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“Tying fees to the cost of providing service protects both FAA and the customers who use FAA services,” Blakey said. “We also believe that a cost-based revenue structure would provide incentives to our customers to use limited resources efficiently and to the FAA to operate efficiently, as stakeholder involvement can help us ensure that we […]

Funding Must Change, Blakey Says A congressional hearing yesterday explored the question of what to do about the ailing Aviation Trust Fund as the House Aviation Subcommittee began to examine options. The Fund, which supports airports and the airspace system as well as FAA operations, is suffering from a dwindling reserve (which could be gone […]

Meanwhile, scientists at Stanford University are having some success with experimental technology that would allow people with vision loss to “see” again. The technique involves implanting a chip into the retina. The chip receives signals from a video camera that is mounted on a pair of goggles. The chip bypasses damaged photo-receptors and allows the […]

Starting Simple Proves Best A new study at the University of Southern California suggests that the best way for pilots to train is to first learn on clear, low-clutter displays, which allow the eye to focus and quickly identify targets or patterns. When that training is followed by drills on “noisy,” high-clutter displays, the eye […]

As with every legislative bid to reopen DCA to GA the alphabet groups, including AOPA and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), are following the progress in minute detail. AOPA’s legislative affairs staff met with the politicians involved to let them know about GA security measures that have already been implemented, such as Airport Watch […]

Two Committees Prepare Bills The political momentum behind a bid to reopen Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to charter and GA traffic appears to be unstoppable and the biggest question now seems to be when, not if, those operations will be allowed to resume. And since Washington will almost certainly remain under an air […]

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) weighed in with a 52-page analysis (pdf file) of not only the FAA’s funding situation but a comparison with the way other countries fund and manage their aviation systems. NATCA’s broad conclusion is that aviation affects virtually all facets of modern life and should therefore be a shared […]

While some of the attendees, Boyer included, came away with the impression that user fees are the favored option, the National Business Aviation Association’s position is that the current system of fuel taxes is perhaps the most fair. “There’s no simpler and more accurate way to distinguish between heavy and light users of the system […]

And it now appears the initial softening-up period on the potential for user fees is over. The term was, until recently, banished from the FAA lexicon, but the volatile verbiage is now clearly on the table. “Some groups have some very strong views when terms like ‘user fees’ are used,” Martin acknowledged. At the same […]

Your Wallet Is Likely Involved You never get a bill for it, and there’s no entry for it on your books or your tax form, but that doesn’t mean access to the National Airspace System is free. And just how (perhaps more important, who’s) to pay for the increasingly expensive system was the subject of […]