A Journal, with Pictures

The weath­er as is usu­al­ly the case in the fall, was beau­ti­ful. COPA mem­bers from around the coun­try start­ed arriv­ing as ear­ly as Wednes­day, with the major­i­ty on Fri­day. Some flew in on Sat­ur­day. Rick Daw­son, COPA SE Gov­er­nor set up reg­is­tra­tion in the FBO and pro­vid­ed cold drinks for the arrivals on Fri­day after­noon. We rent­ed a van and one of Chuck Cop­leys advanced stu­dent, JT, vol­un­teered to be our dri­ver for the week­end, mak­ing get­ting around much eas­i­er and more economical.

That evening we gath­ered at the Red Fish for coc­tails and din­ner. Although the reser­va­tion had been made a month before and recon­firmed in per­son on Wednes­day our pri­vate room had been dou­ble booked by mis­take. So, being good pilots we had an alter­nate, extend the cock­tail hour. This all worked out, since we had some late arrivals fly­ing in from Flori­da, so they were right on time. A jol­ly time was had by all and we were off to a good start mak­ing new friends. By the way the restau­rant gave us 10% off of our checks, which almost paid for the extra drinks consumed.

Tomor­row is going to be a full COPA Day.