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. |
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
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Volunteer Pilots Should Complete Their
GA Survey Forms
PBF Group Leaders: an
FAA contractor is sending the
2010 annual GA survey forms
to randomly selected pilots across the U.S.
In your next email notice please let your
volunteer pilots know how important it is for
them to complete and send the survey if they
get one!
Here is the information sent to us by
the FAA:
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We need to hear from everyone that received
a survey to prepare accurate statistics on
aviation activity. The GA Survey is a
scientific sample of aircraft from the Civil
Aviation Registry. Your responses are
important because they represent many other
aircraft like yours. |
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Please respond, even if you did not fly your
aircraft during 2010, you sold it, or the
plane was damaged. These aircraft are just
as important to calculate accurate
statistics. |
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The GA Survey is the FAA's primary source of
information about the size and activity of
the general aviation and on-demand Part 135
fleet. |
A wide range of aircraft, aircraft
operations, and types of ownership are
included in this survey. If you
receive a survey, please complete it so that
we have accurate data on:
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all types of aircraft: rotorcraft,
turbojets, turboprops, fixed-wing piston,
gliders, hot air balloons, amateur-built,
light-sport aircraft, experimental and
non-experimental aircraft. |
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many different aircraft operations,
including: General operating and flight
rules (Part 91) On-demand Part 135 (air
taxi, air tours, and non-scheduled commuter
Agricultural aircraft operations (Part 137)
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aircraft owned/operated by individuals and
by companies as well as: Flying clubs,
flight schools, fractional ownership
programs Government agencies (Federal,
state, local) N-Numbered military aircraft
used for civilian purposes |
Please be assured...your responses are
confidential. The information will be used
only for statistical purposes and will not be
released in any form that would reveal an
individual participant. Tetra Tech
is an independent research firm that conducts
the GA Survey on behalf of the FAA.
A short form is available for owners/operators
who receive three or more surveys. You can
contact Tetra Tech with questions toll-free at
1-800-826-1797 or email
infoaviationsurvey@tetratech.com
Thank you! |
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
Karen Halverson
ACA Secretary
Lifeline Pilots
Jeff Kahn
ACA Treasurer
Angel Flight East
Directors
Judy Benjamin
Angel Flight Central
Hume Davenport
Southwings
Rick Durden
LightHawk
Sandy Johnson
Angel Flight Soars
Kevin Sell
Volunteer Pilots Association
Christopher St. Peter
Operation Angel Planes &
Angel Flight West
Gary St. Peter
Operation Angel Planes
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!
Members
AeroAngel
Angel Flight Central, Inc.
Angel Flight East
Angel Flight Northeast
Angel Flight Soars, Inc.
Angel Flight West
Angel Flight, Inc. (Oklahoma)
Aviation for Humanity
Bahamas Habitat
Children's Flight of Hope, Inc.
Dreams and Wings, Inc.
Emergency Volunteer Air Corps (EVAC)
Hope Flight Foundation
LifeLine Pilots
LightHawk
Operation Angel Planes
Patient Airlift Services
Pilots for Christ, Inc.
Pilots for Patients
Sky Hope Network
Veteran's Airlift Command
Vital Flight, Inc.
Volunteer Mercy Pilots (MI)
Wings Flights of Hope
Wings for Children - SC
Wings of Mercy - Michigan (West)
Listing Only
Aerobridge
Air Charity Network (ACN)
Airlift Hope of North Carolina
Airlift Hope of Tennessee
Angel Flight Australia
Angel Flight Europe
Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic
Angel Flight of Kentucky
Angel Flight of Maryland
Angel Flight of Michigan
Angel Flight of Ohio
Angel Flight of Vancouver Island (CANADA)
Angel Flight of Virginia
Angel Flight South Central
Angel Flight Southeast
Badger Aviation Inc.
Challenge Air for Kids & Friends
Christian Air Ministry
Civil Air Patrol
Cloud Nine Rescue Flights
Corporate Angel Network
EAA Young Eagles
Flights for Life, Inc.
Flying Paws
Flying Samaritans
Freedom Flight
Grace Flight
Grace on Wings
Help Four Paws
His Wings Aviation Ministries
Hope Air of Canada
Hope Wings Foundation
Houston Ground Angels & Pilots
International Shrine Aviation Assoc.
