Speech

Sun ‘N Fun

Well thank you, Carolyn [Blum], both for that introduction, and for showing me around. I’m looking forward to seeing a little more this afternoon.

You know, I don’t know how my day could get any better than this. I’m in Lakeland, surrounded by people who love aviation, and it’s Friday, no less. Excuse me, but I’m still trying to figure out why I’ve waited till now to make it out here.

I’d like to welcome everybody, including the folks who are listening in on the broadcast networks we’ve got set up.

And, of course, I’m very happy to be joined on stage by an FAA team that appreciates GA’s importance to our aviation community. Thank you all for joining us.

I’m really enjoying myself, I’ve got to admit. That is, up until a few minutes ago. You see, Carolyn was taking me around the Safety Center just now, introducing me to everybody, and I said to her “Man, this is great. I can’t wait to come back next year. You and I are going to have to do this again.”

And she says to me “Administrator, I’m afraid you’re going to have to break in a new Regional Administrator next year. Remember, I’m hangin’ it up. I’m retiring.”

Hangin’ it up, I said?  Can you believe that?  Turns out this is Carolyn’s 12^th and final Sun-N-Fun. Now after 38 years of distinguished public service, I think she’s earned a little break, don’t you?  So won’t you please join me in a round of applause and let’s give Carolyn a send-off she’ll never forget.

Good news is, she’ll be just down the road in Sarasota.

Today I’d like to speak for a few minutes about the FAA’s role in working with and supporting this community. I’ll talk about some issues that are percolating back in Washington, and then leave some time for your questions and comments.

First comes safety. Always has, always will. We preach this over and over at the FAA. Sun-N-Funners already know how important safety is, but a look at the headlines shows we can never let our guard down, not even for a minute.

I guess you all know about the California car dealer who was flying a Centurion.

He and two buddies were on their way to Arizona for a weekend of golf when they crashed near Fresno last year. Everyone on board was killed.

More recently, a twin engine 340A went down here in Florida, in Melbourne.  The tower warned the plane to slow down on approach. Next thing witnesses saw, it nose-dived, then burst into flames. None of the three people on board survived.

If there’s any good news to come out of this, it’s that tragedies like these are few and far between. But they’re not helping us as we strive to reduce fatal GA accidents to no more than 337 this year.

Halfway through this fiscal year, the numbers are trending in the right direction. There have been 130 fatal accidents compared to 162 at this point last year.

Of course, we’d like to do even better, because even one fatal accident is one too many as far as I’m concerned.

Our airspace users deserve our continued commitment to reducing the kinds of tragedies that I just talked about.

As part of that, I encourage you to visit our FAA Safety Team’s website for pilots and mechanics. It’s www.FAASafety.gov. Airmen can sign up to receive information tailored to your experience level and your location. Plus, you’ll find useful learning tools in the online learning center, which includes a searchable library, training courses, and links to all sorts of safety resources.

Let me use this opportunity to tip my hat to the GA community for helping us develop two new products on the web site. I’m talking about the weather, decision-making tips, and the guidance for flight instructors on including weather and risk-management skills in flight review activities.

We can’t control the weather, but we can control how we deal with it. As we focus on improving GA safety, we’re learning several things about fatal accidents. Weather, maneuvering, and decision-making errors continue to be the largest factors. Too many pilots still head into weather they’re not trained for. Others have trouble with basic skill maneuvers.

The best way for GA to remain strong is to remain safe. It must be the bedrock — no exceptions to the rule.

Time to change gears for a minute. Many of you have been asking me about how Sport Pilot is going. Well, I’m happy to say we’re making progress day by day.

Working with your community, the FAA has conducted training courses for Designated Airworthiness Representatives and Sport Pilot Examiners and our collaboration is bearing fruit.

To date, there have been eight Sport Pilot Examiner initial courses in the year since the rule was implemented. That means there are now 154 examiners to oversee sport pilot certification.

For Light Sport aircraft certification, we’ve held seven Designated Airworthiness Representative-Light Sport Aircraft courses. This has resulted in 43 DARs with LSA certification privileges. On top of that, 250 Light Sport Aircraft have successfully completed the certification process.

There’s still a ways to go toward full implementation of the rule, but I’d have to say we’re off to a good start. Congratulations to everyone involved.

I’d especially like to single out Tom Poberezny for EAA’s terrific work in this regard. Tom will have more to say on Sport Pilot in just a second.

Now I promised to leave some time for questions and answers.

But there’s one issue I’d like to touch on that’s been making headlines of its own — the declining surplus in the aviation trust fund.

As you know, the fund pays for lots of the FAA’s bills through fuel and ticket taxes. These taxes expire in 2007. At this very moment, we’re in a position that’s tenuous to say the least. Despite the cost cutting measures that we’ve undertaken recently, our surplus is running low.

How did this come about?  On the commercial side, even though passenger numbers are near record-levels, the cost of a ticket is down. That’s good news for the flying public. The bad news for us is — “us” being the FAA — is that our workload is up, but the money that we receive for the services we provide aren’t keeping pace.

That’s why we need a funding stream that’s tied directly to the actual cost of what it takes the federal government to serve the business of aviation.

We’ve reached out to our stakeholders, to industry, and to our legislative leaders, looking for ways to address the trust fund issue.

We have a number of ideas in mind to keep the fund solvent and our draft proposal is being finalized right now.

Our goal is to create a funding structure that creates a clear link between our revenue stream and the cost of providing services. We also intend to recognize the unique features of different FAA services and different aviation user groups, taking into account all the input we have received as we develop a financing structure that is sustainable and supports development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

As we do this, we will make every attempt to balance effectively and efficiently the way the system is used and by whom.

I’m sure everyone wants to know what this means for them. In time, you will. I urge you to wait for our plan to come out before weighing in on it.

In the meantime, I think we can all agree that sitting on our hands and hoping things will fix themselves is a non-starter. We’ve got to pursue a consistent and cost-based revenue stream. There is no other way.

Let me close with one other point. Fly-ins like this one demonstrate the strength of general aviation in America. I salute all of you — the men and women of this community — for your love of aviation and your commitment to safety. Thank you.