Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

See schedule osince 1939, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (aopa) has worked to protect the freedom to fly for general aviation (ga) Pilots in the united states. Nearly 300,000 members rely on aopa, as the world's largest aviation membership Association, to advocate for ga interests and keep flying safe, fun, and affordable. Aopa works with members of congress and at all levels of government to enhance safety, provide tools and resources for Pilots, and ensure they get the most out of their flying. Beyond just the pilot community, aopa works to educate decision makers and the public about the benefits and value of general aviation flying. One of the Association's main priorities is to ensure ga remains a viable form of transportation and recreation for future generations. Aopa provides its members with an extensive portfolio of benefits that can be grouped into five areas: advocacy, education, events, products and services, and the air safety institute. Advocacyaopa's advocacy efforts encompass a broad range of general aviation activities in the federal, state, and local arenas.these activities include, but are not limited to, supporting the development and deployment of high school stem aviation curriculum, promoting and protecting our nation's general aviation airport ecosystem, improving the cross border travel experience, creating a more competitive environment at our nation's public-use airports by working toward implementation of fbo pricing and fee transparency and transient parking and working toward an unleaded avgas solution for the entire general aviation fleet of nearly 200,000 aircraft.aopa's advocacy team also includes seven regional managers across the country and over 2,300 active airport support network volunteers who help keep aopa informed about general aviation issues important to Pilots and Aircraft Owners. Aopa promotes, protects, and partners with community airports advocating to maintain appropriate federal, state, and local funding. Aopa also works on behalf of general aviation Pilots to ensure a safe aviation system, thwart unnecessary and costly regulations, prevent excess taxation on flying, and protect our nation's freedom to fly.educationeducating aopa members, and the general aviation community, about aopa's work to protect their freedom to fly is central to aopa's mission. Pilots, Aircraft Owners, and aviation enthusiasts count on aopa to provide information that is vital to their flying interests. Aopa offers a variety of resources and content that keep members educated and engaged about issues and developments in general aviation.among these are: two regularly published magazines, daily online content, seven digital newsletters, a regular cadence of videos posted on youtube, social media posts, seven podcasts, pilot information center online chat, multiple web sites aimed at specific interests, and events - all with the goal of educating and informing aopa members, the larger aviation community, and the public.aopa also ensures that its wide breadth of content and resources is available to the aviation community in the myriad ways they consume today's news and entertainment. This includes round-the-clock access to news, information, weather and airport information, Aircraft guides, Aircraft ownership resources, and much more.aopa's wide range of content caters to both veteran aviators and those new to the flight deck. Aopa media offers detailed information about the process and requirements for learning to fly, aid in finding a flight instructor and aviation medical examiner, an in-depth guide to choosing a training Aircraft, and information about aviation careers. Aopa's annual you can fly publication is also shared with flight schools as an educational tool for student pilots.pilots with more experience can take advantage of information about earning advanced ratings and certificates, as well as transitioning to high performance Aircraft, turboprops, and jets.over the past year, aopa educated Pilots and Aircraft Owners on the details of the pro-general aviation faa reauthorization bill, gave updates on the pending expansion of light sport Aircraft that will increase pilot access to a wider range of Aircraft, offered strategies to keep the cost of aviation insurance in check, provided valuable information about the coming switch from leaded aviation fuel to unleaded aviation fuel detailing a safe and smart transition plan that will be complete by 2030, and detailed the process of restoring and improving an airplane by writing about the aopa sweepstakes aircraft.eventsin 2023, the outreach department implemented a new events strategy of bringing an aopa fly-in to an existing air show. This new event strategy lightened the lift on aopa as well got us in front of a new audience. Our first event was the aopa fly-in at the buckeye air fair located in buckeye, az. This event was a huge success with over 30,000 attendees and 500 Aircraft over three days. Aopa had a large exhibit hall, three seminar venues, and large static display. The best part of the event was our members-only flight line chalet, which offered daily lunches as well as all day drinks and snacks with premium seating for the airshow. We also had two very successful large airshow exhibits at sun n fun and eaa airventure as well as a smaller exhibit presence at women in aviation. We then finished the year with a very successful hoover trophy award ceremony.products and services aopa members have access to a wide range of products and services from the Association's affiliates and partners. With a team of dedicated service specialists, aopa has the resources to answer virtually any aviation-related question members may have.when a member has an aviation-related question, they can call the aopa pilot information center to get fast and accurate answers. With a team of flight instructors, airline transport-rated Pilots, aviation mechanics, digital product specialists, aviation medical specialists, and other aviation experts on call, the pilot information center takes pride in assisting aopa members with any aviation query. Air safety institutefor more than 70 years, the aopa air safety institute (asi) has been leading the general aviation industry in creating and shaping new safety initiatives through engaging education, industry collaboration, research and analysis, and community outreach.overall, general aviation is growing across most segments and has bounced back stronger than pre-pandemic levels. Estimated flight activity in 2023, which will be available in early 2025, indicates nearly 27 million flight hours, a gradual year-over-year growth. Asi provides safety education, research and analysis, outreach to the ga community, and collaborative efforts with government, industry, and academia. Apart from its flight instructor renewal programs, asi's services and productssafety videos, podcasts, quizzes, seminars, webinars, publications, and researchare free to anyone. With nearly 10 million in total reach and participation in 2023, asi continues to expand its safety message and influence on general aviation safety with five guiding principles: knowledge, training, proficiency, equipment, and culture.total participation in asi's programs in 2023 reached nearly 9.8 million. Participation highlights include: 6 million video views 2.5 million social media views 6,100 efirc completions 3,400 attendees at seminars, webinars, and keynote presentations 500,000 publication and report downloads 365,000 podcast downloads 8,300 focused flight review profile downloadsin 2023, asi released the richard g. mcspadden report: 33rd aopa air safety institute accident report, formerly the joseph t. nall report. Overall accidents trended downward, with a concerning increase primarily in the non-commercial helicopter category. This segment has struggled to rein in higher-than-expected fatal accidents, which is driving the increase in this accident rate.two new research and analysis reports were released in 2023, one on seaplane accidents from 2008 - 2022 and one on night flying accidents from 2017 - 2021. Both reports offer detailed analysis and conclude with training and accident prevention recommendations. Asi continued its work with liberty university on research and data analysis aimed at ga safety improvements. The work builds upon the previous fatal flight training accident report 2000-2015. The publication provides a 20-year lookback with a detailed review of the current 10-years versus the previous 10-years of accidents. Early work began on a new initiative to explore the use of artificial intelligence (ai) to further asi's data analysis and research capabilities.