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Let me start by saying that the easiest thing in the world to be is a pessimist, and in many ways, it's a cop out. Instead of focusing on what's right, set your sights on what's wrong, blame others and throw up your hands.

It's not the way I was raised to see the world.

Don't get me wrong. We've got challenges galore in aviation, not the least of which are high costs everywhere we look. There's increasing regulation, a big threat to GPS courtesy of the ultimate aviation Grinch, LightSquared (a name I hope is defunct by this time next year), real threats to the future of 100LL and the very real prospect of user fees.  

Focusing on the dire, however, tends to make us forget all the good things we have. This is true in life and in aviation:

With this in mind, here's a short list of some things that are right about aviation.

7. Big Airplanes: Somewhat surprisingly, one of the bright spots of the downturn has been the steady sales of very large bizjets. While this trend seems as though it should be of little consolation to little airplane folks, the opposite is true. The economic activity that this segment creates and perpetuates helps general aviation a little or a lot in a number of ways, from keeping pressure on the FAA to provide good services to keeping FBOs open to fulfill our needs too. Not to mention the lobbying clout that big bizav has. What's good for Gulfstream is good for GA. 

6. Little Airplanes: The ongoing success (even if it doesn't rise to blockbuster status) of the Light Sport segment has been good for GA in a number of ways. While hardly reinvigorating the industry, it has added a new segment of very real activity and given hope to thousands of aviators who might not have been able to continue flying without Sport Pilot's less restrictive medical standards. LSA has introduced great new airplanes, a new way of getting a ticket and new horizons for hopefully expanding the concept into bigger, faster and higher-flying airplanes in years to come.

5. Aviation Tablets: Despite the FAA's current floundering attempts to create new revenue by charging for data, the future of electronic charting apps is bright. The iPad is the hot thing right now, and it will likely remain so, with terrific apps from the likes of Jeppesen, ForeFlight, Garmin, Sporty's, Hilton Software (WingX) and King Schools, as well as Flying on the iPad. Tablets rock and will continue to do so, in large part because they give us more capability presented in a better fashion for less dough. What's not to like.

4. The fighting spirit of American aviators. There are battles to be waged, and pilots are keen to take the challenge. AOPA, NBAA, GAMA, AEA, the RFA and other organizations are fighting for our rights, from reinstating BARR, to fighting user fees at every turn, to finding ways to make training pay and create more pilots. We as pilots on our own and through our organizations are fighting the good fight.

3.Open Skies: It's impossible for me to think of America without simultaneously thinking about flying. The spirit of who we are as a people and how we've done what we've done is inextricably tied up with the freedom to fly. That's a gift I'll never take for granted.

2. Airplanes: I love machines, and in my book there are none cooler or more interesting than airplanes. I love everything about them, from the shape of a wing to the design of a gas turbine, from the form of a flap to the layout of the panel, it's all endlessly fascinating to me.

1. Flying itself: Trying to master the act of controlling an airplane, a craft moving in four dimensions, is possibly the single most satisfying physical skill a person can work at. The fact that perfection is so elusive is a major part of flying's charm. There's always something new to learn, some new challenge to overcome, sometimes when you least expect to encounter one. It keeps you on your toes, and staying on your toes is a great way to live.

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