Coming up from Terminal A in Reagan National Airport,
the third annual Bob Hoover Trophy presentation.
GA wins one from the TSA, and aircraft milestones.
AOPA LIVE begins, in just moments.
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This is AOPA LIVE this week.
With Tom Haines and Melissa Rudinger.
Welcome to Historic Terminal A
in Reagan National Airport just across the river
from the nation's capital.
And we've just concluded the third annual AOPA
R.A. Bob Hope Hoover Trophy Presentation.
And should we hold them in suspense on the winner, Tom?
OK, we'll let you know.
Well, why not? Of course.
It was Harrison Ford who was there
this evening to accept the award.
But when he looks at himself in the mirror,
every single morning, he says, "I'm an aviator."
That's how he defines himself -
I've had the good fortune of meeting Harrison
over 20 some years ago, and flying with him many times.
And he has this reverence for the art form.
His reverence for the art form of flight is unparalleled.
In fact, Bob Hoover said, "John, he's just cracker jack!"
It's quite an honor for us at AOPA
to be the keepers of the flame ignited by Mr. Hoover.
And each year we present the Bob Hoover trophy
to an aviator who has followed the example of Bob Hoover
and a passion for promoting aviation.
This is humbling to stand here before you
and accept this very high honor from
a man who I immensely respect,
who I love.
But Harrison Ford was not about
to make the evening about himself.
Instead he spoke passionately about
the Bob Hoover Academy, Sean Tucker's
outreach to marginalized kids
in the Salinas California farming community.
And it's a community that's marginalized,
that's beset by gangs and indifference and inequity.
And Bob has inspired Sean to create,
using the metaphor of aviation,
using the metaphor of flight,
to use Bob's legacy to create social justice.
He's helping kids one at a time
pull themselves up out of dire circumstance,
and it's an amazing thing to see.
Our love of aviation, our respect for the legacy
of aviation, our understanding of what it can mean
is being used to bring these kids, one by one,
boys and girls, up to be productive, real, strong people.
We gotta help out here.
We gotta be part of this effort.
We all gotta come together and make this
a program that can be replicated,
that can be used to advance aviation,
to advance social justice, to advance humanity.
Harrison was certainly passionate about that,
about how it is that we can all have a responsibility
to reach out to kids in any community
and help them get involved and excited about aviation,
like Bob Hooper was, like Sean Tucker was,
like Harrison Ford is.
Obviously, he has a passion for this,
and a direct connection to Bob Hoover,
so really nice to see.
It was a great representation of the spirit of Bob Hoover.
This gale evening was also an opportunity
to honor others who have contributed greatly
to general aviation.
The Sharples Award is for an individual
outside of government and not in the aviation industry,
who's made a significant contribution to general aviation.
Ron Dearborn was the airport support network
volunteer at Fairbanks International Airport.
And he pulled together the aviation community there
to provide a sounding board for all ideas.
Oh, I think it makes all the difference in the world.
And it's a win-win for anybody
who's associated with the airport.
It's so easy to have one loud advocate with an idea
who then gets the ear of anyone.
And that doesn't reflect the whole pilot group.
And so, the general aviation association
let's you consider alternatives, identify things
you think should be changed, respond to things
that other people think should be changed,
tremendously important.
Ron said that it's important that a user group
can approach user management and say they represent
the consensus of what needs to be done.
And frequently, politicians are actually doing
some good things for GA.
AOPA created the Hartranft Award for that.
Named after AOPA's first full-time president, Doc Hartranft.
And this year we were pleased to honor
representatives Ralph Abraham of Louisiana
and Steve Russell of Oklahaoma.
I began to my journey to learn how to fly
only a year and a half ago,
and never imagined that I would find myself
in a situation to help fight against privatization.
Why is it important?
Well, because airspace belongs to we, the people,
and doesn't belong to anybody else.
The saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.
Well, it also took a village to defeat
this monopolization bill that was in force.
