MISSION
STATEMENT |
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The Air Care
Alliance promotes, supports, and
represents public benefit flying through
communication and cooperation among
organizations facilitating flights for health,
compassion, and community service. |
2011 PUBLIC FLYING BENEFIT AWARDS
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Cast Your Votes by
May 31, 2011!
The National Aeronautic Association
(NAA) and the Air Care
Alliance (ACA) created the National
Public Benefit Flying Awards to
recognize the significant contributions to the
Nation of volunteer-based Public Benefit
Flying and the outstanding work of the
individuals and organizations engaged in this
humanitarian activity. Since 2003 dozens of
awards have been presented at the celebratory
"Above and Beyond" awards
ceremony, held each fall in the United
States Capitol Building.
The five award categories are:
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Distinguished Volunteer Pilot
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Distinguished Volunteer |
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Outstanding Achievement |
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Teamwork |
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Champion of Public Benefit Flying
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Nomination guidelines may be found on the NAA
website at
http://www.naa.aero/
Nominations will be accepted from March
1st - May 31st.
The awards ceremony will take place in
Washington, DC this fall. Watch your email
for more nomination information!
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AOPA SUMMIT |
Air Care Alliance Promotes Public
Benefit Flying at
AOPA Summit
ACA President Lindy Kirkland and Board
Member Sandy Johnson at Exhibit Booth
The Air Care Alliance has
staffed a booth at AOPA's Annual
National Convention every year since
1994. The booth is located in the Public Service
area and volunteers from a number of different
groups use it to tell the story of
Public Benefit Flying to attendees.
Usually about ten thousand aviation enthusiasts
attend the convention.
This year our booth was located in the main
hall. A steady stream of visitors came by and
asked about volunteer pilot operations and how
to find a group. In addition, members of the
media and leaders of various aviation
associations stopped in and asked about the work
of the volunteers.
ACA President Lindy Kirkland, Chairman
Rol Murrow, and Bruce
Landsberg, of the AOPA Air Safety Institute,
also appeared on AOPA LIVE, so
that ACA could present a check to Bruce for the
first installment of the matching funds being
raised for a new online safety course AOPA is
producing. Half of the funding is being provided
by the AOPA Foundation, and the
balance is being provided by generous
contributions from various volunteer pilot
groups and others.
The course is part of the safety initiative ACA
has underway in response to the recommendations
of the National Transportation Safety Board,
following its investigation of several accidents
involving patient transport by volunteers.
ACA also organized a seminar and panel
discussion called "Beyond the $100
Hamburger - Flying to Help Others."
More than seventy attendees listened and asked
questions as speakers discussed the world of
public benefit flying. Our panel included
Walt Fricke of Veterans Airlift Command,
Rick Durden of LightHawk, Jeff Kahn (ACA
director) of Angel Flight East, as well
as Lindy Kirkland and
Rol Murrow, both on the ACA
Board.
ACA was the first organization to be provided a
special public benefit booth at AOPA's
conventions. With the success of those first
trials AOPA has expanded the idea so that now
there is a whole "street" of public service
booths.
The leaders and volunteers at the various booths
enjoyed meeting one another and learning about
their different missions, and we all extend a
hearty THANK YOU to AOPA for
its longstanding and continuing support for the
work of the volunteer pilots and others involved
in charitable aviation.
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ACA MEMBERSHIP |
ACA
Membership Renewals Now Underway
Please watch your email membership
and listing renewal notices.
For organizations currently listed on the
ACA website, the primary contact will
automatically receive a renewal email from
me. However, if you know of volunteer pilot
organizations not listed with us, I
encourage you to share this information and
invite them to join the ACA. For new groups,
click here to join
http://www.aircareall.org/docs/vpo-info-form.pdf
The renewal process is pretty
simple, just follow these steps.
1) Review and update your
listing information data sheet.
2) Include your membership
dues.
3) Sign and return all to
the address on the data sheet
Remember - we will continue to list your
group without membership but we really do
need your monetary support.
One of the primary ways that public benefit
flying groups can support the ACA is through
the payment of membership dues. Please
become a member or renew your ACA membership
today!
Since the ACA is a 100% volunteer
organization, your response to these
initial communications is really
appreciated. I wouldn't want my day job to
get in the way of my volunteer work.
