No sure why ALPA is opposed. I recently retired. My union was APA. The line pilots I speak to frequently are for the new legislation and have sent the letters and email etc. The AME's stand to lose a lot of business if this gets passed so I would assume they are against.

I was very surprised also to hear that ALPA is opposed. I'm sure the airline guys I know that fly GA aren't opposed. Some union bigwig probably. I'm a retiree member of a labor union and I know the union management has many times supported things I'm opposed to & vice versa.

hotrod180 wrote:I was very surprised also to hear that ALPA is opposed. I'm sure the airline guys I know that fly GA aren't opposed. Some union bigwig probably. I'm a retiree member of a labor union and I know the union management has many times supported things I'm opposed to & vice versa.

edia/eaa-airventure-news/2015-eaa-airventure-oshkosh/07-25-2015-eaa-fires-back-at-alpa

On top of it, good Read, Act if you can!! Thanks GT

EZFlap wrote:Can some of the past and current airline pilots here on this forum start raising hell with ALPA about this please? I cannot believe that ANY of the airline pilots I know would support this opposition to the medical reform.

You're GD right we can!!! I've got $900 worth of car parts sitting in my garage right now, but those projects just got shelved. THIS just became my number ONE project for the day. This was some unilateral position taken by someone at the national level with no input from the membership and it pisses me off.

My union reps are about to get several earfuls about ALPA being member-driven and not a top-down organization from someone who did 14 years of ALPA work as a Communications Committee Chairman.

RAWR!!

This just touched a nerve with me too. I am not happy about national saying they speak for me on this. I've never been proud to say I'm an Alpa member but now I'm just downright embarrassed. I don't even know who to call to voice my opinion on this, but I guess I'll start with my status rep. Any suggestions on who to contact at National that would be worth my time Mike?

Go for the jugular, CapnMike! ALPA should issue a retraction letter to the FAA.

CapnMike wrote:
My union reps are about to get several earfuls about ALPA being member-driven and not a top-down organization

Thank you, Captain.

I wish my ratings and logbook were sufficient for my voice to carry any weight with ALPA, but I'm not a professional pilot. All I can do is light fires under those who are.

For whatever it's worth from an outsider, I would suggest that the word gets spread immediately among the airline community that there are two separate issues here, either of which could (should) result in some heads rolling. First,"the management": overstepped its authority by a long way... regardless of what they said. They have put each of their members in the hot seat and on the defensive. Any airline pilot who walked into a small airplane hangar over this past weekend very likely got skewered by all the GA pilots, and lost some of their credibility in the GA community. Second, ALPA put words in the mouth of airline pilots that were incorrect, and positioned every airline pilot in America as an "enemy of general aviation". So the actual message was as inappropriate as the concept of ALPA speaking for people without permission.

The real problem is that we live in a society where the only thing that people respond to is if someone's head rolls, or there is a zillion dollar lawsuit, or some really bad publicity. Anything else, and the ALPA management will think they "got away with it" with an acceptable amount of backlash. So a bunch of letters, or angry calls, may not get anything changed. It is likely that the only thing they would pay attention to is the loud angry mob with the animal fat torches gathered in front of the Frankenstein castle.

This is the letter I just sent to Tim Canoll, ALPA President, and my reps here in SLC. This really got me going today!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim Canoll
ALPA President

July 27, 2015

J.M. “Mike” Pearson, Jr
SLC B767ER FO
Delta Air Lines

Captain Canoll,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my anger and bewilderment over recently discovering the indefensible stance my union has taken against Third Class Medical reform, specifically in your letter to Senators dated June 23, 2015 urging them not to support S.Amdt.2267 to HR22, filed by Senator Joe Manchin.

You made several assertions in your letter that are simply not true. There is no provision for “unfettered access” by the affected pilots up to 18,000ft. The legislation would limit Private Pilots operating without the antiquated Third Class Medical to altitudes below 14,000ft, to aircraft weighing no more than 6,000lbs, and at speeds below 250kts, with no more than five passengers. To characterize this as “unfettered access” is uninformed and misleading, at best.

You also attack the concept of self-certification for disqualifying conditions – and yet, this is EXACTLY what every airline pilot and every other pilot does from the time he or she leaves their AME’s office until their next visit in 6, 12 or 24 months. The current system has relied on self-certification for our entire flying careers. Pilots flying with Sport Pilot Certificates (or higher certificates exercising the privileges of Sport Pilots) have been flying safely in the US for over ten years now with no medical certificate requirements. I believe extending that same freedom to pilots that have already demonstrated a higher level of training and accomplishment would not have disastrous effects on the level of safety in the National Airspace System.

