Greetings,
Our Executive Director, Jim Timm, and I had the pleasure of representing APA at the recent Chandler Municipal Airport Day. It was the airport’s 75th anniversary and there was a great turnout from the pilot community and community at large. We had the opportunity to connect with a lot of our members and talk to prospective new members about the benefits of belonging to APA. I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of those that walked away with our brochure signed up online and became new members. We also talked to a number of students considering aviation careers about the availability of scholarships (not just APA’s) and learned about their career aspirations. It was very encouraging to see firsthand the continued enthusiasm by a broad range of people for becoming involved in general aviation in Arizona.
Along those lines, I’m sure many of you may have commented on the FAA’s MOSAIC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). MOSAIC has the potential to be a game changer for general aviation as a whole since it builds on the already established Sport Pilot and Light-Sport Aircraft rules and expands the size and performance of the aircraft that can be flown while exercising Sport Pilot privileges. There were over 1,300 comments submitted by individuals and organizations such as EAA, AOPA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), just to name a few. I took some time to browse through the comments and by and large they were positive and supportive of the changes, with caveats in some cases. I know it will take some time for the FAA to wade through and coalesce in the final rule making for both pilots and aircraft certification, but I’m hopeful that they will complete their work in the next 12 – 18 months. Regardless of the timeline, this rulemaking will help expand the enthusiasm for general aviation we saw at the Chandler Airport Day.
Last but not least, I wanted to mention the upcoming Arizona Aviation Safety Advisory Group (ASAG) 50th Annual Aviation Safety Awards Banquet scheduled for Saturday, February 24th at the Phoenix Airport Hilton. The keynote Speaker will be Jessica Cox. Jessica uses her 1946 Ercoupe to promote the mission of Rightfooted Foundation International, which is “Disability does not mean Inability”. ASAG will be presenting a number of awards including the Ruth Rheinhold Award honoring individuals that make a long-term contribution to aviation safety in Arizona.
If you are interested in attending, you can get more information on the ASAG website – https://asagaz.org. We hope to see you there!
Fly Safe,
Chris