AOPA is urging FAA Administrator Michael Huerta to halt cuts that will disproportionately affect the safety and integrity of general aviation operations.The whole idea behind the sequester, as they voted for it nearly two years ago, was that the cuts were supposed to be painful. That's why the Army is cutting back training, the Navy is parking ships, the Air Force is cutting back on their schedule of bikini waxes, the air demostration teams are canceling shows, government employees are being furloughed, national parks are closing and so on.
“The recommended cuts will have unacceptable consequences for the nation and the flying community,” AOPA President Craig Fuller said in a March 12 letter to Huerta. “We urge you to suspend the planned cuts while we, and others, call upon Congress and the Administration’s budget officials to grant you the needed flexibility to make choices that will reduce spending without threatening the safety of our skies or disabling general aviation.”
I know that AOPA is a lobby group and of course, they're going to scream because their particular ox is being gored. Well, so are a lot of other people's oxen.
It comes across as whiny and petulant, at least to me. And I've been an AOPA member since damn near the invention of dirt.
Yeah, he came off a little entitled there I think. Never been my favorite AOPA spokesman.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not happy about the tower closures either. Some of them, yes - the ones that get 50 "operations" per day we can do without and should. But these closures cut much deeper, into towers that are really pretty busy. Like my home drome. (I'm going to avoid it at 5pm, that's for sure.) They're closing about 170/250 of all the contracted towers. FAA staffed and unionized towers, no matter how sleepy, are harder to close.
Of course the contract towers are going to close first. They're the "temporary Xmas help."
DeleteFuller, with his hairstyle, looks a little like Chairman Mao. He needs a new barber
Just got my notice...11 days without pay between April 17 and Sept 30. Effective 5%+ paycut for most Federal Employees on top of a now 3 year Federal pay freeze. Expecting FERS retirement contribution requirement to jump from .8% to about 5.8% (that'll be another 5% cut).
ReplyDeleteOn the ATC front, just remember the sequester impact will not be felt until after April 7th for Federal Contract towers and April 21st for FAA facilities. Expect it to get interesting, we're gonna take a minimum 10% staffing cut on all shifts...and have to start providing services overnight at a number of airports. Remember, if the tower closes, we're all the way back to one in and one out.
Reread it and I need to clarify...1 day per pay period (2 weeks) is 5% reduction (not 10%) because I was using the yearly total and the furlough is for just under half the year...thus 10% becomes 5%.
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