Here is an interesting article regarding the privatization of the FAA. This is "Sully" Sullenberger's view on the FAA bill that is up in Congress.
You may have to cut and paste the web site.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/sully-sullen ... 42350.html

Here's a link to a related AOPA article about ATC privatization.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... vatization

That article has a link to this webpage, where you can have AOPA send an email on your behalf to your legislators.
Very easy way to let your legislators know how you feel.

https://app3.vocusgr.com/WebPublish/Con ... sueID=9550

Since the vote in the House has been delayed until I don't know when, there's still time to let your Congressmen know how you feel. Personally, I favor a direct contact rather than shirt-tailing onto one of the alphabet organizations. So I sent an email directly to my Congressman. In the past, I've found that to be effective. Doing it in writing is better than calling, because the language can't be misinterpreted as easily. It has to be fact-based, relatively unemotional, and it helps to first indicate some credibility factor (such as in my case, I indicated that I have been a pilot for 44 1/2 years, that I have used the ATC system frequently over all that time, etc.). Then I hit him with the facts that have been published.

While it's true that there's a whole lot of inaction in Congress, and that there are some Congressmen and Senators who ignore their constituents' desires, there are actually some who try to do the job that they were sent there to do. I'm loathe to include them all into the "see-nothing, hear-nothing, do-nothing" box without proof. They first have to prove that they'll ignore me and my concerns, and then I've been known to slap them upside the head with strongly worded follow-up letters.

Here's an example: when Ken Salazar was one of the Senators from Colorado, I wrote to him because of some FAA funding issues that were going to impact small airports in Colorado, which I thought needed correcting. I got back one of those "read and written by a page letters", which ignored the concerns, and was clearly a canned response when the reader had no idea what I was concerned about. I realized that Sen. Salazar hadn't written the letter himself, so I wrote back, marked the envelope "personal--for eyes only", and chastised him strongly for ignoring my concerns (including a copy of the previous letter for his information); that as a many years Republican, I had wrestled with myself to vote for a Democrat but I had done so. And I expected much more from "my Senator" and a "fellow attorney" than a canned, non-answer that any high school kid could have written.

Boy did I get results! The next letter, clearly written by him and signed by him, was apologetic, addressed each of my concerns, and when it came time for legislative action, he stood up for the small airports in Colorado.

So there's value in making the effort; there's no value in sitting on the sidelines complaining.

Cary

It's ridiculously easy to send a message to your congressfolk through this website:

http://www.atcnotforsale.com/

Personal contact with those running in an election cycle is helpful as well. I told Senator Claire McCaskell that I wouldn't pay seventeen extra dollars for a Purple Heart license plate because it was called a vanity plate in Missouri and I knew it wasn't vanity. It wasn't a Federal issue but she said she knew some people. It is no longer charged for as a vanity plate.

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