Aero-Enemy Number One? Our Inability To Work And Support Each Other… No Matter What Kind Of Aviation We Partake In

ANN Opinion/Analysis By James R. Campbell, ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief/Troublemaker 1st Class

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.                             Henry Ford

I’ve come to greatly value a series of conversations I’ve engaged in, of late, with what remains of aviation’s truly enlightened leaders. And yes, there are several worth conversing with… albeit not as many as in year’s past. These men and women have been incredibly kind to me in giving me insight as to how not only might ANN meet its aims…. But how those aims can change the aviation world.

But one major issue keeps creeping into the conversation… and in more ways than can readily be counted -- the increasing fractionalization of the aviation world. I’ve watched time and time again as one segment or another of aviation is attacked while those pilots and aviation community members not affiliated with that specific segment walk on past with nary a glance, comment or even a hint of support for those imperiled…

And that’s why things like the AIRR program, ridiculous fees for airshow/ATC services, massive unrealistic drone registration boondoggles, myopic anti-airport/aviation rhetoric, killer helicopter restrictions, anti-aviation media coverage, and other aero-monstrosities can be foisted on us, one after another. Time after time… with increasing regularity.

And yet, I think that we, as a community, have to shoulder much of the blame for our lot. We are fragmented… we are poorly organized… we are often (but not always) poorly led… we are short-sighted… we rarely support our distantly related fellow flyers as well as we support those who share closely allied interests… and simply put, we can’t get our collective act together.

To quote the comic prophet ‘Pogo’ – ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’

If you are ANY kind of a gun owner, you can count on the NRA and affiliated communities to rally together for anything ranging from a problem with a squirt gun to an hunting rifle. If you are ecologically minded, the eco-community will join hands over any issue from snail darters to noise pollution. Right, wrong or indifferent; it is communities like those mentioned above, and many others, that will survive long into the future because they have each other’s backs. If you offend one of their lot, their whole kit and kaboodle will make you rue the day...

Who has the back of the ultralight flyer?

Who has the back of the Cub Pilot?

Who has the back of the helicopter pilot?

Who has the back of the drone pilot?

Who has the back of the residential airport homeowner?

Who has the back of the aerobatic pilot?

Who has the back of the Warbird pilot?

Who has the back of the aero-business owner?

Who has the back of any one of the dozens upon dozens of other unique aero-interest areas in this massive Aero-Verse we all profess to love so much?

The answer should be simple and limited to one concept… committing the entire aero-community (or Aero-Verse, as we call it) to defend one and all flyers… but the actual answer is that we are fragmented, disorganized and not all that disposed to help any other flyer who doesn’t relate closely to our particular passion. For as many different celebrations of aviation as we can name like those above, we must be forced to realize that those who would defend them, individually, are as numerous as the topics… but not all at once and not with the combined strength we might present as a committed aero-community.

No… we’re not nearly organized… not nearly that smart and not nearly that inspired… but we could be.
Honestly… we really could be… and it can happen as soon as the Aero-Verse realizes and BELIEVES one simple fact…

That an attack on one of us is an attack on us all.

And the very second that we respond, in force, as a community… informed, inspired, devoted and determined… is when the next generation, a renaissance if you will, of aviation truly begins.

We need to embrace all our brothers and sisters in aviation, all different means by which we fly, all the many ways in which aviation manifests itself as a life/world-changer… and we need to make sure that we have ALL our backs.

We can’t allow ourselves to give into hating those ‘damned’ drones… when some mutual education and support might result in great leaps forward for us both. We need to support Seaplane pilots who want the same access to a body of water that any boater has and we need to show that while the Seaplane community may be small, that the rest of their brothers and sisters in aviation are NOT. We can’t ignore the crap the helicopter community is taking from the media and a surprising number of political morons, when we should be supporting their RIGHT to aviate safely, responsibly and professionally… and to confront any idiot who would rule otherwise. The reason that HALF the Heli-tour business in NYC just disappeared has little to do with the errant perceptions of their hazards or noise output… it happened because a small number of voices organized and communicated better than we did… and made a stink that was picked up by the media, the sniveling politicians, and all the mini-dictators who take delight in finding ways to minimize the lives of those who don’t live like they do. There are so MANY examples to go by…

A skydiving center in Longmont, CO, just survived a vicious assault by a small group of NIMBY busy-bodies who wanted to curtail their operations to the point where their demands would have destroyed the successful business that had been a part of that community for many years. Using some unbelievably inconsistent/errant rhetoric and more than a few dirty tricks (not to mention some outright BS), a very small organization self-promoted themselves as the audio-saviors of Longmont and started a legal battle that they (Thank God) ultimately lost when the presiding Judge not only saw through their BS, but awarded damages to the Mile-Hi Skydiving operation when finding in their favor. It took courage for Mile-Hi to stand up to these clowns… it took money… but God Help Us, they pretty much did it alone. And that’s ‘just plane’ wrong… the entire aviation community should have gotten in on this one and made it clear to Longmont, as well as the NIMBY anti-noise Gods (in their own minds) that this was a cause that was clearly supported by the entire Aero-Verse. And even though we didn’t, Mile-Hi still won… until the next group of self-important NIMBY/bozos shows up for Round Two.

