Dear UAA Attendee,

As you know, our national airline industry stands on the precipice of a massive shortage of commercial pilots. This shortage has been worsened by a series of regulatory changes that have moved the goalposts for our current student pilots, and made it even harder for would-be pilots to pursue an aviation career.

The resulting pilot shortage is felt most acutely at the regional airline level, but represents a growing concern for mainline carriers, who rely on regionals to provide half of their service routes. This spells trouble for all aviation stakeholders, many of whom have already been impacted by fewer travel choices, longer routes and less convenient travel options.     

That's why we started Take Flight Tomorrow, a coalition of aviation stakeholders dedicated to preserving our pilot pipeline while preventing economically devastating air service losses. Our goal is to raise awareness of this important issue and urge the FAA to put pilots back in the sky by providing appropriate credit for high-quality, structured pilot training programs.

You can help our coalition's efforts by recording a brief video - anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes -  talking about the challenges your company or students in your program have faced as a result of the new FAA regulations.

The video can be simple and direct and feature either academic leaders, company execs or students. When you are ready, please email to RAA  so we can include on our Take Flight Tomorrow website.

We are looking for the content of the video to be largely centered around specific examples of the kind of obstacles aviation students now face as a result of the new rules, which offer overly-limited flight time credit to the structured training programs that produce the safest aviators. 

Feel free to include key points from your specific location and collegiate aviation program. Or you can use the following facts RAA uses in various outlets for national and local media: 

• The US is in the midst of a pilot shortage due to new federal rules and 18,000 looming pilot retirements.
• At least 10% of the US population has already experienced sharply reduced air service.
• The FAA has the ability and authority to avoid breaking the professional pilot pipeline while ensuring enhanced safety - these objectives are not mutually exclusive.
• The FAA should reduce the burdens on aspiring aviators by providing greater credit for high-quality, structured training programs.

For additional talking points, please visit: http://takeflighttomorrow.org/the-issue/ 

We believe this is an issue custom-made for a local earned media hit, as the implications of the FAA's 1,500 hour rule directly affect the industry we represent.

Thanks for your consideration, and feel free to reach out directly to our Communications Director Kelly Murphy --a pilot herself--who attended UAA last week on behalf of RAA--with your thoughts, ideas or questions.

Regards,

Roger Cohen

RAA President