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.