Kids Wings
Liga - Flying Doctors of Mercy
Medflight of Indiana, Inc.
Mercy Flight Alabama
Mercy Flight Indiana aka Wings of Mercy-Illiana
Mercy Flight Southeast
Mercy MedFlight, Inc.
Mercy Medical Airlift (MMA)
Mercy Wings Network
Miracle Flights for Kids
Missions Made Possible
N.C. Baptist Men Aviation Ministry
Northwoods AirLifeLine LLC
Oklahoma Baptist Men Aviation Ministry
One Heart Missions Services
Pilots for Christ Intl.
Pilots N Paws
Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps
Servant Air Ministries (FL Chptr of Pilots
for Christ)
SkyArk, Inc.
South Wings, Inc.
Volunteer Pilots Association
Wings for Children - PA
Wings of Hope, Inc.(MO)
Wings of Mercy - Minnesota
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Official Newsletter of the
Air Care Alliance
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June 2011 |
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Why Are We Here?
Rol Murrow, Chairman of the
Board
Every once in a while someone
attends an Air Care
Conference and says
"Why should I be involved with
the Air Care Alliance?
What's in it for me or my
group?"
That seems like a strange
question. After all, when
volunteer pilots join a public
benefit flying group it is
quite rare that they say
"What's in it for me?" The
pilots want to join and
support the group because they
want to use their aircraft and
skills to help others and
their communities!
Likewise for the Air Care
Alliance. Our members join
because they know that it
doesn't really matter if a
patient is flown, or another
charitable act performed, by
them or by some other group,
as long as the mission is
accomplished. There is far
more need than any one group
can accomplish.
While loyalty and devotion to
our own group and its
objectives is important, so is
being loyal to the overarching
goal of helping others as well
as possible. Isn't that our
fundamental objective?
Joining and supporting the
Alliance supports that primary
objective. By sharing
information and developing
mutually supportive
relationships we improve all
the groups' operations and
ability to support their
volunteers in helping those in
need.
Yes, there are some extra
benefits of membership too,
such as having better access
to information helpful to our
own groups' operations, and
being better able to
participate in setting
national policy regarding
public benefit flying.
Thus it is important for us to
step back every once in a
while and ask ourselves the
fundamental question, "What's
in it for the people and the
communities we and our group
are trying to help?" Then the
value of your partnership with
all the other groups in the
Alliance becomes obvious!
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President's Message |
AirVenture 2011
Charles (Lindy) Kirkland, ACA President
We are in full swing planning for
EAA AirVenture 2011 and our
Air Care Alliance display
area. Once again, thanks to the
encouragement and support of EAA and our
other sponsors, we will have a tent and
exhibit space at AirVenture for the
purpose of promoting all the charitable
volunteer pilot organizations. This year
we will be in the same area as the
International Association of Mission
Aviation (IAMA) and other
charitable aviation organizations.
A huge THANK YOU goes out to ACA
Board Member Judy Benjamin for
taking on the responsibility of
coordinating our tent activities and
volunteers this year. Judy will be
looking for volunteers from all groups to
help staff the booth throughout the week.
If you have pilots or other volunteers
that will be at AirVenture, we could sure
use the help. Please have interested
volunteers contact Judy at
jbenjamin3@kc.rr.com.
We want to help out those groups which
can't send a representative in person by
having your literature and your marketing
/ recruiting material displayed in the ACA
tent. Please send us a supply of your
brochures and a photo or two so we can
promote your group. Or better yet have
one of your volunteers bring it to
AirVenture and deliver it! For shipment,
please send to the following address:
Lindy Kirkland
10 Falling Water Ct.
Fredericksburg, VA 22405
Rol and I will again be presenting a
program on Public Benefit Flying.
The forum schedule is not yet complete so
we don't know the exact dates and times
but if you are at AirVenture, check the
schedule and come on by the
forums. Otherwise make the Air Care
Alliance tent your home away from home and
rendezvous place. Hope to see you at
AirVenture 2012!
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The Air Care 2011 Conference - Wrap Up |
The Air Care
2011 Conference
A Most Successful Event!
