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“Damn. Just damn.”

That was one of many heartfelt and appropriate comments posted on AVSIG, world’s oldest aviation online forum, after legendary pilot Scott Crossfield died in an airplane accident last week.

This blog will not join the many who try to figure out exactly what happened in the accident, nor will we list the many aviation deeds and exploits that created the Crossfield legend. Others will report on those areas expertly and in detail.

We will comment on the fact that Scott Crossfield was one more nice man. This was a true top gun, ace of the base aviation hero who was approachable and, well, just an all around nice guy.

Before I get into this, let me state up front that Crossfield would not have remembered ever meeting me, nor should he. I knew him, but he certainly did not know me. However, he always acted like he did, and that says so much about the man.

I first met Crossfield way back in the 1980s when I was a brand new and scared-to-death professional public speaker, booked for a speech at a big Civil Air Patrol (CAP) meeting in Florida. I was horrified when I got there and learned that Scott Crossfield one of my heroes was on the program. My first reaction was a quick prayer that I would neither follow nor precede him. I didn’t want anyone comparing us. My second thought was to wonder if there was any way in the world that I could actually meet the man.

I did meet him, and was dumbfounded. He told me he had read about me, was delighted to meet me, and happy that I was on the program. I walked off in absolute awe. He could never have known how wonderful he made me feel that day.

I learned that was typical Crossfield. He had a way of making everyone feel important.

Everytime I met Crossfield after that (not many times, but a few), I reminded him that we were once on the same program, and he pretended to remember. I appreciated it, and still do.

BTW, it was understandable that I first met Crossfield at a CAP function. He worked with the CAP for decades, and one of their high awards was called the A. Scott Crossfield Award. It is right and just that CAP searchers found his airplane and his body after last week’s crash. I wonder if there was a dry eye among the searchers.

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SAN DIEGO — Money, money, money  that’s what is on the minds of airports and aviation these days. The Bush Administration is calling for more than $700 million in cuts from the authorized level for the Airport Improvement Program for FY07, which begins October 1. At the same time, after FY07, nothing is authorized by Congress regarding aviation spending; thus, a concurrent debate is ensuing on how to fund the system in the future and at what levels.

This is the central focus as airports from around the country meet this week in San Diego for the annual convention of the American Association of Airport Executives. Kate Lang, deputy administrator for airports for FAA, was an opening day speaker at this year’s event and she tells airports the time has come to ask the tough questions. In particular, she questions whether or not many of the programs which FAA administers to airports are still needed or need to be rethought. To wit, do we still need the list of subsidies created after 9/11, including :

should the local match for AIP go back to 10 percent from the current 5 percent?
primary airports that saw dramatic drops in passenger counts after 9/11 have been getting grants; now that traffic is back up, are these still necessary?
is the Military Airport Program, intended to help convert military airfields to civilian use, still a good idea?
noise set-asides?
and with general aviation, since GA facilities vary in size and scope (Teterboro versus an airport with ten based aircraft), should the $150,000 entitlement program be rethought and distributed more based on demand?

Kate has other questions but says, I think we can do a lot with the money we have.  She thinks airports should do some hard thinking when it comes to how that money is spent. Seems like a reasonable request. More from the show later this week. Thanks for reading.

Perhaps the biggest news in aviation last week slipped by with but little notice.

It was the big story, front page and center of USA Today on Wednesday, April 12: “Airlines raise base fares sharply, still fill planes.”

Everybody shout Hallelujah!

Why am I, a fellow who makes a living speaking at conventions, conferences, and other business meetings, happy to see airfares rise? Because it is so obvious that the airlines can’t continue to lose money on every ticket but also stay in business. I need airlines as does the country so I want them to profit and prosper.

Yes, the airlines are currently carrying more people more safely and for a lot less money. Many experts say we are now paying on average and after adjusting for inflation less for airfare than ever before in history and this in a time of exploding fuel prices. But it couldn’t go on. Airlines have been losing great gobs of money almost faster than our national debt goes up. Something had to give.

I, for one, was beginning to wonder just how long bankrupt airlines could keep maintaining the astonishing nearly perfect safety record. I don’t know the answer, but I did think about it. If this is the beginning of a turnaround, please let it be noted and remembered that it was praise God from whom all blessings flow achieved by market forces, not by guvmint.

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Last year, as part of the Highway Bill, Congress decided that jet fuel should be taxed at the highway diesel fuel rate (24.4 cents/gallon) and not the historic jet-A rate (21.9 cents/gallon). There was a concern that commercial operators were siphoning off the cheaper jet-A for use in diesel-related operations.

Problem is, that extra three cents/gallon or so adds up, and it is adding up in the Highway Trust Fund coffers and not that of the Aviation Trust Fund. The intent by Congress was for the Internal Revenue Service to create a reasonable system by which the people stuck in the middle of all of this the fixed base operators/fuel providers could help facilitate refunds for non-commercial users (their customers). Well, the National Air Transportation Association, at center point on this issue, reports that IRS has only served to confuse the issue.

The two primary concerns are that money is being diverted from the Aviation Trust Fund and that non-commercial users are simply being charged the extra tax  and paying it. FBOs that have tried to go through the IRS approved vendor process report frustration and a friendly visit from the IRS.

The other concern has to be how this ever got this far. Seems a perfect example of how not to legislate.

Thanks for reading.

Aviation user fees? Hell, no!

I believe users should pay their fair share. The guvmint says the FAA needs more money and therefore we need more user fees. It sounds so reasonable that I was beginning to agree. Then I got to thinking about it again.

As I wrote in 1990, user fees work only if you trust the party that holds the money. You can trust dog tracks, bookies, and insurance companies, but not the guvmint, and they have proved it. I still remember all those years that they collected our money for the Aviation Trust Fund and then refused absolutely refused to use it as promised.

That 1990 column I wrote said…”Does anyone, anywhere, still doubt that the guvmint is using the Aviation Trust Fund to make the deficit appear less odious? Let me remove all doubt. I have a letter from my Congressman in which he explains that this is exactly what the guvmint is doing.”

I put tens of thousands of dollars into Social Security and the guvmint promised I would start getting an income at age 65. Now they tell me I have to wait until age 65 plus seven months. That’s robbing me of more than $10,000.

And who says the feds are short of money, anyway? This is the same guvmint that seeks to build bridges to nowhere in Alaska, gives my money to the National Endowment for the Arts, and to other things like a Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame. Now they want me to trust them with more money?

(Besides, this is the guvmint that forced us to buy “efficient” toilets that don’t work. I’m mad about it and this is my chance to get even!)

Add it all up and I just can’t see trusting that same guvmint to take my user fees and give me a good return. No way. I’m agin it.

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