My dear colleagues, fellow enthusiasts, and guests:

I want to bid you a warm and generous Texas welcome to our organization's website. This is just the humble beginning! Over the coming years, you will continue to notice many changes take place as our organization persists to metamorphose and grow, and our website feeds on more useful content for your use.

Since the earliest dreams I can recall of wanting to fly, at three years old, to the first time in control of a real aircraft at nineteen, a Cessna-150, followed in near-succession by flying one of my favorites, the Piper Cherokee Warrior II (N81833, later others)... and then on the eve of Y2K, flying N660SP -a 1998 Cessna 172S Skyhawk wrapped with the Lone Star flag as its livery- from ADS poetically into the sunset, to be followed by trying the Cirrus SR22 after the passing of Y2K's early years... since all this, I've wanted to spread the word about this wondrous field! Today, I find myself privileged to be doing just that with people who share similar interests... YOU!

As a proud Texan, and a most passionate aviation and aerospace enthusiast, I find it surprising that many people fail to realize that aviation has strong and deep roots in the history of our state. As early as the 1860's, balloonists in Texas took to the air in experiments that seemed to defy the laws of gravity.  Within a few years, however, these early efforts in aviation were directed toward the development of winged craft.  

Even today, claims persist that Texas inventor Jacob F. Brodbeck became the world's first aviator. According to legend, he flew his "air-ship" on September 20, 1865--almost forty years before the Wright brother's famous flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina... To put things in further perspective, timetable wise, remember that the rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the Zeppelin, which was based on designs he had outlined in 1874, and detailed in 1893, had its first flight on 2 July 1900.

... My friends, flying and general aviation (GA) are as Texan as the Texas Longhorn!

Today, general aviation faces many new challenges; to mention a few: the declining pilot population, and the increase in damaging interference and meddling from ill qualified interest and governmental groups, policy makers, media outlets, and public, who can not comprehend the delight of flight, nor understand the field of GA and the significant value that it adds to our state and nation's prosperity as a key economic sector -to say the least; these individuals and groups need to understand that, among other things, GA is vital to keep America strong, and through working together, it is our roll at The TPA to educate them and continue to ensure that our rights and freedoms are neither trampled over, denied, nor dismissed.

As The TPA's current leader, I believe that it is crucial for us to be at the forefront of new challenges and opportunities in general aviation, particularly in our home State of Texas. Together we will strengthen the GA community, help educate the masses, protect airports, aid to grow the pilot population in Texas, and provide means to help prepare the next generation of GA aficionados and devotees through education and the promotion of GA, Advanced General Aviation (AGA), and their related fields. We will also strongly advocate for the needs of GA and AGA at all levels of government, being it independently when appropriate or in cooperation with other sibling organizations around the state, nation, and the world.

Our field of passion is not about gender, race, color, political affiliation, or creed... actually, if there was a creed, it would be something like the famous poem High Flight:

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I?ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, ? and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov?ring there,
I?ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I?ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew ?
And, while with silent lifting mind I?ve trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God."

--John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

To base an organization on any premise other than the pertinent abilities, is the laying of a foundation of division and ignorance to build on, which can never be truly useful in a positive sense -in my own view. Aviation and aerospace -as are most fields- are based on abilities, qualifications and experience. The field is already fragmented enough, and does not need further fragmentation based on frivolous differences.

By pulling together and working with community, businesses, and government officials, GA in Texas and the nation will survive and thrive again. To do all this, and do it well, The TPA needs to assure two things: the continued involvement of our members and then securing the resources to fund our work through different means that include, but are not limited to, the generous support of our sponsors.

If you are not yet an active member and supporter of our efforts, I would like to personally take this opportunity to invite you to join us and actively participate in our ambitious efforts  to establish The TPA and its supporters (YOU) as major influencers in the GA and AGA arenas. To learn more about The Texas Pilots Association, please invest some time to visit and study the "About Us" page, and then the rest of our website.

 Let us now take a vow: "The TPA is here to stay!"

Ra? M.Alexander Ayyad, Chairman

November 20, 2010

Good ol' N81833 landing at DTO; the same landing I had made many a time in this beauty at the same airport...  Note the big Texas sky just beggin' ya' to come up and fly!

[Video recording courtesy of Jim McConnell]

Come Fly With Me

? The Texas Pilots Association