DFW AOPA Town Hall Meeting

[TangoWhiskey]

Attended the AOPA Town Hall in Irving (east side of DFW airport) tonight. In addition to the meeting, they held a "want to be a pilot" sesson next door hosted by one of ASF's presenters, the entertaining Pat Straub. The mailed invitations for the event included a card you could tear off and give to someone interested learning to fly.

I gave mine to the guy from work I am mentoring under AOPA's Project Pilot. He came with me and enjoyed the event.

Phil provided great coverage of the fight against user fees last year, and the current status. He played critical segments of the dialogue from some of the major influential senators and representatives, both for and against fees. He also played for us some of the unbelievable ads from the airline consortiums that only played on TV in the Wash. DC area... wow.

In any case, and no matter what gripes some may have against AOPA, I for one am glad that they are in DC representing GA's interests, and feel my dues went to good representation.

A couple other points of interest, regarding the ASF online seminars. Soon to be announced are the following deals they've reached with underwriters AIG and USAIG:

1) If you take an ASF seminar, online or in person, each six months, you'll get accident forgiveness (no raise in premium) and waiver of your deductible for your first incident.

2) If you fly a TAA (glass panel) and take a single ASF seminar per year (online or in person), you'll earn a 10% reduction in your annual premium. It was not clear if this applied to owners only, or renters as well. Details to follow.

Finally, regarding Lockheed Martin Flight "Circus" Stations, he said not enough pilots are calling the toll free "complaint" line, only 50 or so per week (that's not enough?!?!). They review each call and the associated briefing tape with LM and submit a report to the FAA. One full-time AOPA staffer is dedicated solely to this task, but they need our help! If you have a bad briefing experience, your next call needs to be the complaint line (888/FLT-SRVC or 888/358-7782). Give AOPA the ammo they need to argue the point that the service isn't up to our standards.

 

[SCCutler]

Nice report Troy. Wish I coulda been there, but we are in Houston dealing with family issues.


As regards FSS, I hate to tell you- lately, I have been pretty happy with the service I have been getting. Just lucky?

 

[t0r0nad0]

Well Spike, if you can get away, the Houston AOPA Town Hall Meeting is tonight at the Houston Marriott Westchase. I'll be there and I'm also trying to get a coworker to go for the Wanna Be a Pilot session... he told me on Monday that he called up the local flight school and is going to go for a discovery flight soon. I'll be sure to post my wrap-up here as well.

 

[t0r0nad0]

Ditto what Troy said for the Houston meeting. They showed a funny video of the "disappointed" Catch-A-Cardinal winner. They set him up by telling him that they were going to give him a research grant. He was so excited about the grant that he was actually kinda disappointed with winning the plane! AOPA gave him the grant after all, and he was happy again.

Some of those airline propaganda ads kinda made my blood boil. Phil did tell a funny story about a Congressman who was trying to head home to NYC with his cadre and there was a ground-stop from LGA, which kept him on the ground at Reagan National. He called Phil and told him that he was now pro-user fees because the airline-sponsored ads in the airport told him that GA was to blame for his delay. Phil told him that there hasn't been ANY GA planes at Reagan since 9/11! The Congressman said, "We have been misled."

Phil's a great speaker and it was great to meet him. I agree with Troy that I'm glad they're fighting for us in DC and I think my $39/yr is going to a good place.

In other news, after returning from my flight on Friday, I saw N4GA on the ramp at IWS. The VP of Airports was there, and he was kind enough to let me take a few pictures. Here they are!

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/t0r0nad0/N4GA/?albumview=slideshow

 

[ScottM]

Finally, regarding Lockheed Martin Flight "Circus" Stations, he said not enough pilots are calling the toll free "complaint" line, only 50 or so per week (that's not enough?!?!). They review each call and the associated briefing tape with LM and submit a report to the FAA. One full-time AOPA staffer is dedicated solely to this task, but they need our help! If you have a bad briefing experience, your next call needs to be the complaint line (888/FLT-SRVC or 888/358-7782). Give AOPA the ammo they need to argue the point that the service isn't up to our standards.

