It is with mixed feelings that I share the news that Tim Cole has announced his retirement as a COPA director. For nearly 7 years Tim has selflessly advocated for British Columbia and Yukon's pilots on the national scale. Tim has never been more than one phone call or email away. As a director, Tim has drawn on his experience as a bush pilot, Transport Canada Inspector and recreational pilot to become a trusted advisor and confidant of many aviators in Western Canada. 

Tim Cole has been a very vocal supporter and advocate of the BC General Aviation Association. Tim recognized the value of the BCGA early on and was not shy to share that support with COPA members accross the country with his column in the COPA magazine on more than one occaision. As an organization and community it is now our turn to serve Tim as well as he has served us for the entirety of his career.

Respectfully Yours,
Ryan Van Haren
BC General Aviation Association (COPA Flight #194)  

What is the BCGA Members Helping Members Directory?
The BC General Aviation Association has become a great community of aviators across British Columbia. We take your privacy very seriously and therefore have not distributed any membership lists to our members.

The MHM directory is a great way to connect with other BCGA members as you travel around the province. It is an opt-in directory meaning that you can be a member of the association and not share your information or you can choose to share with the other members and in return view the information of members that are also sharing.

Who can view the BCGA Members Helping Members Directory?
The directory is only accessible to those members that have also shared their information. Members must log-in with their individual BCGA website login information. Viewing permission will be granted when your listing is added to the directory.

What are the benefits of the directory?
There are many benefits of the directory aside from just connecting with your fellow BCGA members. Get-home-itis  is a very real phenomenon. We are hoping that by creating a directory where members can offer to host a member who may be stranded in your town due to a mechanical break down or weather we can not only build camaraderie but also encourage safe decision making by removing the pressure of needing to find accommodations. Offering to host a visiting or stranded pilot is in no way mandatory and completely optional in the directory.

How often will the directory be updated?
We will make an effort to keep the directory as current as possible. The goal is to update it weekly. You will be given login access once your information has been added to the list and it has been published in the secure section of the website.

Privacy
Member who partake in the MHM directory are asked to exercise discretion and vigilance in guarding the personal information of your fellow members. At no time shall the contents of the list be shared with other members, non-members or third parties. This list shall not be used for any personal benefit other than connecting with members for non commercial purposes. We are confident that our fantastic group of members will be respectful of the MHM contents allowing us to keep this great resource available to those members that wish to partake.

Sample Listings

BCGA Member Dr. Keith Wilson is organizing a group of BC aviators that would like to come together and travel to Airventure Oshkosh 2017. Oshkosh is truly the greatest aviation celebration on earth and can be intimidating for first time attendees. By sharing knowledge and going as a group we can make the experience even more special and less daunting.

For more information and to join the discussion visit the BCGA to Oshkosh Page

Declaring an Emergency
by Mark Dixon, Civil Aviation Safety Inspector, General Aviation, Ontario Region, Civil Aviation, Transport Canada

"TOWER, THIS IS HOTEL ECHO LIMA PAPA, WE ARE DECLARING AN EMERGENCY 10MILES OUT, 4PEOPLE ON BOARD, 1 000 POUNDS OF FUEL AND NO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS."

What does it mean to declare an emergency? Is the pilot-in-command (PIC) going to have to face an inquiry? Does the PIC have to pay for emergency services? Does the PIC need permission to do this? Is declaring an emergency a really big inconvenience to air traffic control (ATC) and other aircraft?
This article will look at declaring an emergency from a decision-making standpoint, and shed some light on the why and when to declare an emergency.

First, read the following report taken from the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS) and, assuming you were the PIC, make a quick decision if you would declare an emergency or not:

The (a/c type) turbojet aircraft (operating as XXXX) was on an IFR flight from Chicago (O'Hare) International Airport (KORD) to Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport (CYOW). The flight crew reported that they had a flap problem and requested to land on Runway32. They advised that they were not declaring an emergency and that no emergency equipment would be required. However, NAV CANADA tower staff declared an emergency and the crash crews and airport duty manager were advised. The aircraft landed without incident at 0329Z, and aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) stood down at 0330Z. Operational impact-unknown.
Well, would you or not? Let's look at the situation.

Having declared many emergencies over the years, I feel there is no such thing as a "slight" or "kind of" emergency. It is either an emergency or it is not. To decide if you should declare an emergency depends on the situation. The decision to declare should be made as early as possible, and communicated to ATC right away. Generally speaking, you should never be afraid to declare the emergency. If the situation that you are experiencing is in any way, or could become, unsafe or dangerous, declare the emergency. Humming and hawing, delaying, declaring "kind of an emergency" or a "small emergency" leaves a lot of uncertainty. You owe it to your passengers, crew, and the aircraft owner to declare an emergency if you have a problem that warrants it. ATC will only be able to coordinate emergency resources and help out if they know you have a problem. If they are left out, or uncertain of the degree of the situation, it makes it difficult to help. Emergency services personnel are professionals who will not give you a hard time about declaring the emergency- it's their job, and they are always happy to help. You will not face an inquiry or be liable for fees or fines.
A CADORS report is generated by NAV CANADA and is followed up by Transport Canada or the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). When contacted, we like to get details and discuss the incident. For all of the CADORS reports that I have followed up, I have told the PIC that declaring an emergency was a good decision, and that we are following up from an "educational safety" point of view.
​
For the purposes of this newsletter, I ran the above CADORS report by a wide variety of Transport Canada inspectors, private pilots, flight instructors and senior airline check pilots.

The COPA Membership Satisfaction Survey is in full swing, 1,000 COPA members were selected in stratified sampling across Canada by KC Surveys.
 
Since the last survey in 2012, COPA Directors and members have forwarded the National office additional questions to be included in the next Membership Satisfaction Survey. Some of these questions were not applicable for the current Satisfaction survey but are nevertheless good and important feedback for COPA National.
 
For the reasons above COPA has launched two surveys and is asking if you can forward these to all your members.
 
IFR Equipage Survey, 12 questions:                                           
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IFR_Equipage
               
UAV/Drone/ModelAircraftSurvey, 7 questions:                 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UAV_Model_Aircraft_Survey

The BCGA and NavCanada are pleased to bring you two tour dates for the control tower at YYJ. This is open to BCGA members however each date is limited to 10 participants. For more information or to RSVP CLICK HERE or click the photo of above.

​Tours will be held on November 18th and December 9th

We are also in the process of arranging tours of YXX Tower, YLW Tower and the Vancouver Area Control Centre.