Hey everyone, I'm the forum admin for AOPA, for those of you who don't get ePilot:

AOPA is launching a campaign to combat the many challenges that general aviation is facing from the government and the public's perception. To start, we need real stories from real pilots of how GA makes a difference to you, your business, your community, and how GA impacts jobs and the economy in your area. These will make the difference in letting policy makers in Washington, DC know what's at stake.

You can send your stories directly to AOPA or post them here; we'll be monitoring the discussion.

AOPA thanks you for your help in safeguarding our right to fly!

Hi Cummulus Rex,

Can you provide some guidelines for writting a story? Length? Style? Etc. Thanks!

Has anyone submitted anything to Rex?

I sent my story to AOPA. I had no idea what they are looking for. Here is what I sent:

AOPA,



I am a cattle farmer in southeast Ohio, and I like to fly around low checking my cattle in the evenings. I also fly my airplane doing pipeline patrols as a sub contractor. The patrol work has slowly advanced to where I am now flying 800 to 900 hours/year.

Any extra costs to me could eliminate my work. I make a little money, but I do it because I love flying. I would not subsidize the oil companies just to fly, so that work most likely would end.

Another thing, with work, I cover four states and if I had to have ID’s for every airport I land at is insane.

I also have friends with planes and we usually meet for breakfast somewhere on weekends. Some of them have already dropped out of aviation because of costs. We all look forward to that little social gathering.

Every other year, my wife and I take our Scout to Alaska to meet up with a group of super cub friends. With them, we do about a two week backcountry trip camping from our planes. That trip is always, the highlight of our year.

We love aviation, but much more red tape or taxes, and we could throw in the towel.

I am not sure where this puts pilots for Angel Flight or similar organizations. We don't have a choice of destinations when ferrying passengers for medical treatment and seldom go to the same airport twice in a row.

We have to leave the plane to board the patient, take on fuel, etc. in a number of airports in the course of a year.

Does this mean my patient and I have to get a clearance ID for each flight? How do we do that? Our passengers are not in the best health to begin with and dealing with the TSA is guaranteed to add to their stress levels.

This could put an end to this very valuable service to the community.

Tom

We've been receiving all kinds of stories of varying lengths, styles, and so forth. We're don't want to set limits on what you provide, but if you'd like a guideline 500 words or so would be my suggestion.

patrol guy, nice submission! It doesn't have to be incredibly complicated.