OĞUZHAN KÖFÜNCÜOĞLU

  GENERAL AVIATION

     General aviation (GA) is all civil aviation operations other than scheduled air services and non-scheduled air transport operations for remuneration or hire. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to corporate business jet flights. The majority of the world's air traffic falls into this category, and most of the world's airports serve general aviation exclusively.

General aviation covers a large range of activities, both commercial and non-commercial, including flying clubs, flight training,agricultural aviation, light aircraft manufacturing and maintenance.

What is General Aviation

Definition The term General Aviation often is misinterpreted in public as well as in media and politics as "aviation in general". But even where the term is known to be a defined part of aviation, most conjure up a mental image of a small single-engine piston-powered aircraft, operating for recreation out of a small rural aerodrome. This image is correct for only about one-quarter of worldwide general aviation and aerial work activities whereby private travel for whatever reasons other than business, is considered as "recreational" even though family affaires, as an example, can hardly be considered as that. The other three-quarters of the roughly 40 million annual GA/AW flight hours are occupied with flight instruction, business travel, agricultural application, emergency medical services and other gainful pursuits. In fact, the diversity of GA/AW is so great that ICAO defines general aviation operation by exception: those flight activities not involving commercial air transportation or aerial work. Similarly, aerial work, for remuneration or for own use, may only be generally defined as operations used for specialized services such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation and patrol, search and rescue, aerial development, etc. (ICAO Annex 6, Operation of Aircraft, Definitions). In short, one could say, the primary mission of a flight is not to carry regular passengers or cargo from A to B. Essential services provided to the public by GA/AW for police, emergency medical services and search and rescue make all of our lives safer and more productive. Aerial survey, agricultural application and pipeline/powerline patrol add significantly to many aspects of the economy. And, for the many remote areas of the world, life and civilization would not be possible without the benefits provided by GA/AW operations. GA/AW activities globally create hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars for the countries these activities serve. Without this activity essential transportation functions would be eliminated and the opportunities associated with them would be lost to the economies they potentially serve. Therefore, GA/AW needs and desires should be taken seriously as a worldwide economic engine. In sheer numbers GA/AW is impressive: Approximately 350,000 aircraft and 700,000 pilots are involved in these activities worldwide. On balance, roughly 60,000 aircraft and 400,000 pilots are employed in commercial air transportation (including cargo and charter). The significance of GA/AW becomes greater when it is realized that every airline and military pilot must begin their journey to professional competence in the cockpit of a general aviation aircraft. Aeronautical advancements enabled GA/AW to become an all-weather, utilitarian form of transportation and gave rise to an increasing number of business ventures built around light aircraft operations. GA/AW had finally arrived as a desirable alternative to airline travel now fraught with delays, cancellations and poor service. Larger and developing countries have reaped the greatest benefits from GA/AW because of their dependence on a small aircraft's ability to rapidly access remote or lightly traveled areas. Yet, smaller, well-established countries also benefit from the efficiencies and flexibility arising from GA/AW activities. All gain from the public safety and utilitarian aspects provided by small aircraft.

General aviation aircraft at Helsinki-Malmi Airport, Finland

Sharing the System
The world's aviation infrastructure was put into place principally to support the airlines and military aviation. GA/AW requires very little unique infrastructure and is a minority user of those facilities and services provided for larger commercial activities. The single exception to this statement is that through smaller local and regional airports general aviation derives its greatest advantage.

But, if GA/AW operations are to take advantage of their unique utility and flexibility they must occasionally use metropolitan area airports. In doing so they share the increasingly scarce resources of available runways and overlying airspace. The complexity of operations in these areas also requires a variety of expensive equipment to be installed in all aircraft, not just airliners. The combination of scarce runways and airspace combine with expensive equipment to create access barriers for GA/AW.

