AOPA President Talks About The TSA, The FAA And The Coming
Battle Over User Fees
By ANN Senior Editor Pete Combs
Part One
Phil Boyer looks at his watch and asks if we might talk as we
walk. It's Friday -- AOPA Day -- at Sun-N-Fun in Lakeland, FL, and
Boyer is a busy man.
He's also, by his own
admission, a bit exasperated. Why? It all has to do with the
TSA.
"There have been three (TSA) heads in just a little over the
three years that the TSA has existed," he told ANN. "The first one
lasted six months. The next one lasted about a year and
three-quarters and now, the last one here is just a little over
eight months. Each time that a new person comes in, we've got to
explain this subset of the air transportation system called General
Aviation."
In other words, Boyer and his staff at AOPA haven't even
finished breaking in Admiral David Stone (USN, Ret.) and now he,
along with his top aides, are leaving. The Bush administration
reportedly asked Stone to step down as his boss, Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff, considers a top-to-bottom,
department-wide reorganization. There's talk that the agency will
be dismantled entirely -- and concern about the unknown that might
replace it.
To Boyer, that raises the question of just where GA security
will fit in whatever becomes of the TSA. But whatever that is, he
knows AOPA will once again have to bring someone up to speed.
"They certainly understand that the TSA mandate from Congress
was passenger screening and baggage screening. They think of large
airports. And then they get these constant little press barrages
about how unsafe small airports are, without considering (of
course) how really big a threat are small planes. So we have to do
this education process -- we've done it three times."
With Admiral Stone, Boyer said, the process was especially slow
"because he didn't have much of a background in general aviation,
versus Admiral Loy (the second TSA chief, who preceded Stone), who
had a lot of background with pleasure boats and could equate those
to airplanes."
An especially low point in the education of David Stone, Boyer
said, came with the announcement of the
"ill-conceived and ill-executed" Alien Flight Rule. It requires all
flight students from outside the US to submit to fingerprinting and
background checks -- putting the onus of responsibility for all
that on the backs of CFIs nationwide. Boyer said that was akin to
on-the-job training for Admiral Stone.
"He realized that his people have got to start talking with AOPA
before they craft a rule -- rather than afterwards, (when they) get
beaten up over it."
Sure, pilots (student and otherwise) have born the brunt of the
frequent changes at the top of the TSA. But, he said, it's the
taxpayers who must foot the bill for teaching TSA leaders the same
lessons over and over again.
"The taxpayer puts another set of people in place, funds their
salaries and gets them educated -- which takes almost a year. For
us, this is what our members pay us to do. But, boy, we sure could
be doing a lot more productive things rather than starting from
scratch again.
Boyer is a bit frustrated. "We gotta start again at educating
them. Well, we're getting better at it. We're getting faster. We
should just develop a kit called the 'New TSA Administrator
Kit.'"
What about that which will follow Stone and the TSA as he knows
it? While some aviation insiders say the situation may very well
become worse for GA owners and operators, Boyer dared to be just a
little optimistic.
"I think it's going in the other direction. I'm buoyed by the
fact that... Michael Chertoff, the new DHS Secretary... has said,
'I want our agency to address those things which are true risks and
put our money there -- big cities, not small cities.... I want to
have those things that really are a risk and leave the other things
alone."
(In part two of our conversation with Phil Boyer, the AOPA
president talks about the Aviation Trust and the coming battle over
user fees. -- ed.)