Thank you,
Sandy G. Johnson
Membership Committee Chair
Sandy@aircareall.org
www.aircareall.org
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS |
2010-2011
Officers
Rol Murrow
ACA Board Chairman
Emergency Volunteer
Air Corps
Charles (Lindy) Kirkland
ACA President
Angel Flight East
Jim Weaver
ACA Vice President
Angel Flight West
Gary St. Peter
ACA Secretary
Operation Angel Planes
Jeff Kahn
ACA Treasurer
Angel Flight East
Directors
Judy Benjamin
Angel Flight Central
(Retired Emeritus)
Hume Davenport
Southwings
Rick Durden
LightHawk
Karen Halverson
Lifeline Pilots
Sandy Johnson
Angel Flight Soars
Kevin Sell
Volunteer Pilots Association
Christopher St. Peter
Operation Angel Planes &
Angel Flight West
Bill Worden
ACA President Emeritus
Angel Flight West & EVAC
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ACA MEMBER LIST |
SEE WHO ALREADY FLIES WITH US!
Dozens and dozens of groups serve our
communities and those in need, including
international, national, regional, and statewide
groups - and even small local groups with just a
few pilots serving their immediate area.
The Air Care Alliance lists and makes referrals
to all the groups we can find. If your volunteer
pilot organization is not on the Air Care
Alliance Listings Page at
www.aircareall.org/listings.htm
please send us your information so we can
include you!
Aero Angel
AeroBridge, Inc.
Air Charity Network
Air Mercy
AirLifeLine of Texas
Airlift Hope
Angel Flight Australia
Angel Flight Central
Angel Flight East
Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic
Angel Flight Northeast
Angel Flight of Alberta
Angel Flight of Oklahoma
Angel Flight of Vancouver Island
Angel Flight Soars
Angel Flight Southeast (Florida)
Angel Flight West
Aviation for Humanity
Bahamas Habitat
Brigade Air
Cair Flight
Challenge Air for Kids
Children's Flight of Hope
Christian Air Ministry
Civil Air Patrol
Cloud Nine Rescue Flights
Corporate Angel Network
Dreams and Wings, Inc.
EAA Young Eagles
Emergency Volunteer Air Corps
Flights For Life
Flying Paws
Flying Samaritans
Freedom Flight
GivingFlite
Grace Flight of America
Grace on Wings
Great Commission Air
Help Four Paws
His Wings Aviation Ministries
Honor Flight
Hope Air of Canada
Hope Flight Foundation
Houston Ground Angels
Hope Wings Foundation
International Shrine Aviation Association
Kids Wings
LifeLine Pilots
Liga - Flying Doctors of Mercy
LightHawk
Los Medicos Voladores
MedFlight of Indiana
Mercy Flight of Alabama
Mercy Flight of Indiana
Mercy Flight Southeast
Mercy Medical Airlift and Affiliates
Mercy Wings Network
Miracle Flights for Kids
Missions Made Possible
North Carolina Baptist Men Aviation Ministry
Northwoods AirLifeLine
Oklahoma Baptist Men Aviation Ministry
One Heart Mission Services
Operation Angel Planes
Patient Airlift Services
Pilots For Christ, International
Pilots for Patients
Pilots n Paws
Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps
Servant Air Ministries
SkyArk
Sky Hope Network
SouthWings
Veterans Airlift Command
Vital Flight, Inc.
Volunteer Mercy Pilots
Volunteer Pilots Association
Wings Flights of Hope
Wings For Children
Wings of Hope
Wings of Mercy - East Michigan
Wings of Mercy - Michigan
Wings of Mercy - Minnesota
Yavapai County Sheriff's Air Group ...and more
to come forward!
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Official Newsletter of the
Air Care Alliance
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February 2011 |
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Celebrate our Non Flying
Volunteers
Rol
Murrow, Chairman of the Board
Because most of our
organizations depend so much on
volunteer pilots it is easy to
feature them in much of our
promotional efforts. And they
do such great work!
But don't forget those who serve
our organizations, the patients
and others in need, and the
volunteer pilots by performing
the myriad of nonflying jobs it
takes to keep the flights
going.
Like the pilots, the other
volunteers have jobs and
families who come first, and yet
they find time to help out by
coordinating flights, building
websites, writing news releases,
stuffing envelopes, organizing
events, advising patients and
agencies, and keeping the
offices functioning. Be sure to
give them all the kudos they
deserve!
