Spread the word
The crucial role of your membership in our advocacy
By Jim Coon
As most AOPA members know, general aviation is the foundation of American aviation. Including everything from flight training and recreational flying to business aviation, emergency medical transport, firefighting, and more, GA serves a vital function in thousands of communities across our great nation.
Through engagement with legislators, public policy initiatives, airport protection and promotion efforts, and educational outreach, AOPA plays a pivotal role on your behalf, to ensure that GA remains accessible, safe, and viable for future generations. Without strong advocacy from AOPA, many of the freedoms, resources, and opportunities that GA pilots enjoy today would be at risk. In my biased view, all pilots should be AOPA members. Simply stated, being an AOPA member ensures that GA voices are heard, considered, and respected.
One of the most pressing challenges facing GA is the threat of losing access to both airspace and airports. Across the country, some local airports face closure because of financial pressures, land development, noise complaints, and misinformed public sentiment. Many of these smaller airports, however, are lifelines for rural communities, emergency services, and economic activity. And these reasons are why AOPA successfully advocated for a significant increase in funding for GA airports in last year’s FAA Reauthorization bill.
AOPA’s Airport Support Network, consisting of more than 2,300 AOPA member volunteers, empowers local pilots to become stewards of their airports to help resolve issues or provide assistance. On a national scale, AOPA’s advocacy works for GA pilots to ensure our collective voices are heard whether it be to fight for fair and reasonable airport and FBO fees; working to prevent ADS-B from being used to collect fees; modernizing aircraft certification rules, like MOSAIC; pursuing needed medical reforms such as the successful BasicMed initiative, which has made it easier for more than 90,000 private pilots to safely maintain their flying privileges without undergoing complicated and costly medical processes; addressing mental health; fighting against air traffic control privatization and advocating for a new and modern ATC system; and much, much more.
We work to develop programs and pathways for new pilots, mechanics, and aviation professionals so that GA has a bright future, but it’s your AOPA membership that helps ensure AOPA remains an effective general aviation advocacy organization. Let’s all collectively work together to ensure all pilots join us in this worthy endeavor. There is no other country in the world that can boast how influential and impactful GA is on so many levels. In a constantly evolving aviation landscape marked by technological change, shifting policy priorities, and competing interests, we too must grow and meet the challenges and opportunities before us.
AOPA’s advocacy team works hard every day to help ensure that the needs and freedoms of GA pilots and aircraft owners are represented and protected in the face of political, economic, and regulatory challenges. We don’t win every battle, but we certainly try.
Without AOPA’s representation in the halls of Congress, state legislatures, and communities, GA could easily be sidelined or diminished as policy makers are faced with thousands of issues. This is why you and your AOPA membership are vital to leaving GA in a better place than you found it. Spread the word! 
