Sunday, July 23, 2017

The USPA Board of Directors held its summer meeting July 21-23 in Seattle, Washington. Following are meeting highlights:

• The board voted to raise individual and introductory membership dues, rating fees and Group Member dues effective January 1, 2018.
• The board changed the Group Member pledge so that Group Member drop zones must now require individual USPA memberships once a student is cleared for self-supervision.
• Beginning November 1, USPA will no longer be involved in indoor skydiving by supporting indoor skydiving national championships or selecting U.S. Teams for international indoor skydiving competitions. USPA will seek to cooperate with any emerging national governing body for tunnel flying.
• The board determined that any aircraft used for high-altitude or wingsuit distance or time skydiving records must comply with all Federal Aviation Regulations related to that aircraft for the record to be valid.
• Effective immediately, the board increased the required number of evaluation jumps to obtain a Coach Examiner rating to 25.
• Effective immediately, the Safety & Training Committee will review all proficiency cards for candidates seeking a Coach Examiner or Instructor Examiner rating.
• The board awarded the USPA Gold Medal for Meritorious Service to Mark Baur, USPA #9091; Ben Crowell, USPA #73563; and Chuck Karcher, USPA #27444.
• The board awarded the USPA Regional Achievement Award to DeWayne Bruette, USPA #812; Harry Ervin, USPA #555; Miles Hubbard, USPA #1697; and Marilyn Wuest, USPA #56785, and Doug Wuest, USPA #57623.

The USPA Board will next meet March 2-4 in San Antonio, Texas.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017
The House bill that would privatize air traffic control, HR 2997, has been pulled and there will be no House vote this week. That indicates that House leadership does not think there are enough votes to pass it at this time. A vote on the bill will almost certainly be rescheduled. "The voices of USPA members and 120 other general aviation groups are being heard," said USPA's Executive Director Ed Scott. "We all need to be ready to weigh-in again in the coming weeks."

Friday, June 23, 2017

This week the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the draft of an FAA reauthorization bill, the 21st Century AIRR Act, that would remove air traffic control from the FAA and create a new private, non-profit corporation to run the nation's air traffic control system. The bill gives the privatized ATC corporation authority to enact new user fees to be paid by system users. While the bill also exempts general aviation operators from paying a user fee for air traffic control services, there is no guarantee that a future Congress or administration wouldn't remove that exemption. (The companion Senate bill proposes neither ATC privatization or aviation user fees.)

Monday, June 5, 2017

USPA today joined a host of powerhouse general aviation associations in a joint letter to President Trump expressing concerns for his administration’s proposal to remove air traffic control from the Federal Aviation Administration and hand it over to a private, non-profit corporation. President Trump made the announcement this morning in a press event at the White House.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

USPA has joined a coalition of 15 general aviation associations in letters to Congress in strident opposition to the Trump administration’s proposal to privatize air traffic control. The Trump budget, released last week, proposes to end air traffic control as a government function of the Federal Aviation Administration and convert it to a private corporation. All general aviation groups are opposed to the concept, which grants airlines a majority position on the private board that would run the corporation.