To talk about “embarrassing shenanigans” that took place at AOPA nearly 20 years ago, is not the real reason that AOPA is in such problems at the present time. I believe the problems exist because the Minister, the bureaucracy and the two aviation organisations decided to completely ignore AOPA members unless the members supported what the government wanted at that time.
There was a time where at the Annual General Meeting of AOPA, the Minister appeared, I well remember the one at Terrigal with Ros Kelly coming. In the more recent decade, AOPA believed that if they got on side with government that they would get some decent results for their members. Common decency would say this should be so but in fact it wasn’t. It was just a one way ratchet at exploitation by CASA and Airservcies to damage General Aviation, knowing that this would mean a move of passengers to the major airlines – where Airservices make most of their money from and where CASA have a very good relationship in relation to regulation.
When comparing the population of the USA with the population of Australia, AOPA in Australia, if it was comparable with AOPA in the USA should have over 30,000 members. In fact it has less than 3,000 members.
Over the last few years a number of people in AOPA with good intentions, got in bed with Airservices in relation to Australia leading the world with mandatory ADS-B. These well-meaning people loved the technology of ADS-B but didn’t quite understand that normal members of AOPA and small aviation businesses could simply not afford a mandate which was like nothing else on earth. If you have been an airline pilot or if you’re on superannuation funding of $300,000 per year, it’s quite easy to afford ADS-B for your aircraft, however, most AOPA members are not in that position.
AOPA now has a fantastic President in Marc de Stoop and he is going to do everything he can to bring AOPA into a position where it’s a worthwhile organisation that represents General Aviation. We should do everything we can to support him. I have a feeling if we don’t, that the whole General Aviation industry is doomed for a generation or more in this country.