For those who perform their
nonflying service far beyond the
norm, the Air Care
Alliance and the
National Aeronautic
Association have
established a special award
category for the awards we
present each year in the
United States Capitol Building.
Keep that in mind as you
consider candidates for the
awards during the March - May
nomination period.
I also want to thank some
volunteers who have been working
on behalf of all our
organizations. In addition to
their commitments to their jobs,
families, and their own public
benefit flying groups, they put
in extra time doing all it takes
to run the Air Care Alliance.
Please join me in thanking the
ACA Board Members,
past and present, and the other
volunteers who have organized
our Air Care Conferences,
prepared our media pieces,
worked with the agencies,
staffed our booth, and done so
much to protect and promote the
work of all the volunteers and
their groups.
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President's Message |
Continue!
Charles (Lindy) Kirkland, ACA President
Greetings to all volunteers out there! I
hope you have managed to avoid most of the
foul weather this winter and are making the
most of your flying time. I am very excited
to provide an update on our ACA/AOPA
Online Safety Course and to let you
know we are well on our way to raising the
money to complete the course.
In early December we met with the staff at
AOPA and with Max Trescott
to discuss the way forward on the course.
Max has been retained to create the initial
content and brings a wealth of experience
and capability to the project. In 2008, Max
was honored as the National CFI of
the Year and as a noted aviation
author, he has written numerous books and
articles on flying and safety. Lastly, he is
one of us - he has flown as a volunteer
pilot for several organizations and really
understands the unique environment in which
we operate. The meeting solidified the basic
outline and we were able to highlight key
points that needed special emphasis. Since
the meeting, we have had another opportunity
to refine the outline to pare down some of
the voluminous content.
We expect to have the first draft of the
course ready in the March timeframe and we
hope to be able to show this to you at the
Air Care Conference in April.
From this draft, we will refine the content
and presentation to maximize its impact and
effectiveness. After that is complete, the
writers, videographers, and computer
graphics artists will set about completing
the project and finalizing the presentation.
We should be ready to go live with the
course in late June....just in time for
Oshkosh!
Many of you have been so kind to donate
material and your expertise to this project.
As we progress through this project, we will
be calling on many of you to review the
drafts and provide feedback for improvement.
Thank you all - this has truly been a team
effort.
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Incoming Arrival...Don't Miss This! |
Operation Angel Planes of Rhode
Island presents
Air Care 2011
National
Conference
April 15-17, 2011
Providence, Rhode Island
Air Care 20011 will be held April 15 -
17 at the Marriott Providence Downtown.
Attendees have the option of joining us for a
wonderful day-long excursion to the City by the
Sea: Newport, Rhode Island. The final agenda
for your national meeting is almost complete and
you can see the latest schedule at
www.aircareall.org. In line with the NTSB
recommendations 'best practices' likely will be
the focus of Air Care 2011.
We won't elaborate, but will let this gem of a
location speak for itself through our listing of
a few e-sites that just might tell the story
better than we ever could. |
Featured ACA Member |
Nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace
Prize!
The entire public benefit flying
community can be proud of one of
its members - Wings of
Hope. The group recently
received word that it has been
Nominated for the 2011
Noble Peace Prize.
Nominators from the Nobel
Committee search the world for
candidates. Wings of Hope's unique
philosophies and commitment to
world peace came to the attention
of a nominator, who selected the
charity for consideration.
Wings of Hope works around the globe to serve
those in need with its unique combination of
aviation and humanitarian goals. More than 3,000
volunteers are involved worldwide, including
more than 600 at its headquarters in St.
Louis, Missouri. The
charity is a non-profit, non-sectarian and
non-political organization operating 155 bases
throughout the world, and also flies patients
for care across the Midwest. It was founded in
1962 to provide sustained efforts to deliver
programs to provide for Peace and Hope. The
largest volunteer charity in the Midwest, its
work extends into domestic and international
programs. Wings of Hope is the largest and
oldest volunteer aviation charity in the world.
In past years Wings of Hope has won
several National Public
Benefit Flying Awards,
presented in the United
States Capitol building by
the National Aeronautic
Association and the
Air Care Alliance.
