User fees

[Johann]

Hi,

I just received an email from AOPA asking for donations to their PAC (which is not the point of the thread).
At some point they list the key things they are working on, like fighting the OSA testing, and the driver's license thing for private pilots.

What caught my eye is the third thing they list:

And we've drawn a clear line in the sand against $100-per-flight user fees which we fully expect will be included in the White House's upcoming budget proposal.

I haven't read anything about this anywhere else. Does anyone know more details about this?

Thanks.

 

[dukeblue219]

Hi,

I just received an email from AOPA asking for donations to their PAC (which is not the point of the thread).
At some point they list the key things they are working on, like fighting the OSA testing, and the driver's license thing for private pilots.

What caught my eye is the third thing they list:


I haven't read anything about this anywhere else. Does anyone know more details about this?

Thanks.

Well, the short, non-dramatic version is that every year the WH sticks in some user fee language, and in the course of budget negotiations (which never result in an actual budget) it gets removed because Congress hates it. Also, they word it to only apply to the big boys -- I forget the specifics, but larger turboprops, not skyhawks, and only when using ATC.

Now, that's not to say I'm ok with it -- I'm as opposed to it as anyone, and it would be easy to expand in the future to cover the rest of us, but I want to make it clear that as of now nobody is proposing a $100/flight fee for a lap around the pattern on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[ClimbnSink]

And every year aopa uses it for scare-fundraising. Everybody wins.