Updated guide to public airports available

COPA produces guides on a variety of topics to help you fly safely and enjoy your freedom to fly. One of these guides helps airport managers make their airport attractive to our sector of aviation.

The Guide to Public Airports has been updated to version 21 to include a more detailed explanation on fees and our criteria for airports to qualify for our “GA Friendly” logo that appears in our Places to Fly listings for airports across Canada.

Fees are a difficult issue. On the one hand, our sector is very sensitive to fees because, unlike commercial operators, we cannot simply pass them on to customers. In addition, we believe that airports, like roads, are transportation infrastructure that should be supported by the taxpayer because of the value they have for the community as an economic generator.

COPA is not opposed to reasonable landing fees and other fees at the airport but they should not be assessed for certain aircraft and when services are purchased at the airport. The guide provides an explanation as well as advice for airport managers and their particular situation.

What is a “GA Friendly” airport? In order to qualify for a “GA friendly” logo, an airport should meet the following criteria:

– No landing fee for privately registered aircraft or landing fee waived with any service purchased at the airport.

– No landing fee if there is a fuel concession fee (usually five cents per litre) in place on avgas.

– Landing fee of $10 maximum is acceptable only if there is no fuel concession fee.

– No parking fee for less than six hours.

– Tie-downs on pavement or prepared grass area with tie-down points available for itinerant aircraft.

– Avgas available.

– Any fees applicable to private aircraft are listed where they can easily be found on the airport’s website and a notice of fees is in the Canadian Flight Supplement.

We ask every member to help us help each other with our flight planning by adopting an airport on Places to Fly and keep it up to date.

If something changes, such as a fuel price, please update the listing yourself. Changes are instantly reflected on the COPA website ( www.copanational.org ) for all to see. There is a user guide to help you update listings.

To add a GA Friendly logo, simply find the logo on another airport entry, such as Ottawa/Carp (not the thumbnail of it -click on the thumbnail to get the full size image) and then right-click on the picture and save it to your own computer. Then when you are editing the information on the airport edit page just submit it like any other picture. You do this by clicking on the “Image Upload:” box at the bottom of the edit page for any airport and then click on

the image file on your computer to upload it. If a listing has a GA Friendly logo but you notice that it does not meet our criteria, please notify Joanne jnault@copanational.org 613-236-4901(x106) so that she can remove the logo.