The Good Stuff

I realize some of you will be shocked to realize Im actually writing the following, but there are a lot of good things to be said about general aviations overall condition in the U.S. in 2007. Thats not to say things couldnt be better-nor is it to say Im throwing in the towel; far from it-but so much of what is the GA “experience” continues to be very, very good.

In recent weeks, I had the opportunity to make several flights up and down the eastern seaboard, in good and bad weather, stopping into airports of all sizes and in many different locations. With one exception, and even including the ATC folks with whom I worked, the experience was positive. I was welcomed at FBOs, treated with respect by airport and FAA employees, and other GA pilots were cooperative, helpful and professional. At one fuel stop, the airport employee apparently pulls double-duty; he was riding a tractor up and down the runway sides, mowing grass. I was left to find the restrooms and pump my own gas, trusted not to abscond with anything in the FBOs office or tinker with hangared airplanes. It was all good.

The exception, of course, relates to the ongoing upheavals at the FAAs flight service stations. Generally, even that “experience” is improving, though I doubt it will ever again be what it was even a few months ago. But enough of that for this month.

Having been “sentenced” to a round-trip aboard a human mailing tube only a few weeks earlier, I had fresh memories of the indignities and drawbacks of commercial aviation. Using a GA airplane for personal transportation-not “recreation”-remains an efficient, effective tool. Its fun, challenging, relaxing, tiring and exhilarating all at the same time. If it didnt exist already, personal aviation would have to be invented, if only for some of us to understand what we are missing.

Yes, the GA community has a number of challenges it must resolve in the near term. The potential for bad stuff is real. But in the meantime, the good stuff is pretty good.