USA Today's story "Feds Keep Little Used Airports in Business"

Journalist, Thomas Frank, author of the USA Today's article on federally funded airports, tells a very inaccurate story about general aircraft ownership and how airports get money.  His article is a gross mischaracterization of private pilots and the system in which they operate.

The Feds don't keep "little used" airports in business;  recreational and business pilots keep them going by bringing commercial activity to areas that are not otherwise accessible.  As a student pilot out of Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia, I fly a Cessna 172 to another rural airport mentioned in the article, Stafford Regional County.  I am one of the many beneficiaries of safe, rural airports, and another 415,000 pilots in America join me in paying for rental fees, instruction, taxes on avgas and other fees that support the system.  

As for the regulatory side of the story, the article is so inaccurate about how federal airport funding works, that eleven members of Congress issued a "Dear Colleague" memo to their peers in hopes to clarify how airports – big and small - qualify for much needed safety improvements.  Maybe that's the good news:  Congress was so provoked by this misinformed journalist that they responded positively to "right the wrong" vis-a- vis other lawmakers.  I'm glad it caught their attention.