My day flying with AOPA President Mark Baker !

Maui Cirrus CFII

Maui Cirrus CFII

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AoA
Had the honor of flying with Mark Baker, President of AOPA today in Hawaii. We recorded a short video for all members and the audio didn't work!
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But the highlights were this:

2016 was the safest year on record.

There are approximately 350,000 members in AOPA and 200,000 aircraft.

They are launching new initiatives, such as Learn to Fly program for youth, and another is an AOPA standardization for flight schools around the country that will train in a standardized way as AOPA approved schools.

A safety initiative that includes AoA
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The foundation raised $10mm for these initiatives. So stay tuned. Great stuff ahead.
 

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I bet Mr. Baker thought you cute little propeller plane was nifty, yawned, yelled at the photographer to hurry up and snap the damn picture, then hurried back into his private jet. Was Bill Clinton there to?
 
Oh sh.......here we go. Paging all ban-hammer holders......report to your nearest ban button. Even Ozzy was like "oh mou goth uhgfde thigon ovfthe reals hfavsgr dinme cokrxzy trin! "
 
Acrodustertoo said:
I bet Mr. Baker thought you cute little propeller plane was nifty, yawned, yelled at the photographer to hurry up and snap the damn picture, then hurried back into his private jet. Was Bill Clinton there to?
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No just me him and his Gf. We flew around the islands, saw waterfalls and whales, had lunch and spent about 3 hours together. They are working hard and helping us here. We have some really tough issues with hangars and the state so he is applying legal funds to help us from getting dinged double the rent.
 
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Make that 349,998. I didn't renew in November.
 
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MichiPilot said:
Did you ask him why he is killing the organization?
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Why do you think he is? I thought the other guy with his fancy-schmancy gala in California and the wine club wasn't doing us little guys & girls any favors. Baker has brought the organization to the pilots with the fly-ins.
 
iflyvfr said:
Why do you think he is? I thought the other guy with his fancy-schmancy gala in California and the wine club wasn't doing us little guys & girls any favors. Baker has brought the organization to the pilots with the fly-ins.
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True. He's done way more than the last two combined. Medical reform, fighting for Santa Monica...
 
iflyvfr said:
Why do you think he is? I thought the other guy with his fancy-schmancy gala in California and the wine club wasn't doing us little guys & girls any favors. Baker has brought the organization to the pilots with the fly-ins.
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He brought the organization to the pilots with the fly ins? What the heck does that have to do with anything? I haven't seen him at any fly ins in Montana ! It is nice that your member dues could fly him to Hawaii for a nice vacation with his woman. It is a bit cold up in the northeast so he wasted some member dues to escape the cold and take some pictures. That helps ga a lot!
 
So the guy flew to HI probably on the members dime (with his GF) to take an expensive sightseeing flight around the island. Seems like a legit expense. :confused:
 
Acrodustertoo said:
He brought the organization to the pilots with the fly ins? What the heck does that have to do with anything? I haven't seen him at any fly ins in Montana ! It is nice that your member dues could fly him to Hawaii for a nice vacation with his woman. It is a bit cold up in the northeast so he wasted some member dues to escape the cold and take some pictures. That helps ga a lot!
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I realize AOPA membership is like religion or politics and we're not going to change each other's opinion. But what the heck do you want him to do, put a new airplane in every member's hangar? How does scrapping the California party (for wealthy Californians) and replacing it with fly-ins at different locations around the country each year not have everything to do with a member-based organization?

At the Indy fly-in he walked up to me and 2 friends and started talking airplanes with us for probably 5 or 10 minutes. Only after he had walked away did I ask my friends if they knew who he was (they didn't). I found him very down to earth. Like I said, I'm not tryng to have a holy war over AOPA, I just have a different take on the value of my membership.
 
DFH65 said:
So the guy flew to HI probably on the members dime (with his GF) to take an expensive sightseeing flight around the island. Seems like a legit expense. :confused:
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He was here for a town hall meeting. GA is getting squeezed out of the main airports and we are close to losing flight schools that can't afford the rent hikes. He met with the State reps, and the FAA to fight it. He is doing what we pay aopa to do which is lobby on our behalf. Aopa isn't appreciated until you need them. And we do now.
 
DFH65 said:
So the guy flew to HI probably on the members dime (with his GF) to take an expensive sightseeing flight around the island. Seems like a legit expense. :confused:
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For the record he didn't pay or use member dues to fly with me.
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
He was here for a town hall meeting. GA is getting squeezed out of the main airports and we are close to losing flight schools that can't afford the rent hikes. He met with the State reps, and the FAA to fight it. He is doing what we pay aopa to do which is lobby on our behalf. Aopa isn't appreciated until you need them. And we do now.
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What does AOPA propose be done in order to negotiate the crushingly high cost of locations such as HI? Honestly curious. The airlines certainly don't care where you got your flight training done. They must certainly expect you to move and make it happen on your dime.