To learn more about this admirable
group, and the work of its
volunteers, we encourage you to
visit the Wings of Hope
Website
www.wings-of-hope.org
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Jeff Kahn's Legal Corner |
Exemption
Du Jour
Jeff Kahn, Attorney at Law
Last October, the FAA
revised the exemptions that it previously
granted to Wings of Mercy, Inc.
and Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic
that allow pilots to accept reimbursement
for expenses of volunteer medical patient
transport flights. The FAA placed less
onerous conditions on both the organizations
and pilots seeking to implement the
exemption. The requirements to take
advantage of the exemption are still
substantial and the exemptions only apply to
the specific organizations that applied for
and received them. The FAA has recently
denied a similar request from HelpFourPaws,
Inc., which provides volunteer flights to
bring animals facing euthanasia to a
permanent shelter.
In considering an exemption from
regulations, the FAA requires that the
applicant demonstrate that its request is in
the public interest and that an equivalent
level of safety can be achieved under the
exemption.
The FAA has often expressed its support for
volunteer pilots providing ambulatory
medical patient transportation. Therefore,
up to this point, the focus has been on
issues of safety and it was assumed that the
FAA would deem fostering these flights to be
in the public interest. That assumption was
correct, but the issue of public interest
has remained an essential element in FAA's
consideration of exemption requests.
HelpFourPaws learned this
when the FAA determined that its mission,
although worthy, was not compelling enough
to grant an exemption from the FAR's. In its
denial letter dated January 11, 2011, the
FAA stated:
[Previous] exemptions have been limited
to situations in which human life and health
have been the primary considerations.
Although providing similar assistance to
animals may be a good cause, we find it is
not sufficiently in the public interest to
justify exempting such operations from the
regulations. We note that, although the FAA
is denying this petition, HelpFourPaws'
volunteer pilots may continue to conduct
these operations without reimbursement for
expenses.
Thus it is not enough that the flights would
presumably have the same level of safety as
flights transporting human patients. In the
FAA's view, the public interest would not be
"sufficiently" served by allowing a pilot to
receive reimbursement for fuel and other
costs for these flights under an exemption
from FAR §61.113. In other words, the FAA
determined that what HelpFourPaws requested
was safe and good, but not good enough.
The FAA's position that human patient
transport is of higher public value than
animal transportation may be supportable,
but basing its decision on degrees of public
interest (as opposed to the exemption either
being in the public interest or not) seems
ill-defined and arbitrary.
There are a multitude of reasons why a
requested exemption might be contrary to the
public interest and there may be
unarticulated reasons to justify the FAA's
decision in this case. But how does one know
what is "sufficiently in the public
interest" to justify an exemption? I guess
we will just have to wait for the next
Exemption Du Jour.
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ACA News & Updates |
Support the General Aviation Caucuses
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The Air Care Alliance has been working with
the various other aviation organizations such
as the Alliance for Aviation Across
America (AAAA), AOPA, EAA, NBAA, etc,
to espouse the House and Senate
General Aviation Caucuses. This is
important because caucus members will shape
public policy regarding not only General
Aviation but also such issues as how public
benefit flying fits into our national agenda.
The GA Caucuses are the largest in Congress
and cross party and ideological lines because
of the common goal of promoting and protecting
General Aviation and GA Airports. Each Caucus
has sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to each
member of Congress to inform them about the
caucus and invite each to become a member.
We encourage the leaders, volunteers, and
supporters of all public benefit flying groups
to contact their elected officials and to urge
them to join their House or Senate GA Caucus.
Please send your letters and faxes today!
To find contact information for your elected
officials: click
here.
If you wish to use an automated tool, here is
a link to the Alliance for Aviation
Across America web form for sending
letters to your officials click
here.
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Volunteer
Pilot Safety Standdown - March 25
The NTSB and AOPA,
in conjunction with Angel Flight Mid
Atlantic is hosting a
Volunteer Pilot Safety Standdown on Friday, 25
March at the NTSB Training
Academy in Ashburn, VA. The event
will be open to all pilots and it will be free
of charge. The program will be kicked off by
NTSB Chair The Honorable Debra Hersman
and will also feature Bruce Landsberg
of the AOPA Foundation and
other notables. AOPA will be sending out more
information via the e-Pilot in the coming
days. Watch for it!
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General email:
mail@aircareall.org
Office Phone and Patient Transport Help Line:
Toll Free: 888-260-9707
Office Fax: 815-572-9192
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