It is fair to say COPA members are a social bunch. Cirrus pilots have been getting together since the first few airplanes were delivered. Ranging from the typical casual lunch fly-in social to several sophisticated weekend events, many events have been successfully organized by volunteer COPA members.
Most importantly, join your fellow COPA members and go to the events. It’s an incredible opportunity to meet other Cirrus owners, have some fun and learn new things.
Finding events to attend
If you are interested in attending a regional event, the best way is to check the Event Calendar and especially the Announcements located on the sidebar of most COPA website pages. Events are sometimes put together quickly, so if you don't keep an eye on this, an event can slip right by.
Another way is to get to know COPA members in your area. If you notice a forum post by someone in your area, don't hesitate to click their name and send them an email. Lots of casual groups form in just this way. We are working on improving the ability to use the website to look up COPA members near you, which we hope will be ready soon.
Visit the Places, Routes and Events forum and look for discussion on upcoming events. This is also a great place to read about past events, which will let you see who has been active in different areas. Don't hesitate to email any of the folks you see discussing past events, you never know what they are thinking of doing in the future.
Finally, watch your email. Once in a while you may receive an email telling you about regional events or possibly just messages from other members looking to get a group together. Don't hesitate to jump in with your ideas and your help.
Hosting a local event
Obviously you don't need COPA to have lunch with some of your flying buddies. But if you'd like to gather a larger crowd, COPA can help by connecting you with members who have been down this road. The Cirrus regional program is a loosely structured collaboration intended to facilitate members interested in hosting or helping get together with others for either purely social reasons or for educational programs.
If you want to do something simple, like invite a handful of folks to a breakfast or lunch, first make a post on the Places, Routes and Events forum. Then email the Event Editor and reference your post, and have an announcement added to the sidebar on most web pages to make your post more visible. To hold an informal get-together like this all you need to do is act as host and list yourself as the contact person for information, then keep people informed on the website as the day approaches with updates about weather, parking, etc.
If you are interested in something a little more ambitious, such as putting together a more complicated event or forming a small group, your best bet is to coordinate your efforts with other COPA members in your general area.
Regions & Regional Lead Volunteers
Six regions have been established in the United States. Internationally, there is one each for Brazil, Europe and Australia. It’s important to note we do not see these as hard boundaries. We expect many events will bring aircraft in from other nearby regions as well. We are very fortunate to have eager members willing to help pull events together. They are always interested in new and exciting venues.
Events that are coordinated with Regional Leads have the advantage of access to emailing event announcements to Members and of course the experience of people who have done this before. So if you reside in their region, please contact them with your ideas and volunteer to host an event yourself.
Regional Coordinator – Roger Whittier
North West – Bob Simica, Steve Powell
South West – Roger Whittier, Craig Albright, Rick Birch
North Central – Casey Jones, Bill Vogel
South Central – Stan Jensen
North East – John Ylinen, Tom Mendall, Brenda Zittle, Myron Garfinkle, Jaime Steel, Larry Reinstein
South East – Todd Carroll, Paul Pugliese, Sherri Platt, David Roberts, Ben Knisely
Brazil – Andre Castellini, Hermann Pais
Volunteers: to update this list, please contact the Website Editor.
We are still looking for volunteers for the following regions. Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Canada . Please contact the Regional Coordinator; Roger Whittier if you are interested.