent people on the ground.
No problemo there Navig8r. Just think “city ordinance” where your every idea requires a permit, accompanied fee, and inspection. So what the feds’ll do is make it all a REQUIREMENT. You’ll have your travel permit duly stamped, endorsed, inspected, fee’d, and filed in triplicate with each endorsement duly stamped and fee’d before you can even step out onto the flightline where yet another inspector will ensure the papers are in order to allow access through the gate. All this done “for the children” …oops, I mean for “public safety and to support the general welfare”.
Financial matters aside, many liberals and “progressives” are hostile to general aviation. There was an article in Washington Monthly several years ago objecting to the fact that there are many places in the country where you can fly without talking to an “adult”, ie, a government employee. (I don’t remember the exact quote, but that was the sense of it)
Many controllers are of course also pilots–evidently, in the view of the author of this article, a controller is an “adult” when he is on the job at his radar screen but ceases being one when he gets behind the yoke of his airplane.
Following on David Foster and the control mentality, is everyone aware of the latest TSA LSA (Large Aircraft Security Program) and it’s UNBELIEVABLY Onerous restrictions that they want to expand to ALL general aviation REGARDLESS of aircraft weight AND all the fees required? The uproar already has pushed the program back to i June, but get in your comments now. For a description of the program see here.
and for the latest.
OR for full flavor of range of horror stories that could put General Aviation out of business (seriously folks) hit google at the following and scroll down and read all the horror stories.
I’ve got some great links in moderation hell about the latest TSA onerous proposals for General Aviation that could put it out of business. But the links are bad and the damned thing won’t let me edit so “all ya’all” are going to have to play around with the links if and when it gets out of moderation.
Surprise! It popped out even as I was typing furiously away here.
I’ve got your back
I’ve flown from sea to shining sea five times in general aviation airplanes, and even now, in this day and age when aviation is over 100 years old, people are absolutely shocked by the idea of such folly. Hell, even many bold Nasal Radiators (who usually have no knowledge of civilian aviation) have been overwhelmed by the crazyiness of the idea. Most people can’t get their minds around slipping the surly bonds to start with, much less cotton to the idea of leaving sight of the home drome in “one of those little things.”
Of all the people I’ve ever met, when the subject is brought up that I have an airplane, the reaction is almost always of shock and rejection of the idea of flying (You’ll never get me up in one of those little things.) To most people, airplanes are inherently dangerous, and more than likely will fall through their roof at any moment. Despite the fact that it is more likely that a car will fly through their living room wall, they are still more afraid of airplanes, probably because the only thing they know about airplanes is what they see on TV and in the movies. Airplane engine fails (and they always do) = airplane plunging straight down, passengers screaming. There must be some primitive primate fear of Things Falling On Me From Trees left over in our cortexes. The idea of owning one’s own plane is as foreign to them as having a space ship. I can’t figure out who they think owns and flies the many airplanes they see overhead. Or maybe they can only see the big ones. Even when I was working on my Private ticket, people would say, “Flying? All by yourself?” They were reassured that I would be “on radar” the whole time until I told them I could fly all the way across the country without talking to anyone. Sends the mind reeling.
One of my favorite quotes from Mayor Dailey the Younger is from just after 9/11, when he said, in an incredulous voice, “You mean someone can fly here from CaliFORnia and we won’t even KNOW about it? Yes, DICK, it’s called freedom. I’ve flown directly over Chicago without talking to ANYone. At NIGHT! OMG, it’s a wonder the Earth didn’t stand still.
And then there’s the whole stinkin’ rich jealousy issue. You have to be rich to have an airplane, airplanes are dangerous, tax ‘em out of the sky!
From the government perspective, the FAA has been telling civilian pilots for decades to use the Flight Service Stations, file a flight plan, get your instrument rating, use the system whether or not you’re on an IFR flight plan. Now, of course, the FSS system is too expensive, those pesky general aviation airplanes take too much time away from the controllers and they’re in the way of the airliners. Or so they claim, to get more funding to rescue their poorly managed projects.
Combine the public’s fear of falling objects along with the unnatural act of flying, a soak-the-rich mentality being whipped to a fever pitch, along with a beleagured FAA that hasn’t met their time or budget targets for any of their new programs in years, and we have real trouble for the future of general aviation.
Rio- I can only point to Lex’ title bar quote which captures your sentiment:
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music
Lastly. I used to love landing at Meigs field, especially at night. One of my best aviation memories was flying in front of the skyscrapers on a clear night and landing by the waters of Lake Michigan. Thanks to the Mayor-it’s gone.
I am not a Mayor Dailey fan.
Jeez, you had to bring up Meigs…I don’t know what pisses me off more, Dailey ripping up the runway in the dead of night or the FAA not having enough balls to do anything about it.
Meigs-oh yeah, taking something built and operated with tax-payer dollars–Fed, State and local– and turning it over to line the pockets of real-estate developers who, by the merest of coincidences, happen to be big Daily campaign contributers. Standard. A Classic in every respect.
Is edit not working? …. He said as the click to edit sign popped up.
LEX,
BTW, I had to step away, belated thanx.
I knew I should have checked six!
This trash came up during the Clinton misrule and AOPA and EAA fought tooth and nail to stop it. They succeeded, but the left keeps coming back.
Daily should have been escorted to a post erected on the lakefront at Meigs, allowed a last statement, then popped. In a country not peopled by cowards that’s exactly what would have happened.
Terrorism indeed. Just more Chicago graft. Just think, the AOPA Prez headed Daily’s re-election campaign after that. Many of us were shocked.
The current AOPA pres? References, please!
“…AOPA and EAA fought tooth and nail to stop it. They succeeded, but the left keeps coming back.”
It seems, I fear, that a whole separate legislative defense (offense?) fund will have to be generated. What’ll it take? How much money will be required to buy off these “progressives” who want to control every last thing?
Because they sure won’t have a change of heart based on reason–money, and lots of it–seems to be the only language they understand.
Of course, I’m rich–my Cherokee 140 cost less than a used car, and I *still* scrape by to fly. But I’m rich and patriotic–I’m giving BarryO even more money than I had planned–first time in over 30 years, yet I’m bringing home less than 1/2 my non-retired income.