general aviation is a catch-all category that includes all nonscheduled, nonmilitary aviation. ere are more than 230,000 general aviation aircraft in the united states which use nearly 19,000 small and regional airports. these airports help connect people and industries that do not always have easy access to our commercial airports. recently general aviation has come under attack by the media and those that view general aviation as a corporate indulgence or an expensive toy used exclusively by the wealthy. that is simply not true. actually, the fact is that companies that utilize general aviation are more productive and thus more competitive. i can give two examples from my hometown, grand rapids, michigan. recently i was talking to a businessman there. he's a contractor, built a number of buildings. they have decided to expand into the upper peninsula of michigan and into canada. now, as you know michigan is surrounded by the great lakes and so it's very hard to get from point a to point b quickly. however, they bought an airplane and they were able to zip easily from the gran