A Journal, with Pictures

On Fri­day Novem­ber 15, Joyce and I flew to Charleston to join over 30 oth­er COPA mem­bers and guests for a week­end in Charleston. We were greet­ed by Rick and Cathy Hegen­berg­er who orga­nized the event and were our hosts. They had every­thing orga­nized with a good­ie bag with every­thing we need, includ­ing name tags, maps, agen­da for the week­end, plus a pound of grits and Cathy’s favorite shrimp and grits recipe. Piz­za, turkey wraps and water were also wait­ing for those who had trav­eled father. We had pilots from as far away as Cal­i­for­nia, Ohio, Flori­da, Geor­gia, New York, Mass­a­chu­setts, Con­necti­cut, as well as the Car­oli­na s. Once all arrived we were tak­en a short dis­tance to Charleston Coast Guard Sta­tion. We were giv­en a pre­sen­ta­tion of air sea res­cue, a tour of the facil­i­ty and we inspect­ed the res­cue heli­copter. This was a great way to start our trip.

We were then trans­port­ed to our down­town Charleston Hotel, in time to change and meet for cock­tails and din­ner. There was lots of social­iz­ing and meet­ing new COPA friends. After din­ner Mason Hol­land, COPA mem­ber and CEO of Eclipse avi­a­tion gave us a very com­pre­hen­sive brief­ing on the state of the light jet indus­try and Eclipse.

After din­ner more social­iz­ing and then it was time for bed, tomor­row was going to be a very full day.