Aircraft Owners & Pilots Asso

Programs: Since 1939, the aircraft owners and pilots association (aopa) has worked to protect the freedom to fly for general aviation (ga) pilots in the united states. More than 300,000 members rely on aopa, as the world's largest aviation and membership association, to advocate for ga interests and keep flying safe, fun, and affordable. Aopa works with members of congress and at all levels of government to enhance safety, provide tools and resources for pilots, and ensure they get the most out of their flying. Beyond just the pilot community, aopa works to educate decision makers and the public about the benefits and value of general aviation flying. One of the association's main priorities is to make sure ga remains a viable form of transportation and recreation for future generations. Aopa provides its members with an extensive portfolio of benefits that can be grouped into five areas: advocacy, pilot community development, education, events, and products and services. Advocacy aopa's advocacy arm is divided into groups responsible for legislative affairs, regulatory affairs, operations and international affairs, airports, and advocacy. Together these groups effectively manage the many issues that affect general aviation and support member interests. In 2017, thanks to aopa's government affairs team and their ongoing work on issues that matter to pilots, aopa was named a top advocacy organization by the hill newspaper for the fourth year in a row. Faa reauthorization and the threat of air traffic control privatization became a monumental challenge faced by aopa's advocacy team this year. With support from members, more than 200,000 letters, emails, and phone calls went out to congress opposing h. R. 2997. Aside from atc privatization, third class medical reform, known as basicmed, launched on may 1, 2017. Basicmed became the biggest advocacy accomplishment in decades for aopa and ga pilots- a huge victory considering only 4 percent of bills ever become law. By the end of 2017, nearly 26,000 pilots had been cleared to fly under the new medical certification, far surpassing expectations. Aopa's multi-year effort to simplify the certification requirements around non-technical standard order products came to fruition with a multitude of new lower cost avionics systems introduced for legacy airplanes in 2017, including digital autopilots from three different manufacturers-an effort that may pay safety dividends for years to come. In addition to aopa's efforts on the federal level, the association has a network of seven regional managers and more than 2,100 airport support network volunteers who help keep aopa informed about the issues affecting general aviation in their communities. Working through our volunteers, regional managers, and headquarters-based staff, aopa promotes, protects, and defends community airports; advocates to maintain sufficient state and local funding for ga airports and infrastructure; works to prevent excess state taxation on flying; and protects general aviation pilots from unnecessary or inappropriate state and local regulation. You can fly aopa has developed programs to support flying clubs, encourage best practices in flight training, get lapsed pilots back in the air, bring aopa's resources and expertise to pilot groups across the country, and invite high school students to learn more about careers in aviation and aerospace. Flying clubs are a valuable part of the aviation landscape. Aopa created the flying club network which is free to join and offers benefits including a premium listing in the aopa flying club finder, exclusive insurance rates, and access to networking events. The network now has more than 800 listed flying clubs. Aopa created the rusty pilots program to lower the barrier to re-entry and provide lapsed pilots a way to return to flying in a matter of hours through a free session of ground school that fulfills the faa's flight review requirement for ground instruction. The mission of aopa's aviation high school initiative is to help build and sustain aviation-based stem programs in high schools in order to provide a quality workforce to the aviation industry. By working with schools directly, aopa can expose and engage a more diverse group of students in aviation. More than 20 high school students were awarded flight training scholarships for $5,000 each in june. Education educating our members about the issues that affect their flying has always been at the heart of aopa's mission. Today, aopa produces two monthly magazines, numerous electronic newsletters, a weekly video news program, streaming video, multiple web sites, meetings, and events all with the goal of educating and informing our members, the larger aviation community, and the public. Aopa also communicates with and educates its members by providing both unparalleled breadth and depth of online resources that are continuously being updated to improve their compatibility with smart phones and mobile devices across multiple platforms. Aopa online gives members round-the-clock access to news, information, flight planning resources, aircraft ownership tools, and more. For newcomers to flying, aopa online offers detailed information about the process and requirements for learning to fly, help finding a flight instructor and aviation medical examiner, an in-depth guide to choosing a training aircraft, and information about aviation careers. Pilots with more experience may want to take advantage of information about earning advanced ratings and certificates as well as transitioning to high performance aircraft, turboprops, and jets. For children, aopa online offers a collection of youth education resources that link aviation to math, science, physics, history, and technology. In addition to the online products, printed materials are available to teachers and pilots at no charge. Events aopa's regional fly-ins continue to mature, engaging some 25,000 members and enthusiasts this year. In 2017, the outreach team launched four all-day intensive workshops on fridays before each fly-in. In addition to our regional fly-ins aopa continues to expand its presence at the two major ga air shows held each year; sun n fun in lakeland, florida and airventure in oshkosh, as well as women in aviation and nbaa. Products and services aopa members have access to a wide range of products and services from the association and its partners. With a team of dedicated service specialists, aopa has the resources to answer virtually any aviation-related question members may have. When a member has an aviation-related question, they can call the aopa pilot information center to get fast and accurate answers. With a team of flight instructors, airline transport rated pilots, aviation mechanics, digital product specialists, aviation medical specialists, and other aviation experts on call, the pilot information center takes pride in assisting aopa members with any aviation query. Air safety institute the aopa air safety institute (asi) promotes safety and pilot proficiency in general aviation through quality training, education, research, analysis, and the dissemination of information. Since 1950, the ga accident rate has decreased by 90 percent, in no small part because of free safety education provided by asi. Asi creates and delivers a wide variety of online educational programs - award-winning interactive courses, webinars, accident case studies, flight instructor refresher courses, and safety videos, among others - which together reached pilots more than 200,000 times each month. 2017 proved to be a record-breaking year with more than 3. 6 million uses of online and in-person safety programs, a 40-percent increase from the year before. The ga accident rate experienced an all-time low of 0. 84 accidents per 100,000 flight hours in fiscal year 2017 for fixed-wing aircraft in noncommercial activity. Part of expanding asi's influence and reach into the flight training community includes a new web-based flight review program called focused flight review that focuses on six common pilot profiles: instrument flying; takeoffs, landings, and go-arounds; positive aircraft control; weather and controlled flight into terrain (cfit); fuel, engine, and systems; and mountain and backcountry flying.