Applications are also being accepted for the BCGA's three aviation scholarships.
The application deadline is June 30th.

Registration is open for the April 2017 Survival Shakedown. The fourth installment of the BCGA's Survival Shakedown will be held in the Cowichan Valley (Vancouver Island) on April 28 - 29, 2018. This event is now open for registration and is limited to 20 participants. 

This exercise will be held with the assistance of Cowichan Search & Rescue.

This unique exercise has garnered a lot of attention as the first three exercises were huge successes and got a lot of pilots talking about the importance of this training. 

For more information, testimonials and to register click on the Survival Shakedown button below.

You owe it to yourself, your family and your passengers to take this course. We promise that you wont regret it.

Every two years half of the positions on the COPA Board of Directors are up for election.  In 2018 a total of seven positions representing the following regions will need to be elected:

Quebec (2 positions) – currently held by Jean Messier and Jonathan Beauchesne
Southern Ontario (3 positions) –currently held by Phil Englishman, Conrad Hatcher and Cheryl Marek
British Columbia & Yukon (2 positions) – currently held by Joe Hessberger and 1 vacant position
 
Any COPA member in good standing may run for a position in the region in which they live.  If you have a passion for general aviation and feel you have something to contribute to COPA both on the Board and as a regional representative, please consider volunteering for this very important work.  The term of office for this election shall commence at the summer Board meeting in June 2018 and continue until the summer Board meeting in 2022. Nominations for these seven positions are now being accepted. 
​

• The deadline for receiving nominations is Thursday, February 8th, 2018.  Candidates will be announced in the March COPA Flight and on the website.
• The election will close on Monday, April 2nd, 2018.  Ballots will be counted and results will be announced in the May COPA Flight magazine and on the website.
• Based on the new Canadian Governance rules for no-for-profit guidelines, the slate of Directors elected in the regions will be presented to the COPA membership for ratification at the Annual General Meeting on June 23th.

                                                              
Candidates should:

• have a strong belief in COPA’s mission
• have a passion for aviation
• have a high standard of personal ethics
• want to make a lasting contribution to general aviation
• be able to spend a minimum or 15 days per year on COPA business (at three Board meetings per year and at regional events)
• have ready access to email for Board communications

 
Nominations for a Director must be made in writing by at least five voting members from the same region (defined as paid-up regular members, their family members and persons designated by corporate members when they applied for membership).

Completed nomination forms must be received at the COPA office by 12:00 noon on Thursday, February 8th, 2018. 

• You can mail the form below to COPA, 75 Albert Street, Suite 903, Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7
• fax it to 613-236-8646 or
• email the same information to nomination@copanational.org

     
A list of candidates will be published in the March COPA Flight, along with information about the candidates and instructions on how to vote.

Members will be able to vote online.  Alternatively, members will be able to request that a paper ballot be mailed to them.

In order to provide voters with comparative information on candidates, nominees will be requested to complete a candidate questionnaire and a 200 to 300 word biography, both which are to be submitted with the nomination form.
 
Facts to be included in the nominee’s bio:

• Flying experience and currency
• Aircraft ownership if any
• COPA Flight or flying club affiliations
• What is your main reason for wanting to be a COPA Director?
• What is the single most important skill you feel you can bring to the Board?

 
 Consider who you would like to see representing you on the Board and nominate them today, or if you would like to run yourself find a few members to nominate you.  Don’t hesitate.  COPA needs good people to pursue its mission.
 
      The COPA mission:  To advance, promote, and preserve the Canadian freedom to fly.
 
 Nominee biography/platform: 
​Please include the candidate questionnaire, and in 200 to 300 words, a biography from the nominee that will be helpful to COPA members casting ballots in an election.

There is a new feature on the BCGA website. We want to get to know the community better and let the community members get to know one another. There is page called FEATURED MEMBERS in the members tab.

We would like anyone who is a BCGA member to visit the page and fill out the form. We will start with 5 featured member profiles to get the ball rolling and then would like to add a new featured member each week.

Ideally we would like to see some of the new members take part in this as well. This a a great way for us to grow as a community and get to know a little more about a different member each week.
​
The featured member member will also be featured on the BCGA main page. Don't be shy now...

Hangar owners across BC have received an unwelcome late-Christmas present in the form of significantly higher assessments on their airport hangars this year.


For BC residents, January means the annual arrival of property assessment notices from BC Assessment which are used by municipal governments and others to determine, among other things, whether your property taxes might go up or down. COPA has been made aware by several of our members, notably on Vancouver Island, that some assessments this year are up as much as over 150%. This is seemingly due to an agency-directed reclassification of hangars to “Industrial Warehouses”, a decision that puts the buildings in the same classification as commercial storage facilities in areas such as downtown cores.


In collaboration with our legal counsel, COPA is currently exploring options to challenge this new interpretation on behalf of our members. We are looking to hear from anyone who may have been affected by this and we ask you to please contact our office at: takeaction@copanational.org. In the meantime, property owners have until January 31st to appeal their assessments to BC Assessment. We strongly encourage anyone who feels their hangar has been over valued to file an appeal before the deadline to preserve the available legal avenues.
​
As the situation develops we will provide more updates.

BCGA Director Dave McElroy and two other pilots Russ Airey and Harold Fast are flying in formation around North and South America to raise $500,000 for Hope Air. They departed Kelowna on January 2nd and are currently in Ixtapa Mexico.

You can follow along with the Give Hope Wings flight around the southern tip of South American and back with the following links.

Give Hope Wings Website & Flight Tracker (You can also donate to Hope Air on this site)

Give Hope Wings Facebook Page (Great place to view photos of the journey)

Give Hope Wings Make an Appearance on the Craig Furguson Show! (Use this link to Listen)

By: Carter Mann
Link To Original Article on COPA Website

In follow-up to an article before Christmas about a proposal by Alpha Aviation, operators of the Boundary Bay Airport (CZBB), to implement landing fees on all aircraft, we are pleased to report that after discussions between COPA, regional GA stakeholders including the BC General Aviation Association, and management at Alpha Aviation, a moratorium is being implemented on fees for general aviation aircraft under 3,000kg (6,600lbs) and those aircraft will not be subject to a minimum fuel purchase for visits up to 2 hours in length.

COPA applauds management’s decision and commends Alpha for its continued commitment to supporting general aviation at the Boundary Bay Airport, one of the busiest airports in Canada. “Alpha Aviation and the Boundary Bay Airport have a well-established track record as friends of general aviation, including hosting COPA Flight 5’s annual COPA for Kids event – one of the most successful COPA for Kids events in the country,” said President and CEO Bernard Gervais. “We are pleased that management was willing to listen to the concerns brought forth by COPA and others in the GA community that implementing these fees would have a serious negative effect on GA in the region.”

As part of its interventions to Alpha, COPA highlighted the statistics in its 2017 Study on the Economic Impact of General Aviation in Canada, explaining that airports known to be “GA-Friendly” are consistently some of the most active airports in Canadian communities and can be major economic drivers in their regions. General Aviation contributes approximately $9.3B in direct and indirect economic output to the Canadian economy and supports approximately 36,000 jobs in businesses such as airport restaurants, maintenance facilities, and other services – many of which are found at Boundary Bay. COPA takes an active role of promoting to the GA pilots airports that are known to be friendly to the industry. We encourage pilots to do their part to support these airports by visiting often, patronizing tenant businesses, and purchasing fuel. For more information and to find airports recognized by COPA as GA Friendly, visit the Places to Fly page on our website at: http://www.copanational.org/places-to-fly.