[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 12, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3336-H3338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INTERNATIONAL LEARN TO FLY DAY
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 1284) supporting the goals and ideals of
International Learn to Fly Day, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 1284
Whereas, since the birth of flight, aviation has had a
tremendous impact on the imagination, innovation, and economy
of the United States;
Whereas many of the Nation's heroes have been pilots,
including the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia
Earhart, Charles ``Chuck'' Yeager, the Nation's astronauts
and military aviators, and the flight crew of U.S. Airways
Flight 1549, among others;
Whereas every one of these individuals had to learn to fly
before they could achieve their greatness;
Whereas there are approximately 600,000 pilots and
approximately 230,000 commercial and general aviation
airplanes in the United States;
Whereas flight brings joy, inspiration, and a sense of
accomplishment to those who fly for recreation, pleasure, and
work;
Whereas flight allows the movement of people and
commodities across the Nation and around the world quickly
and efficiently; and
Whereas the third Saturday in May is an appropriate day to
observe International Learn to Fly Day: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of National Learn to Fly
Day; and
(2) recognizes the contributions of flight instructors,
flight schools, aviation groups, and industry in promoting
and teaching the Nation's next generation of pilots.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee.
General Leave
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Tennessee?
There was no objection.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of the resolution, H. Res. 1284, as amended,
introduced by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd) which supports the
goals and ideals of International Learn to Fly Day and recognizes the
contributions of flight instructors, flight schools, aviation groups,
and industry in promoting and teaching the Nation's next generation of
pilots.
International Learn to Fly Day was established on May 15, 2009, to
increase interest in flying and to encourage the aviation community to
get others involved in aviation. The event was announced at the
Experimental Aviation Association's AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Aviation groups, industry partners, flight schools, and flight
instructors have come together to create a day dedicated to inspiring
national interest in flight.
On International Learn to Fly Day, flight schools, airports, and
independent flight instructors will offer free or discounted flight
instruction and other educational aviation events. The aviation
community will lend its time and expertise to introduce people to the
thrill of flying and the opportunity to reflect back on Orville Wright.
Airlines must be able to attract the next generation of commercial
pilots. International Learn to Fly Day will be an important day to
promote the experience of learning to fly, and to attract people to the
pilot profession, of which my home city is the home to Federal Express,
which employs many fine pilots and will, indeed, many more in the years
to come as they continue to deliver cargo to the world.
International Learn to Fly Day will be observed each year on the
third Saturday of May. I look forward to this first celebration on May
15, 2010, and urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 1284.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 1284, which is
a resolution obviously supporting the goals and ideals of International
Learn to Fly Day. And I would like to thank Mr. Boyd and Mr. Ehlers for
sponsoring this meaningful piece of legislation. Both of these
individuals are great advocates of aviation, and they need to be
commended for this bill.
Mr. Speaker, aviation plays an important role in America and
throughout the world, and it expands business opportunities, creates
very well-paying jobs, and it inspires innovation. Without flight
instructors, flight schools, aviation groups, and industry promoting
and teaching the next generation of pilots, many of these benefits are
not going to be realized.
Unfortunately, in recent years the U.S. pilot population has
declined. And as a pilot, actually a commercial pilot, myself, it was
easy for me because I grew up across the road from the airport. I
played in airplane wrecks as a kid. I pumped gas and washed windshields
and washed airplanes, any way to mooch a ride and get a lesson. I grew
up with it and grew up next to it, so I was able to learn to fly.
I find the news that the pilot population is declining extremely
disappointing. In response, the International Learn to Fly Day was
established, and it is the third Saturday in
[[Page H3337]]
May. This goal is to increase interest in flying and to encourage the
aviation community and others to get involved in aviation.
There are a lot of groups out there, the Experimental Aircraft
Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. I know the
General Aviation Manufacturers Association, which are all here this
week, they are all coming up with programs and working on programs to
encourage young people to fly and trying to either get them their first
lesson or get them ground school, whatever the case may be. But this is
a very worthy cause, and I am very proud to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, with your indulgence, I recognize the
gentleman from west Tennessee (Mr. Tanner) out of order for such time
as he may consume.
Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I was in a conference committee and could
not get to the floor when the Tennessee delegation was speaking about
the unprecedented flooding. Sixteen of the 19 counties in the Eighth
District have been declared a disaster, and we expect the other three.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1337 to acknowledge
the difficulties facing many Tennesseans as a result of the severe
weather that struck our area recently.
Sadly, the storms that hit our area took seven lives in the 19
counties that make up the Eighth District, which we are honored to
represent in this chamber. Our thoughts and prayers are with those
families.