In reality, the special performance characteristics of GA/AW aircraft and their ability to stay beneath tightly controlled airspace allow these aircraft to avoid constraints imposed on larger, higher performance aircraft. For instance, most general aviation aircraft can easily operate out of a 1,000 by 15 meter runway, one-tenth the area required by airliners. And, by staying low and within carefully designed corridors expensive surveillance and navigation equipment may be omitted from small aircraft. In essence, GA/AW operates at the margins of an infrastructure designed specifically for the airlines. The smaller aircraft take advantage of the unused capacity of the larger system, effectively increasing the overall efficiency of a complex infrastructure.

The principles of fairness and equity should govern use of the aviation infrastructure within each State. Efforts must be made to accommodate all types of operators.

Paying the Way
Many countries of the world fund their aviation infrastructure development through user charges. While airlines pass these costs through to passengers, GA/AW must bear this burden as a direct operating cost. More importantly, most countries levy taxes associated with fuel consumed, yet, and despite ICAO recommendations, few of these monies flow back to the aviation infrastructure. Therefore, GA/AW is often double-charged for the services they receive. Additionally, hidden "taxes" are imposed on small aircraft in the form of expensive equipment mandated for operations in increasingly complex airspace, or of mandatory services they do not need or ask for. However, operators who do not use certain services should not be charged for those.

If direct user charges are employed, a graduated system of fees should be used that recognizes value for services received, and excise taxes levied on fuel should be abolished to prevent double charging. Since the infrastructure is designed primarily for airline and military interests, general aviation and aerial work activities should be viewed as marginal users of the system and charged accordingly. Ideally, very marginal users such as gliders, ultralights and light-weight homebuilts with little or no avionics and that typically only fly locally should be exempt from any charges.

                                                

Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and work together to establish common standards and recommended practices for civil aviation through that agency.

Civil aviation includes two major categories:

• Scheduled air transport, including all passenger and cargo flights operating on regularly scheduled routes; and
• General aviation (GA), including all other civil flights, private or commercial

Although scheduled air transport is the larger operation in terms of passenger numbers, GA is larger in the number of flights (and flight hours, in the U.S.) In the U.S., GA carries 166 million passengers each year, more than any individual airline, though less than all the airlines combined.

Some countries also make a regulatory distinction based on whether aircraft are flown for hire like:

• Commercial aviation includes most or all flying done for hire, particularly scheduled service on airlines; and
• Private aviation includes pilots flying for their own purposes (recreation, business meetings, etc.) without receiving any kind of remuneration.

All scheduled air transport is commercial, but general aviation can be either commercial or private. Normally, the pilot, aircraft, and operator must all be authorized to perform commercial operations through separate commercial licensing, registration, and operation certificates..

                                                         Scheduled airline traffic in 2009

An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit. Generally, airline companies are recognized with an air operating certificate or license issued by a governmental aviation body.

Airlines vary from those with a single aircraft carrying mail or cargo, through full-service international airlines operating hundreds of aircraft. Airline services can be categorized as being intercontinental, intra-continental, domestic, regional, or international, and may be operated as scheduled services or charters.

General aviation in North America

General aviation is particularly popular in North America, with over 6,300 airports available for public use by pilots of general aviation aircraft (around 5,200 airports in the U.S., and over 1,000 in Canada). In comparison, scheduled flights operate from around 560 airports in the U.S.According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, general aviation provides more than one percent of the United States' GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing.

A Diamond DA20, a popular trainerused by many flight schools

Regulations and Safety

Most countries have authorities that oversee all civil aviation, including general aviation,

 adhering to the standardized codes of theInternational Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

 Examples include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States,

 the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the United Kingdom, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA)
 in Germany,

 and Transport Canada in Canada.

Aviation accident rate statistics are necessarily estimates. According to the

 U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, in 2005 general aviation in the

 United States (excluding charter) suffered 1.31 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours
 of flying 

in that country, compared to 0.016 for scheduled airline flights.^[7] In Canada, recreational
flying accounted

 for 0.7 fatal accidents for every 1000 aircraft, while air taxi accounted for 1.1 fatal accidents
 for

 every 100,000 hours.^[8] More experienced GA pilots appear generally safer, although 

the relations between flight hours, accident frequency, and accident rates are complex
 and often difficult to assess.

A general aviation scene at Kemble Airfield, England