We extend our many thanks to our gracious
host organization, Operation Angel
Planes, and the St. Peter
Family for their warm hospitality
in bringing us AIR CARE 2011 in
Providence, Rhode Island.
Delegates from many Public Benefit
Flying Groups enjoyed wonderful
presentations, a delightful tour of
Newport, delicious meals, and a
great conference.
Angel Taveras, the Mayor of
Providence (pictured left),
and United States Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse (pictured
right)graciously took time from their busy
schedules to welcome us to Rhode Island and
congratulate all the groups and their
volunteers for their work helping others and
providing community service with general
aviation aircraft.
Gary and Jan St. Peter had
arranged a pre-conference bus tour of
Newport for the folks arriving early, and we
all had a good time visiting the historic
places and the seaside, and sharing a
wonderful lunch in the town. That evening
we enjoyed a reception at our conference
hotel, the elegant Marriott
Courtyard.
During
the conference on Saturday our speakers
provided presentations with information
useful to all the groups, regarding our
AOPA Air Safety Institute Online
Safety Course and the new
ACA website and referral system,
which will be made live soon. Other
presentations focused on developing a crisis
response plan and the development of best
practices for volunteer pilot organizations.
During the course of the day the conference
delegates shared their ideas and
recommendations, providing superb
information useful to everyone and for the
development of the website.
Among other website ideas, the delegates
determined that they would like to see
increased content for a Members-only
section, in order to encourage greater
participation by the groups supporting ACA's
work on behalf of all groups.
Saturday
evening Gary and Jan hosted another
reception at their beautiful offices on the
river near downtown, and then we all
adjourned to the restaurant next door for a
delicious Air Care banquet with live music,
dancing, and the kind of lively shenanigans
only the dedicated leaders of volunteer
based public benefit flying groups can pull
off! Many distinguished Angel Planes
supporters from the community joined us, and
amongst the festivities Gary provided a
special award in recognition of
Rhode Island Congressman Jim Langevin,
who spoke eloquently of his appreciation of
the work off Angel Planes and all the
volunteer pilot who fly to help others and
serve their communities.
All in all, Air Care 2011 was
exceptional! We look forward to seeing you
at Air Care 2012!
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ACA News & Updates |
We are getting ever closer to launching the
new Air Care Alliance website.
At the recent Air Care 2011 Conference,
web developer, Stephan Fopeano
went through the functionality of the new
website with the conference attendees. There
was a great deal of interaction and
constructive feedback from the Mission
Coordinator community with regard to
the referral process on the site. Stephan took
it all in stride and was very appreciative and
encouraged with the feedback received. Based
on the input from those in attendance, changes
to the site are underway and will be
incorporated. Some of the major changes that
arose from the conference discussion include:
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A Member's Only section. There will be a
concerted effort to distinguish content that
is for groups that are members of the
Alliance as opposed to those that are only
listed.
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Significant changes to the automatic
notification system for referrals. Mission
Coordinators did not want the system to auto
generate an email to all the identified
groups. They system will now provide the
listing of the appropriate groups but the
requestor will have to manually click on
those listings to have an email sent to the
groups.
Lastly, we are in the final phases of updating
the database and finalizing the content in
each section of the site. We have had several
Civil Air Patrol volunteers
assisting with the input and editing of the
various pages but could use more assistance.
We are anxious to get the site up and running
for your use and hope that each of you will
take the time to acquaint yourselves with it
and use it in the coming months. If you are
interested in a sneak peek, go to
http://dev.aircarealliance.org and
look around. I welcome your feedback after you
take a look at the site.
Lindy Kirkland -
Lindy.kirkland@aircareall.org
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Opportunity For Volunteer Pilots at
EAA Air
Venture 2011 in
Oshkosh,
Wisconsin
Volunteer pilots from all groups are invited
to participate in this year's Public
Benefit Aviation promotion, July 25 -31.
Please check your calendars for the day or
days & times you may be available during the
EAA Air Venture to share your
passion for helping others by assisting in the
Air Care Alliance exhibit
tent. In the next few weeks you will receive
further information about the display and a
shift schedule if you are on our mailing
list. This is a great opportunity to tell
other volunteers about the group or groups you
fly for and to meet with other pilots
interested in public benefit flying.
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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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