And Steve and I, certainly myself,
was so honored to be part of the village of AOPA,
NBAA, GAMA, EA, all those organizations that came together.
And we could not have done it without
the complete, unabated, total effort.
It was a fight, and thankfully, we previlaed.
We will continue to keep vigilant.
We will continue to keep our guard up.
So these two folks, they were really instrumental
in helping stop privatization.
They did, they pulled out all the levers in the house
to keep all the folks that were on our side in the camp
and really fended off a lot of others.
So really grateful for the great work they did
in fending off privatization.
It's good work on their part.
And a first for this evening, the first annual
AOPA First Safety Institute's
General Aviation Safety Award
honored those who have delivered exceptional
performance in safety to benefit
the entire aviation community.
The AOPA Air Safety Institute
is pleased to present the General Aviation Safety Award
to Dick VanGrunsven, designer, builder, pilot,
and founder of Vans Aircraft.
Dick has shown a remarkable commitment to safety.
Throughout every aspect of his aviation involvement,
which spans nearly 50 years.
In the early 1970s, Dick set out
to build a safe airplane, focused on a concept
he called total performance.
And build that airplane he did.
The RV series has become nearly synonymous
with the experimental, amateur build category.
And its popularity over the decades
is a testament to his success.
With over 10,000 RV aircraft built.
The safety performance of RV aircraft stands out
in the experimental amateur build category.
Since 2008, the number of registered
RV aircraft has doubled.
Meanwhile, the number of fatal accidents
has been cut in half.
That kind of safety performance isn't luck.
It comes from an ongoing commitment to safety
for pilots and builders.
So Dick VanGrunsven did a great job.
He has been obviously very successful
in the experimental amateur build category.
But he really is a leader in just the thinking
behind what makes safe pilots and how to
infuse safety into an aviation culture.
He's very inspiring.
It was, it was a very great day we had with him here.
He did a safety conference for us
ahead of the awards ceremony tonight.
And so, great job on his part.
The Air Safety Institute has a new video,
in the Ask ATC series.
The latest video talks about entering
Class Bravo airspace while on flight following.
So do you need clearance into the bravo
if you're already talking to ATC?
Class B Airspace has a unique criteria
that C and D do not.
You must be cleared into the Class Bravo airspace.
So just because you're talking to an Air Traffic Controller
does not mean you can enter into that airspace.
You must hear the magic words,
you're cleared into Class Bravo airspace.
You can find the video and the rest
of the Ask ATC series on
the Air Safety Institute YouTube Channel.
Tonight is all about celebrating the freedom to fly.
And AOPA had a major victory in maintaining that freedom.
The TSA just dropped a decade old proposal
to enact some of the same tough security measures
on large GA aircraft that
they impose on commercial aircraft.
The proposal was dropped after more than 7000 comments
about the measure, many of them by AOPA members.
One of the greatest adventures in aviation
is flying to Alaska.
And we have tips on the best way
to get there in a new webinar.
The video covers the three major routes
to Alaska, and the pros and cons of each.
The video features experienced Alaska pilot
and AOPA regional manager Tom George,
and AOPA editor-at-large Dave Hirschman,
who has flown GA airplanes to Alaska several times.
You can find the video on the AOPA YouTube channel.
Coming up after the break,
milestones for a lot of different aircraft.
And the future, according to the feds.
You're watching AOPA LIVE this week.
Angel Flight West.
Pilot volunteers making sure that people,
children and adults, who need life saving treatment
can get to the treatment they need.
As pilots, we're always looking
for an excuse to go flying.
So the next time you want to get a $100 hamburger,
perhaps you should fly a volunteer flight
for Angel Flight West.
You'll be deriving satisfaction, purpose, and meaning
from serving a cause greater than yourselves.
And flying.
Welcome back to Historic Terminal A
in Reagan National Airport.
We've just concluded the third
annual Bob Hoover Trophy Presentation.
