The FAA’s handling of a variety of prickly issues from the planned closures of scores of contract control towers to the hotly anticipated Part 23 rewrite to the up-in-the-air fate of leaded aviation gasoline will affect general aviation in important ways for years to come. Get the Part 23 rewrite right, and we could witness a resurgence in GA flying; get it wrong, and we might inadvertently put the industry into a graveyard spiral. Likewise, if we stand firm against ill-informed environmental groups and create viable long-term alternatives to 100LL avgas, the future of general aviation flying can be a bright one; if we allow the EPA to run roughshod, we might very well be regulated out of existence.
In other words, the actions the FAA takes now to protect general aviation will have a lasting impact on our ability to pursue our flying passions and preserve GA for future generations. While we all expect the FAA to look out for our best interests, a growing body of evidence suggests the agency isn’t sufficiently focused on our long-term survival.