It's not like HI became cost-prohibitive overnight. I'm from PR, so I'm very much well-versed on the nuances of COL in non-continental states/territories when it comes to attempting to living, training and attempting to make a living. Bottom line, I had to leave the home drone in order to realize both personal and professional life goals in aviation, because I recognized that wishing for GA to be affordable OCONUS is just a pipe dream.

Absent a tractable plan, I'm inclined to side with the skeptical opinion this is nothing more than a PFA trip with the frau/side dish/ho/whoever.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
He brought the organization to the pilots with the fly ins? What the heck does that have to do with anything? I haven't seen him at any fly ins in Montana ! It is nice that your member dues could fly him to Hawaii for a nice vacation with his woman. It is a bit cold up in the northeast so he wasted some member dues to escape the cold and take some pictures. That helps ga a lot!
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Just imagine if aopa wasn't around.
You'd have to go through TSA to go fly.
You'd be charged a user fee every leg every segment like Canada.
You'd be charged to use flight service. Like Canada.
You'd lose Santa Monica, the Hudson route, medical reform, and any sense of freedom.

I fly with pilots from all over the world and the number one thing they tell me is how spoiled we are here. You can thank AOPA. So if you don't want to spend money on user fees take a few bucks and send it in for your membership renewal.
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Just imagine if aopa wasn't around.
You'd have to go through TSA to go fly.
You'd be charged a user fee every leg every segment like Canada.
You'd be charged to use flight service. Like Canada.
You'd lose Santa Monica, the Hudson route, medical reform, and any sense of freedom.

I fly with pilots from all over the world and the number one thing they tell me is how spoiled we are here. You can thank AOPA. So if you don't want to spend money on user fees take a few bucks and send it in for your membership renewal.
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Are you auditioning for a job with AOPA or something? :confused:
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
Just imagine if aopa wasn't around.
You'd have to go through TSA to go fly.
You'd be charged a user fee every leg every segment like Canada.
You'd be charged to use flight service. Like Canada.
You'd lose Santa Monica, the Hudson route, medical reform, and any sense of freedom.

I fly with pilots from all over the world and the number one thing they tell me is how spoiled we are here. You can thank AOPA. So if you don't want to spend money on user fees take a few bucks and send it in for your membership renewal.
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It is easy to speculate how it would be.
I am a member of 3 years, but can't really tell you why.
 
iflyvfr said:
Why do you think he is? I thought the other guy with his fancy-schmancy gala in California and the wine club wasn't doing us little guys & girls any favors. Baker has brought the organization to the pilots with the fly-ins.
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If you think holding fly ins illustrates an organization accomplishing anything that's fine. But I want some results and since Baker's installation not much has gotten done. Oh wait, third class medical was "reformed" let's all go get our hernia and anus check!
 
MichiPilot said:
If you think holding fly ins illustrates an organization accomplishing anything that's fine. But I want some results and since Baker's installation not much has gotten done. Oh wait, third class medical was "reformed" let's all go get our hernia and anus check!
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prevented congress from passing user fees. Fighting to keep Santa Monica open. Scholarships for worthy students.
Encouraging the FAA to apply funds toward a $500 rebate for ads b.
The list goes on and on. But don't take my word for it, go online and see. They are the third most powerful lobby group. First the NRA, then AIPAC then AOPA. The largest caucus however is AOPA with 312 seats in Congress.
 
Maui Cirrus CFII said:
prevented congress from passing user fees. Fighting to keep Santa Monica open. Scholarships for worthy students.
Encouraging the FAA to apply funds toward a $500 rebate for ads b.
The list goes on and on. But don't take my word for it, go online and see. They are the third most powerful lobby group. First the NRA, then AIPAC then AOPA. The largest caucus however is AOPA with 312 seats in Congress.
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If you look at actual records rather than aopa stories you'll see the reality. AOPA in the past open fought user fees however you've seen aopa take a much different approach to the most recent user fee discussion -- you saw a 'we'll wait and see' as aopa's govt affairs VP horse traded a crappy 3rd class medical reform for lack of opposition to user fees. Watch this year...aopa again will try to say user fees arent bad. AOPA had nothing to do with the ADB-S rebate...faa saw the trend of no one equipping and offered the rebate.
 
dmspilot said:
You are not just a spammer but also a troll. Your modus operandi is to put forth an argument, link to or attach documents that you say prove your argument, but the documents never prove your arguments and are sometimes completely irrelevant. I don't understand how you haven't been banned.
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I've flown in Canada and was hit a segment fee. I'll go look for the receipt.
 
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