A Journal, with Pictures

Anoth­er beau­ti­ful fall day on Hilton Head Island. COPA mem­bers start their day with either a great flight in or for the Fri­day arrivals break­fast over­look­ing the beach at their hotel. Around 9:30 our van and locals with SUV’s con­verg on the air­port for the days activ­i­ties. In total there were over 60 par­tic­i­pants for the days activ­i­ties. For the spous­es there is a tour of Hilton Head Island to see this gor­gious place and learn about the his­to­ry. For the pilots it will be the COPA Uni­ver­si­ty Com­mand and Con­trol course. Bri­an Tur­risi is the lec­tur­er and pro­vides a two hour intense pre­sen­ta­tion on the subject.

The tourist get a end to end view of the island on the Hilton Head trol­ley with guide.

After the morn­ing activ­i­ties COPA mem­bers moved to an aja­cent hangar for a South­ern Bar-B-Que lunch, includ­ing bar-b-qued pork and chick­en, beans, cold slaw, corn bread and Ice Tea, yum­m­mm! The lunch was spon­sored by Avion­ics Source.

Dur­ing and after lunch mem­bers were treat­ed to a demon­stra­tion of a unique art form of the Gul­lah peo­ple of the area sweet grass bas­ket weav­ing and some took home one of these trea­sures. In addi­ton Mike Math­ews, Cir­rus Region­al sales rep joined us and dis­played his G5 demo. In addi­tion Cir­rus spon­sored the spous­es tour, which was much appreciated.

After lunch and the demos, most of the atten­dee’s took the Gul­lah tour, which intro­duced them to this unique peo­ple and their his­to­ry on the Island. They took two air con­di­tioned coach­es with guides and saw the sites, learned about the his­to­ry of the Gul­lah peo­ple and the first African Amer­i­can town to be formed after the Civ­il War, Mitchel­lville. Some of the COPA group choose to chill out on the beach and oth­ers trav­eled to near­by Sanan­nah for explor­ing and then dinner,

To cap off the day, most of the group were treat­ed to din­ner at the Old Oys­ter fac­to­ry. This restau­rant was built on a site where oys­ters from the near­by marsh­es were gath­ered and shucked. A beau­ti­ful sun­set view, from the pri­vate room, with time for cock­tails, din­ning and lots of social­iz­ing. Per­fect way to end the day, before the flight home tomor­row. Some atten­dees stayed over Sun­day to do the COPA/Cirrus land­ing clin­ic put on by Bri­an and Chuck.

Every­one seemed to enjoy their COPA week­end on Hilton Head Island, learn­ing, expe­ri­enc­ing new things and a beau­ti­ful place, mak­ing friends and social­iz­ing with fel­low mem­bers. The week­end was made pos­si­ble by Rick and Joyce Daw­son (COPA SE Gov­er­nor and wife), Bri­an Tur­risi and Chuck Cop­ley great COPA vol­un­teers. Also a big THANKS to Cir­rus who spon­sored the Spous­es tour and as usu­al gave great sup­port to the event and Avion­ics Source who spon­sored the Sat­ur­day South­ern Bar-B-Que lunch. Becuase of our COPA vol­un­teers and gen­er­ous spon­sors along with great mem­bers, life is good in COPA land.

Hilton Head Flight line Sun­day morn­ing as record­ed by Chuck Cope­ly, out giv­ing instruc­tions ear­ly. Accord­ing to Chuck, ” Cir­rus as far as you can see”.

Safe Flight Home.