FlightSafety International is renewing its offer of free recurrent training for pilots and maintenance techs that have lost their jobs since the start of the year. When the company first offered free training for former customers in 2009, hundreds of out-of-work professionals took advantage of it. “We are pleased and proud to have helped our customers through the Proficiency Protection program in the past. We now offer it again during 2012,” said Bruce Whitman, president & CEO, who noted FlightSafety is the only training provider to offer this type of program.

In a deft political maneuver, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) attached an amendment today imposing helicopter flight restrictions in Long Island and Los Angeles to the $52 billion federal highway bill (S.1813). This amendment would mandate offshore routes for helicopters transiting the North and South sections of Long Island and require the FAA to develop more restrictive flight paths for civil helicopters operating over the Los Angeles basin. Schumer’s previous attempt to mandate a North shore route, as an amendment to the recently enacted FAA reauthorization bill, was removed by a joint House-Senate conference committee after being widely opposed by a broad coalition of general aviation interest groups.

The Long Island Business Aviation Association, the "voice of aviation" on Long Island joins with all our fellow aviation advocacy organizations to strongly oppose user fees for turbine aircraft as proposed by President Obama.

LIBAA is deeply concerned that the new proposed $100.00 per flight tax would create a significant administrative burden on general aviation operators who presently pay for FAA services through an efficient per gallon fuel charge at the pump. Implementing this onerous tax would only necessitate the creation of a costly new federal revenue collection bureaucracy.

Thanks to successful advocacy efforts by NBAA Members, the Connecticut Legislative Aviation Caucus and the Connecticut Business Aviation Group, the state will continue its role as an important location for business aviation. The House and Senate in Connecticut passed a budget that does not contain the potentially devastating tax increases for aviation that were proposed in earlier versions. The final budget, Senate Bill 1239 has been transmitted to the Governor for his signature.

The Eastern Region Helicopter Council recently joined several major aviation trade groups, pilots, and citizens in criticizing the FAA's proposed regulation imposing mandatory routes for helicopters operating on Long Island.

In formal comments filed before the FAA, the group called the FAA's proposal "flatly at odds with the federal government's limited role in addressing aircraft noise." The ERHC urged the FAA to work collaboratively with the helicopter industry to mitigate noise concerns, writing that, "The FAA should neither become a national clearing-house for local noise complaints, nor regulator in the first instance of local noise abatement procedures."The FAA's proposal would have the unintended effect of concentrating noise and traffic, to the detriment of safety," added Jeff Smith, Chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council.

The FAA proposed rule has generated a firestorm of controversy. Virtually every major aviation trade group, including the ERHC, Helicopter Association International (HAI), National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA), General Aviation Manufacturing Association (GAMA), and National Air Transport Association ((NATA) expressed opposition and sought a 60-day extension to prepare comments, which the FAA denied. Within 30 days, the agency has received 690 comments, with 86% opposing the proposed rule.

I would like to take this time to thank all of members for their continued support and commitment to our organization, which is even more appreciated during this unprecedented time in our industry. I would also like to thank our board members for their commitment, devotion and passion to our organization and all of their efforts to further the cause of general aviation here on Long Island. It can be a very thankless job but I certainly recognize your efforts and am grateful for your participation.

As we distance ourselves from 2009, I cannot help but look back on what may have been the most trying year our industry has ever faced.

First, we have all suffered the consequences of the most troubled economy both here and abroad since the Great Depression. It is an accomplishment that we have all hung in through that.
There was also the continued fallout from the three automakers’ CEOs’ decision to fly to Washington D.C. aboard private jets to seek billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance from Congress, and their subsequent inability to explain or defend the importance of corporate aircraft on the appropriate missions.

The media then assaulted our industry with misinformation on numerous occasions and helped create an environment that sought to punish companies and individuals for utilizing corporate jets in the normal course of their business.