I stopped using them they were so bad. I am sure I am not the only one so it is logical that the number of calls will go down. They should also look at that the stats to see if usage has dropped.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Ditto what Troy said for the Houston meeting. They showed a funny video of the "disappointed" Catch-A-Cardinal winner. They set him up by telling him that they were going to give him a research grant. He was so excited about the grant that he was actually kinda disappointed with winning the plane! AOPA gave him the grant after all, and he was happy again.

Yeah, they should have given the airplane to his DAUGHTER... she was THRILLED about it!

Some of those airline propaganda ads kinda made my blood boil. Phil did tell a funny story about a Congressman who was trying to head home to NYC with his cadre and there was a ground-stop from LGA, which kept him on the ground at Reagan National. He called Phil and told him that he was now pro-user fees because the airline-sponsored ads in the airport told him that GA was to blame for his delay. Phil told him that there hasn't been ANY GA planes at Reagan since 9/11! The Congressman said, "We have been misled."

That was a great story!

In other news, after returning from my flight on Friday, I saw N4GA on the ramp at IWS. The VP of Airports was there, and he was kind enough to let me take a few pictures. Here they are!

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/t0r0nad0/N4GA/?albumview=slideshow

Man, those are some FANTASTIC photos of the AOPA Citation. Funny that their plane is blocked on Flight Aware. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N4GA

Guess they don't want us to know where all they go with the jet? Who is Canal Air?

EDITED WITH ANSWER to "who is Canal Air", from a discussion on Flight Aware's forums:

Vesey Air LLC is just another name for GECC (General Electric Credit Corp) a leasing company. Other names they use are CFS Air LLC, GC Air LLC, AVN Air LLC and Canal Air LLC among others.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

I stopped using them they were so bad. I am sure I am not the only one so it is logical that the number of calls will go down. They should also look at that the stats to see if usage has dropped.

I called them for the first time in a long time (have been using DUATS) on Sunday morning. Said "Briefing" as soon as it answered, then "Texas", then "Eastern", and was talking to a briefer two seconds later. Got a good briefing, and my questions answered about the possibility of incoming weather, and went on out and had a nice flight, giving a nice young 9-year-old an Eagle Flight, her first ride in a small plane. Great morning.

 

[t0r0nad0]

Man, those are some FANTASTIC photos of the AOPA Citation. Funny that their plane is blocked on Flight Aware. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N4GA

Yeah, it was great to have that kind of access, especially getting to sit in Phil's seat!

I did ask about why they were blocked on FlightAware, his reply was simple, "Because we don't want people to know where we're going." I didn't press any further because he was letting me play in the airplane. It was short, sweet, and to the point.

Nick's reply berating AOPA and all it stands for using this FlightAware response as a catalyst in 3...2...1...

j/k Nick

 

[gprellwitz]

Yeah, it was great to have that kind of access, especially getting to sit in Phil's seat!

Nick's reply berating AOPA and all it stands for using this FlightAware response as a catalyst in 3...2...1...

j/k Nick

Some great shots in there!

And no, Nick's too happy about not being in jail!

 

[mikea]

I stopped using them they were so bad. I am sure I am not the only one so it is logical that the number of calls will go down. They should also look at that the stats to see if usage has dropped.

See? LM can show the FAA that they're answering BOTH calls they get IN RECORD TIME!



....and one was a wrong number.

 

[gprellwitz]

See? LM can show the FAA that they're answering BOTH calls they get IN RECORD TIME!



....and one was a wrong number.

Well I called on Saturday, got a briefer within a few seconds, and had a decent briefing. Even when they were at their worst, though, you'd sometimes come away with a good experience. Haven't filed in a while, so I don't know how they're doing about getting those in the system.

 

[ScottM]

so I don't know how they're doing about getting those in the system.

Filed via LM a couple of weeks ago and it got in pretty fine. I had to have them redo the routing. I had given them along the lake shore but whoever coded it had it LDM direct to LOT. Perhaps a mistake by the operator or perhaps just laziness.

 

[SCCutler]

Please don't hit me or anything like that, but just here lately, I have gotten excellent service from LM. Short waits, good briefings and no lost flight plans.

 

[kevin47881]

Please don't hit me or anything like that, but just here lately, I have gotten excellent service from LM. Short waits, good briefings and no lost flight plans.

I agree with Spike, the last several briefings have been excellent.