Yep, and the place clears out in a hurry,
particularly when there's still snow out there,
people trying to get back home again.
But it was a great event, trust us.
Meanwhile, the FAA says things are only
going to get better for general aviation.
The agency just released its annual aerospace forecast.
The prognosticator is saying that
air travel is strong and safe
and will only get better in the future.
They see a continuing explosion of small,
unmanned aircraft in the national airspace system.
And for general aviation, the prediction is very modest.
A very slight increase in the total number of GA aircraft,
and a .8% annual growth in the number of GA hours flown.
The commercial jet fleet is expected
to grow steadily over the next ten years.
And a staple of commercial air travel is the 737.
Boeing just announced that they have built
10,000 of them and that makes it
the most produced commercial jet ever.
The 737 has been on the market for more than 50 years
and has carried over 12 billion passengers.
And while 10,000 737s is impressive,
it's nothing compared to general aviation aircraft.
Most produced aircraft in the world?
The Cessna 172.
More than 44,000 have rolled out of Wichitaw so far.
Piper's PA-28 Cherokee Series stands at more than 32,000,
and the beachcraft Bonanza holds the record
for the longest continuously produced aircraft.
More than 17,000 out the door since 1947.
Mooney, another staple of the general aviation industry,
is celebrating its 70th anniversary.
First airplane was a single-seat Mooney Might
that rolled off the line in 1948.
Since then, Mooney has produced
thousands of fast, pilot-friendly airplanes.
Most recently, the company rolled out
the Mooney Ovation, an acclaimed ultraseries,
and a new technology to classic Mooney designs.
Cirrus Aircraft is also celebrating a major accomplishment.
The company has now produced 7000 SR-series airplanes.
AOPA LIVE's Dave Hirschman has the story
about how Cirrus is celebrating that milestone.
Milestones are easy to miss,
but Cirrus Aircraft is calling attention to its
7000th aircraft with seven highly tricked-out SR-22's.
We delivered the first SR series aircraft,
the SR-20 in 1999.
So 19 short years later, we've delivered 7000 of them.
These multi-colored airplanes
show how far the company's piston product line
has come since 1999, and they give some strong hints
about the direction Cirrus is headed.
We're passionate about continuing to innovate,
and continuing to look for new ways
to bring aviation to people.
SR-20s and 22s still comprise the bulk
of Cirrus' production and revenue, but that's changing.
The SF-50 VisionJet, at $2 million apiece,
is the company's focus.
And Cirrus expects to deliver more than 50
VisionJets this year.
We vie the SR line as kind of a training ground
for the jet, and you see a lot of crossover.
Either people come to Cirrus being very interested
in the VisionJet, and then realize that maybe
they want to start in the SR and work up from there,
or they hadn't considered an SR,
but the SR is a really nice complement to the VisionJet.
New SR-22's are tightly aligned
with the VisonJet and their Garmin Plus avionics
are virtually identical.
Rival Texstron recently announced
that it's stopping Cessna TTX production.
And the absence of the SR-22's closest competitor
puts Cirrus in a stronger position
in the marketplace than ever.
Dave Hirschman, AOPA LIVE.
So Cirrus has really made their mark in the industry
and this just takes it to the next level.
It does.
I was there for the delivery of the very first SR,
back in I think it was July of 1999.
And so 7000 airplanes in that short period of time?
Pretty good deal.
They're very creative about how they're
continually upgrading and modernizing the airplane.
So it continues to be a really strong contender out there.
So I think we're about wrapped here.
We are.
But you have another trip on the way.
I do, we'll see you next week.
I'll be in New Zealand, or at least that's the plan.
For the I-AOPA world assembly in Queenstown,
South Island in New Zealand.
So we'll be coming at you from there.
And I'll be back in studio, coming at you from the studio.
Holding down the floor.
Yes.
So we'll see you all next week.
See you then.
(energetic music)
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