September 27, 2018

COPA CEO Chases Legendary $100 (Beefalo) Burger

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On Sunday, September 9, George Weller hosted his largest fly-in ever. Sixty airplanes of various types flew into the southern Quebec airstrip, with many COPA members attending, including COPA President and CEO Bernard Gervais. The weather was ideal, and everyone enjoyed George Weller’s Beefalo burgers (hybrid beef and bison). The aerodrome, Stanstead/Weller (TQ2), has a beautiful grass strip and sits just a few kilometres from the Vermont, U.S. border.

During the fly-in, COPA had some very interesting discussions about easing access to fly-ins with people from both sides of the international border. For the last few years, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) offices in Vermont have given our American friends a hard time, when their neighbouring states of Maine and New York are still very much GA friendly. Shortly after this fly-in, we reached out to our friends at AOPA to offer our collaboration in maintaining our aerial borders open and easy to cross for GA.

During the winter months, Weller also holds a fly-in where, once again, pilots from Canada and the U.S. meet to shake hands. However, it takes place across an imaginary border on iced-up Lake Memphremagog, much like the Del Bonita Hands Across the Border Fly-in in Alberta.

Click here to see a video taken from Bernard Gervais’ Maule, and to see how he fits these events into his busy schedule.