By Adam Hunt, COPA manager Membership Services
COPA now has an environmental policy to help guide the organization and its individual members in caring for the places we love to fly. This policy acknowledges that pilots and flying site operators are generally in an excellent position to be effective stewards of the environment and that all forms of aviation can be very compatible with conservation of habitat and wildlife species.
The world air sports body, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), has recently adopted a comprehensive Environmental Code of Ethics for all flyers. At the July 6, 2001 meeting of the COPA Board of Directors in Peterborough, Ont., the board debated the FAI policy and unanimously decided to adopt it as the COPA Environmental Policy.
The FAI policy contains some general statements that will guide COPA and its members in consistently planning and dealing with environmental issues that come up locally. The policy also contains a checklist that details environmental considerations for each specific flying discipline, including powered flying, ultralight flying, gliding and soaring, hang gliding and paragliding, ballooning and model airplane flying. The checklist is a useful guide and provides specific practical means of preserving the environment while operating aircraft. Most pilots who have read the checklist are interested to find that they are already doing most of the suggested items right now. They also find that there are some additional things that can be done where they fly without too much difficulty.
Both the policy and the checklist are available on the homepage of the COPA Web site.
Questions or comments about COPA’s new environmental policy can be sent to Adam Hunt, COPA manager, Member Services and Representation.