Finally, you stated, “ALPA has engaged with stakeholders to address concerns about medical evaluation processes for pilots who hold a 3rd class medical and intends to continue collaboration to ensure aviation safety for all pilots and passengers…” However, after searching the internet and ALPA’s website, including the recent ALPA publication Keep America Flying: A Flight Plan for Safe and Fair Skies, I have been unable to find ANY references to ALPA’s efforts in this matter with which ALPA supposedly has “grave concerns.” Furthermore, the major stakeholders you speak of don’t seem to remember any ALPA involvement in this issue until being blindsided last month by this letter to Senators “out of the blue”. The two organizations that have been on the forefront of Third Class Medical reform, the EAA (with over 180,000 members), and AOPA (with over 400,000 members) have both said that ALPA has not had any meaningful involvement since they started pushing this policy change and legislation.

I have been a member in good standing in ALPA for 22 years now. At my previous ALPA carrier, I helped to start up the Pilot-to-Pilot program and wrote most of the training material for the group for the first few years. I also served as the MEC Communications Chairman for 9 years. I have applauded and actively supported my union’s efforts on matters concerning Ex-Im Bank Financing, cabotage, fair application of Open Skies agreements, secondary barriers, industry pilot pay and many other issues. I feel very strongly that on these fronts, ALPA is getting it right. However, when it comes to Third Class Medical reform, it is apparent to me that ALPA (with 52,000 members) does not speak for me. I suspect that this is true for a large number of our union pilots who are also long-time members of EAA and AOPA.

As airline pilots like to say, we work in the most regulated deregulated industry on the planet. Excessive government regulation costs our company, and our industry, millions of dollars per year. Any time we can chip away at the bureaucracy in any segment of aviation, we should take the opportunity.

I urge you to reconsider ALPA’s position and join these organizations in supporting Third Class Medical reform:

Experimental Aircraft Association
Flying Physicians Association
General Aviation Manufacturers Association
Helicopter Association International
National Agricultural Aviation Association
National Air Transportation Association
National Business Aviation Association
Southwest Airline Pilots Association
Allied Pilots Association

Respectfully,

J.M. “Mike” Pearson, Jr

That's great, I'll have to get my Dad to send something similar. He's also an ALPA member, and had heard nothing of their decision when I asked him about it this morning. He was pushing for a trip when we talked, said he'd ask around to find out more info when he got to Denver.

Mike, you're a wordsmith. Nice job.

Good job Mike! I could feel some heavy vibes from the letter.

Thanks Mike.

Well, crap - it looks like I was reading a not-so-final version of the bill from somewhere in my research. The amendment does provide for flight up to 18k, and removed the weight limit. I got a response back pretty quick, amazingly enough.

I'm still mad that they haven't communicated anything about their opposition to medical reform to our membership. This is an important issue for a lot of us, mostly for what we hope it will do to help the GA community we're a part of.

Mike, ya might CC AOPA and EAA
GT

Good job, Mike. Give 'em hell!

CapnMike, Thanks for the email that you sent to ALPA and the effort and support that you put into it! Good job!

Its time for the gloves to come off. Please everyone email Tim Canoll its time for him to go highly doubt that the membership feels this way. I know the AMA membership supports 3rd class reform. Maybe old Tim believes in more rules for pilots. How could a pilot self certify his fitness for flight before every flight? Whats next Tim medical examiner to certify before every flight. Time to do what is done politically every day attack this troll on every angle possible. Are there any server failures? Any past criminal past? Any thing? Time to file lawsuits etc

keebler wrote:CapnMike, Thanks for the email that you sent to ALPA and the effort and support that you put into it! Good job!

X2 - what in the hell got into the ALPA.

I've been following this issue on some of the big iron forums. There are a lot of non-GA airplane drivers out there who have absolutely no use for private aircraft, and no concept of how useless a third class medical really is.

Gump

They seem to be pretty out of touch with the rest of the flying world. Several times my Dad has shown the captain's he's flying with pictures I'll send him of my Cub when I'll fly to cool places, and they don't even know what kind of plane it is! You have to be pretty far removed from GA to not recognize a J3!