And while the Santa Monica airport political mess does receive a lot of attention and support from a fair part of the aviation community… it's not nearly enough. The city of Santa Monica should be brought to their senses, with a powerful personal, financial, defense that clearly demonstrates that the Aero-Verse is PO'ed, persuasive and united…

But it isn’t.

We should make Santa Monica a true cause celebre… we should boycott aspects of the community/political structure financially, we should vote against the anti-aviation politicians wherever possible AND support their opposition, we should engage in strong educational campaigns, we should make it crystal clear that we are as much a part of their community as the golf courses, shopping centers, churches and other more favored properties… and we should be vocal, persuasive and well-coordinated… so much so that we could not possibly be ignored.

In yet another aero-outrage, there is a small commercial aviation operation, again a skydiving enterprise, that was shut down by County officials in aptly named Horry County, SC. The officials, after ignoring an in-progress lease, demanded new lease terms that, in part, wanted 24% of the company’s gross operations – NOT NET—GROSS! …while also claiming that they were dangerous and not operating within the rules and regs loosely established by the board… before and AFTER they shut down SkyDive Myrtle Beach.

SkyDive Myrtle Beach would not agree to the 24% extortion, so eventually the county aero-goon squad put together a legal ‘hit’ and booted SDMB from their facilities… effectively shutting them down and decimating their business.

Over the course of the last few months, some really questionable details have arisen. The county is using an outside legal entity, in concert with a nebulous but damaging report from the FAA to justify their actions. There is a claim that the FAA has validated the County's 'hit' with 'evidence' of 112 safety violations… and yet, the County cannot or will not produce any real evidence or substantiation (despite MONTHS of demands)… even claiming that such data is all in the possession of the FAA.

At no time has SDMB had the chance to confront their accusers, see all the evidence or offer up a detailed defense… because none of the pertinent details of their ‘violations’ has been given to them. Legal demands, including FOIA requests of the FAA, have gone unfulfilled while promised deadlines (more than a few), have come and gone without ANY specific evidence as to what constitutes those supposed violations. One FAA staffer recently would not answer my question, directly, as to whether or not the evidence really exists (and I’m at a point where that seems arguable) … but did state that that there is ‘information’ that they intend to release about the safety issues involved in this mess… ONLY after they can determine that the disclosure of this information is not harmful to any known parties.

WTF? (What The Flock?)

So… let me see… these are reportedly SAFETY issues… that they have not disclosed after months of demands and legal requests, issues that have been used to deprive a veteran/minority owed business of their right to operate… issues that may (according to the almighty FAA) affect the safety of the aviation community -- and THEY’RE NOT WILLING TO DISCLOSE THIS AT THIS TIME?

Again... WTF? (What The Flock?)

IF there is a hint of truth to any of this… the FAA HAS NO RIGHT TO WITHHOLD SAFETY info of critical concern to those involved now… or at any time… and the Chief Counsel of the FAA should be on the phone right now trying to fix this… because if there is a hint of truth to this, the gross dereliction/liability of the FAA in refusing to impart that data so that safety hazards may be corrected or avoided is phenomenal… and potentially criminal.

FAA=CYA.

Of course… that is IF that data really existed in the first place -- at least when it was requested (or if it magically appears after the fact… not the first-time the FAA has made up facts to suit an argument). That is, if the FAA is telling the truth and IF the FAA isn’t engaged in a major posterior covering exercise the likes of which we haven’t seen since the FAA v Bob Hoover case.

Something stinks… and as far as I’ve been able to see so far, it smells like the worst kind of small county political malfeasance and FAA ass-covering.

SO... what to do?

We need to use the collective power of the Aero-Verse and what remains of the effective power of the alphabets to demand, in concert, a cessation of the attack against SDMB and FULL disclosure of the data needed to determine ALL the guilty parties. Aviation needs to shun the Myrtle Beach politicians and supporting community, show them how we will find ways to do business elsewhere, and make it clear that an attack on SDMB is an attack on every private, commercial, sport student pilot and aero-operator in the Aero-Verse. Most important... make them know that they're in a fight with a community that won't bullied... or BS'ed.

Attacks like those by Horry County against one aviation business represents the death of a thousand cuts for the Aero-Verse… and it’s up to us to enforce defensive postures necessary to make sure that anyone that attacks aviation from here on out does so at their peril.

Think about it… If SDMB was part of a community as organized and vocal as the NRA or Greenpeace or the like, do you honestly think they’d have picked this fight?

And most important… even if they went ahead and did so… who do you think would win?

History is on the side of the vocal, the committed, the organized.

Exactly… and the sooner we come together as one united Aero-Verse, the sooner we’ll not only be on a road to recovery (and all that is required beyond that), but we’ll be on course to a brighter future for every kid who might someday gaze skyward from the airport fence… and that’s exactly what we should be fighting for… each and every day.

The scariest part of all this… stories of the magnitude of an SDMB shutdown, the attacks against Mile-Hi, the anti-Heli rhetoric, as well as all manner of not-good-for-aviation nonsense, are anything but rare.

And until the non-aviation world learns, incontrovertibly, that an attack on one is attack against us all, we’re sitting ducks.

FMI: Aero-Verse: What Say You?