Wrapping 2012 And Looking Forward To 2013

News & Information You’ll Want To Know In Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska & Iowa

by Yasmina Platt
Regional Manager,
AOPA Central Southwest Region

Believe it or not, we are almost in 2013 (well, as long as the Mayans were incorrect and 2012 is not the end of the world! ha!). I want to start by thanking you for allowing me to represent your general aviation interests in your state and in the Central Southwest Region. We are wrapping the first year of the AOPA Regional Manager Program, and I feel that it has been a productive year in terms of state and local advocacy and member engagement.

We are continuing to fight the proposed closure of St. Clair Regional Airport (K39) in Missouri and have asked the FAA to informally investigate a number of potential grant assurance violations at Millard Airport (MLE) in Omaha, Nebraska. We also showed our support of Hay Springs Airport (4V6) in Nebraska upon its proposed closure, and appreciate the willingness of Short Field Aviation to renovate Excelsior Springs Memorial Airport (3EX) in Missouri by way of leasing the airport.

In addition, we started working on 2013’s state legislative initiatives a few months ago. Senator Bob Krist will be reintroducing “the now old LB352” to Nebraska’s Unicameral, which would extend the approach zones from the current three (3) miles to 10 miles from the end of every IFR runway to increase safety and promote good land-use planning. We are further considering a few bills in Missouri and monitoring Kansas and Iowa for any developments.

For those who attended this year’s AOPA Aviation Summit in Palm Springs, California, thank you! I really enjoyed meeting those of you I came across. The biggest announcement was AOPA’s Flying Club Network. You can read all about it on www.aopa.org. Next year… Summit will be in Fort Worth, Texas, October 10-12, 2013. That’s right… in our region! I am very excited and hope to have great participation. Mark your calendar because I hope to see you there! :)

Long before Summit, however, I will be in Kearney, Nebraska, January 23-25, 2013, participating at the Nebraska Aviation Council (NAC) Symposium. When the agenda is published, take a look at it. I will be teaching a couple of seminars that might be of interest to you.

Stay up-to-date on the happenings within your region by following http://twitter.com/AOPACentralSW and, as always, feel free to contact me if there is anything we can do to help, or if you hear of any issues we should be aware of: yasmina.platt@aopa.org

This entry was posted in AOPA Great Lakes Report, Columns, Columns, Dec 2012/Jan 2013 and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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