Additionally, there remains damage in all 19 counties that make up
the Eighth District. We are appreciative that at the time we consider
this resolution, 16 of those counties have been declared federal
disaster areas, giving Tennessee families and businesses access to
much-needed assistance as they get back on their feet. We are hopeful
that the necessary assessments will be completed soon to allow federal
assistance to all the counties we represent and others across the
State.
Tennesseans always rise to the occasion when our neighbors are in
need, and that was the case in this disaster as well. We commend the
swift response from first responders, State and local leaders,
volunteer organizations and members of the community. Both the
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, TEMA, and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, FEMA, were also on the ground immediately to begin
their work helping those affected and ensuring assistance is on the
way.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Cooper and our colleagues from Tennessee for
bringing this resolution forward so the House has an opportunity to
express its condolences to Tennesseans who are just beginning the
recovery process.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I now yield such time as he may consume to
the author of the resolution and a pilot himself, Mr. Boyd of Florida.
{time} 1145
Mr. BOYD. I thank my friend, Mr. Cohen, for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as cochairman of the General Aviation
Caucus, with my friend, Vern Ehlers, my fellow cochair, in support of
this resolution honoring International Learn to Fly Day. I want to
thank Chairman Oberstar and Ranking Member John Mica for their work on
this bill to get it out of the Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee. I also want to thank the original cosponsor of the bill,
Representative Graves, for his work.
International Learn to Fly Day will be celebrated this Saturday, May
15, with opportunities throughout the country to learn more about the
wonders of flying, how to get your pilots license, what to expect
during flight training, and career options for you once you achieve
that goal.
As many of you may surmise, I am a pilot myself, and I would
encourage anyone I know to pursue their desire to learn to fly. You
will not be disappointed. It's never too late to learn. Unlike Mr.
Graves, I didn't grow up around flying, but in the service I became
very interested in flying when I got an opportunity to spend a lot of
time in a plane. When I came home and went into my profession, I
continued to do that from time to time, and then, only less than 4
years ago, I achieved a lifelong goal of getting my private pilots
license. I'm telling you, it has not been a disappointing experience.
I think it's very clear to us that when you travel around the country
from time to time and go to these airports, particularly some of the
smaller municipal airports, and see the general aviation activity, we
learn how dependent we are in this country upon flying, and
particularly the general aviation business. We have seen a good example
in the recent volcano activity in Europe that our economies and our
lives are limited without the ability to fly.
Mr. Speaker, Congress will surely earn its wings today if we pass
this resolution. I urge support of H.R. 1284, and your local
International Learn to Fly Day activities.
Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Speaker, I would yield such time as he may consume to
one of the original sponsors, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers).
Mr. EHLERS. I thank the gentleman for yielding and I also want to
recognize that Mr. Graves has been a real stalwart on the
Transportation Committee, particularly the Aviation Subcommittee, with
his wealth of experience in flying. The knowledge that he brings to it
has just been invaluable. I really appreciate all that Mr. Graves has
done for aviation in the Congress. That's very important because last
year the Congress developed a negative impression of flying. You all
recall, I suspect, that some corporate leaders came in asking for
government funds, and they flew here in their private jets. That made
headlines across the country. Unfortunately, the news media didn't
leave it there, but continued to pursue the entire issue of flying and
presented the portrait of the average flyer as being very wealthy and
having an airplane as a toy to play with. That is far from the truth.
Most pilots do not have a lot of money. Very few of them own their own
airplanes. This negative impression that was formed here by the
Congress and in the Congress really troubled those of us who know
something about flying.
I am not a professional pilot. I would love to be, but I've never had
either the time or the money to do it. But I recognize injustice when
it takes place. It took place right here in the Congress of the United
States. And that led to a lot of activity on our part to try to educate
the public about flying, about who the pilots are, what they accomplish
for the economy as a whole, and in particular, what good works they do.
A good example of that is the tremendous amount of effort the private
pilots of the United States exerted in helping the island of Haiti.
Just last week, we had Harrison Ford here to describe what he had
done. He owns several airplanes and did a number of flights into Haiti
transporting doctors, medicines, and so forth. He is an example of what
I'm talking about. Not everyone who took part is a movie star, as
Harrison Ford is, but he was representing a lot of people who expended
a lot of their own money to aid the people in Haiti through the use of
airplanes flying goods in and out, flying patients out to the United
States for medical treatment when they were in serious trouble, etc.
And this is just one example of the many things that pilots and
aviation in general do to help the public at large.
