2024 Convention Report

As usual, organizers and attendees again watched the weather forecasts closely in the days before this year’s UPAC ‘More Than an AGM’ gathering.  As always, the forecasts changed frequently. Unfortunately though, the weather gods ultimately did not cooperate this year.  Friday was a very pleasant day. Saturday was a different story though with low clouds and at times torrential rain through the day. Sadly, this prevented pilots from flying in.

 Being a hardy lot, UPAC members still began arriving Saturday morning by road and continued through the day. Not surprisingly, the number of attendees appeared to be lower than previous years but it was great to see so many pilots and members. The volunteer ramp crew were kept busy directing cars to their parking spots at the airfield. 

Saturday’s jam-packed schedule of activities began with a full breakfast followed by a series of seminars which, if pilots attended all of them, satisfied the 24 month Recurrent Training requirement. 

First up was Uwe Goehl from Transport Canada, who outlined various changes to the AIM including uncontrolled airport circuit entry procedures. He also discussed issues such as TC’s approach to the Light Sport Aircraft category in the US.

John Baker from RotacRepair.com followed with an interesting an informative presentation about Rotax engine maintenance and ethanol fuel concerns, including recommendations for testing fuel and modifying fuel systems.  John’s seminar was briefly interrupted by a heavy downpour, accompanied by a tornado alert on people’s cell phones. The storm passed fairly quickly though and the show went on.

The third seminar of the morning was conducted by Kevin Brown and involved periodic airframe, engine, and propeller inspections and maintenance plus the benefits of electronic record keeping.

The convention continued with the BBQ lunch.  It was nice to see so many attendees again enjoying good food and socializing despite the weather.

This was followed by scenario-based seminar hosted by Kathy Lubitz on pilot decision making based on real world occurrences. What happened? What were the options? What would you do? What the pilot did! What we learned! Cases included runway conflicts, frosted over cockpits, navigation errors, and landing decision makings.  As is often the case, the ensuing discussion was lively and informative as audience members recounted situations they had personally experienced.

Gord Dyck followed with an important note about a recent workshop fire, and suggestions about fire prevention and the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of fire extinguishers in hanger fires where the structure is wood and where fuel is stored.

The gathering was capped off with the Annual General Meeting. President Kathy Lubitz gave her State of the Organization address, followed by financial reports and the election of directors. 

Welcome to new UPAC directors Kevin Brown and Ted Rankine!  Many thanks to Gord Dyck and Lionel Richer for their support of UPAC as Directors for the past few years. 

The AGM concluded with some lively discussion about future activities for the organization including support for the Aero Club of Canada, ideas to increase membership, and a potential name change because ultralights look a lot different now than they did in 1984 when UPAC started.

Of course, just after things wrapped up, the clouds parted, the sun came out and even a rainbow appeared as a plane took to the sky!

Despite the weather, ultimately it’s the camaraderie among the attendees that’s most important and by that measure, the 2024 UPAC gathering was a great success!

Thanks to Kathy and Ed Lubitz and all the volunteers who made it happen. 

Hope to see you all next year!