Highlights from our 2010 Annual Picnic - now our Fly-In BBQ Picnic!

We held our annual picnic at St. Lazare Airport this year with good attendance. This year we can call it a Fly-In BBQ Picnic as we had at least one member fly his aircraft to the event; despite the weather with low a ceiling and threat of rain. We also had a BBQ going for those who wanted to cook on the spot!

The group took over Scott Black's hangar space, evicting his Jodel for the day! Thanks Scott...

Roberto Cea-Campo flew his Titan II to the Picnic, offically allowing us to change the name of our event to "Fly-In Picnic"! Michel Moreau is helping to extricate Roberto from his recently completed homebuilt ultralight.

The youngest attendees were the lovely Dudkoff girls.

Highlights from our May Chapter Meeting

Tony Molle talked about his latest construction project, a Lancair 360. He previously started a Midget Mustang, but as his kids started showing interest in flying, he figured her should switch to a 2-seater project. Tony picked up the Lancair extra-fast quick-build project from someone who had started building in Toronto, so he figures he should have it flyable by November this year. Tony has a Grand Rapids EFIS with dual displays, and is contemplating installing a Gemini autopilot. This should be quite the airplane! Thanks for a very interesting evening Tony.

Gord Larsen finished the evening with photos of the Jabiru 250 aircraft he built. He even showed the wings and fuselage, which are prefabricated parts being built in the Jabiru factory including some of the testing methods used on the aircraft. Gord had the extra challenge of building ahead of the writing of the instruction manual, as it was just being written. So, Gord would do the work the way he felt it should be done, then as the pertinent chapter was published, he would go back to confirm that he had done the construction in accordance with the manual! Next, he plans to put the Jabiru 250 on floats. Thanks Gord for an interesting presentation on the "scenes behind the scene" as well as your own build project.

Highlights from our February Chapter Meeting

Frank Hofmann talked about the aircraft certification process and implications for home builders and pilots. As a follow-up to the MD-RA talk by Pierre Fournier, Frank stressed the importance of building to the designer’s specification citing examples of home-built aircraft that have failed because the owner made unapproved changes to the design.

Frank referred to his personal experiences with the ongoing Seawind certification process that has been in the works since the year 2000! In addition to the need for very deep pockets, it is also critical to have a good relationship with the regulator who should be part of the process from design through certification; a process where personality conflicts can dramatically complicate or even scuttle the certification of a new aircraft.

In order to put an aircraft into production after it has been that has been certified as a prototype, a second stage of certification is required; "Production Certification". To pass this step, among other things, the manufacturer has to demonstrate there is a Quality system in place as well as a Configuration Management process that ensures Design and Manufacturing are in sync in terms of ensuring engineering changes initiated in either design or manufacturing are reflected in both, and that testing is redone if necessary.

In the context of amateur-built aircraft that are not fully "certified", flight authority still requires compliance with regulations, CARs 549. Additional to meeting and maintaining the requirements stipulated in 549, to fly legally the following documents need to be on board: certificate of registration, certificate of airworthiness, insurance documents, the aircraft journey log that must include entries like the biennial transponder recertification, a check list, the pilot operating handbook, current maps, pilot licence with valid medical and currency noted, and if traveling to the USA, a letter authorizing a home-built aircraft to fly into the States and the APIS (Advance Passenger Information) number.

Thank you Frank for sharing your in-depth knowledge of this subject and making it relevant to our constituency!

Highlights from our January Chapter Meeting

Pierre Fournier, who is the Minister Delegate - Recreational Aircraft (MD-RA) representative for the Quebec Region, gave a very animated and interesting talk on the process of getting your amateur-built project from purchase to flying in terms of inspection requirements through to the related paperwork. Pierre emphasized that the MD-RA mandate only applies to the inspection of the Amateur-Built category of aircraft and that their purpose in life is to apply the letter of the law as defined by Transport Canada.

MD-RA, a Canada-wide non-profit organization has undertaken to put everything you need to know and do on their web site at http://www.md-ra.com. Pierre said he often takes calls from home builders, but is reluctant to answer questions as to whether some particular construction technique would pass inspection or not, due to concern that any misunderstanding could become a contentious issue later at inspection time. Technical compliance questions about construction techniques should be addressed to Transport Canada for regulation interpretation. Marc Bisson, Pierre's counterpart in Transport Canada for the Quebec Region, should be contacted, preferably by email so there is a paper trail of all understandings and agreements. Marc Bisson's email address at Transport Canada is marc.bisson@tc.gc.ca

Two important messages we took from the presentation were: 1) Inform the Minister (i.e. MD-RA) before you make any commitment to purchase or put any money on the table. This can be done with the "Letter of Intent", which is available on the MD-RA web site, and, 2) that if one person has to be upset at the end of an inspection, it should be the builder, not the inspector! ;-)

For a limited time, you can review Pierre's presentation by clicking on "here".

Again, thank you to Pierre Fournier for a very informative and entertaining evening!

Check out our last Air Rally in Lachute

COPA and EAA members gave children their first flight experience on May 19 at Lachute Airport.