So I'm very proud to stand here and say we have to help aviation and
private pilots in every way that we can. And one good way is to
encourage them to learn to fly. Many individuals normally would not
think of flying, but when they see that they can accomplish so much
good with aviation, we hope that they will take the time to learn how
to fly and to at least join a flying club or perhaps eventually own
their own airplane so that they can really go forth and help a lot of
people.
It's amazing how many people do this sort of thing in various fields.
For years, I was interested in ham radio. Again, a tremendous help to
the economy and to the people at large is done during emergencies by
ham radio operators. It's very similar with pilots. When the need is
there, they will rise to the occasion and they will provide the
transportation that's necessary.
In my area, we have an Angels of Mercy program, which has done
tremendous good work flying people to hospitals. The patients cannot
afford to take a commercial plane to get distant medical treatment.
They're not in good enough shape to travel by car. And so the Angels of
Mercy fly individuals at essentially no cost or very low cost so that
the patients can get medical treatment in the right place at the right
time.
[[Page H3338]]
It is high time that we recognize the good service that these pilots
provide and that we do everything we can to help them in that effort.
This resolution is part of that--simply encouraging people to learn to
fly. I know there's a local group in my district that has taken
advantage of this to publicize flight lessons in my area. They have a
number of people signed up already who are willing to learn to fly so
that they can accomplish good for other people.
So I strongly urge that we adopt this resolution and recognize the
good work that aviation does for the general welfare of our Nation.
Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I would
just, again, like to express my strong support for this resolution.
There's a lot of groups out there, again, that are encouraging flight.
The Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles program will give
that young person their very first flight for free. I'd encourage
anybody that would like to take advantage of that for a young person
and to learn the joys of flying, to do that at their local airport.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution, H.
Res. 1284, as amended, introduced by the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Boyd), which supports the goals and ideals of International Learn to
Fly Day, and recognizes the contributions of flight instructors, flight
schools, aviation groups, and industry in promoting and teaching the
nation's next generation of pilots.
As an effort to increase interest in flying, and to encourage the
aviation community to get others involved in aviation, International
Learn to Fly Day was established on May 15, 2009. Learn to Fly Day was
announced at the Experimental Aviation Association's AirVenture in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with the support of aviation groups, industry
partners, flight schools, and flight instructors. The day was founded
to cultivate a new generation of pilots to act as role models and to
ensure that airlines are able to meet future needs for airline travel.
On Learn to Fly Day, flight schools, airports, and independent flight
instructors will offer free or discounted flight instruction courses
and other educational aviation events. The aviation community will lend
its time and expertise to increase public interest in flying.
Many of the nation's heroes have been pilots, including the Wright
brothers, Amelia Earhart, and most recently, Captain Chesley ``Sully''
B. Sullenberger III and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles. Flight has always
been a national and international source of fascination and
inspiration. To continue the significant legacy of flight, the United
States needs to ensure that it can attract the next generation of
commercial and recreational pilots.
International Learn to Fly Day will be an important day to promote
the experience of learning to fly. This year will be the first year
that the day will be celebrated, with events taking place across the
country, and some internationally. International Learn to Fly Day will
be observed each year on the third Saturday of May.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 1284.
Mr. PETRI. Mr. Speaker, the resolution before us--introduced by the
co-chairs of the GA Caucus, Dr. Ehlers and Mr. Boyd--expresses support
for the designation of the third Saturday in May as ``International
Learn to Fly Day.''
The resolution recognizes aviation's tremendous impact on the
imagination, innovation, and economy of the United States.
Pilots are obviously a critical component of our aviation system and
this resolution recognizes the need to cultivate the Nation's next
generation of pilots.
It is fitting to recognize the international nature of aviation. The
era of flight has certainly brought the world closer together.
Positioned between two major general aviation events in the United
States, Sun and Fun in Lakeland, Florida and the EAA AirVenture in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, International Learn to Fly Day is a great time to
encourage young people to take an interest in flying.
These air shows offer a great opportunity to get an up-close and
personal look at the aircraft and interact with the pilots who make
general aviation such a vibrant part of the aviation community in the
United States, and around the world.
The International Learn to Fly Day is also a great way to encourage
would-be aviators to follow in the footsteps of other aviators who have
helped create the aviation system we all enjoy today.
Mr. Speaker, I support the adoption of the resolution, and urge my
colleagues to support the resolution.
Mr. GRAVES. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Boyd and Mr. Ehlers for bringing
this resolution, and ask that all Members unanimously support H. Res.
1284, as amended.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1284, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
The title was amended so as to read: ``Resolution supporting the
goals and ideals of International Learn to Fly Day, and for other
purposes.''.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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