WPA State President Dave Lucke

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the officers and directors of the Washington Pilots Association. As the 2011 Christmas season approaches, we should all consider how fortunate we are to live in this great country with the least restrictive general aviation environment in the world. There are other things we also need to be thankful for but I will leave that to the individual reader.

AOPA President Craig Fuller mentioned in his latest President’s Position, “At this moment in time we have no new general aviation user fees – despite the efforts of some to impose them during the heat of the federal budget debate.”

So far WPA and the Aviation Coalition have been successful in educating our states legislators in the negative net revenue aspects of an increase in aviation excise taxes. It is interesting that Main and Pennsylvania have reduced or eliminated sales tax on labor and / or material used in the maintenance of aircraft. Many legislators do not realize that taxes are “elastic” and people will make purchase decisions based on total economic impact, including taxes. How many pilots take aircraft based in Washington to Oregon, Montana or Idaho for maintenance? I know of several that go to Hermiston, Oregon for annual inspections.

As responsible citizens we should be willing to pay our fair share for good schools, roads and infrastructure. But general aviation should not be singled out and targeted by legislators as has been done in the past.

Over the past few years, your WPA has become much more politically active. We have a lobbying organization through the Aviation Coalition for Washington State issues. In late October I was in Herndon, Virginia and visited AOPA where I explained to Greg Pecoraro the benefits of joining the Spokane chapter of WPA. I also visited the offices of Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray explaining the huge consequences to our GPS system if LightSquared is allowed full use of the spectrum they have for their 4G wireless system. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers granted about one hour of her time to discuss the GPS issue and other aviation topics in the 5^th district including the Colville, Washington airport. It was a very productive visit.

For those of you that might be inclined to visit the Washington DC area, I highly suggest you allocate a day to visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum at Dulles airport. It is part of the Smithsonian Museum system and well worth the time. For a mere 58 million dollar donation you can get a museum named after you too.

Dave Lucke
State President
Washington Pilots Association

Page Last Updated: 12.07.11