Lawyer Pilots Bar Association – LPBA
Benefits of Membership

A Message From 2012-2013 LPBA President Gary L. Evans

Dear LPBA Members and Enthusiasts:

The New Year has featured one simply stupendous 2013 LPBA meetings, with one more to follow in July, which will be here before we know it!

Fortuity being what it is, we were the beneficiaries of an $18,000,000 investment by the new owners in completing a makeover of the room accommodations at the gorgeous Villas of Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida, just in time for our recent 2013 Winter meeting. Even though the Villas continued to be a desirable planned destination for this meeting, we discovered the renovation plan during our contract negotiations, which only sweetened an already smooth process. The rooms were stripped down to the studs, then completely rebuilt, and the results were breathtaking. The moment we walked in we were graced with the smell of new leather furniture purchased by the resort as part of the complete renovation, and incredibly comfortable surroundings featuring a fresh, crisp, modern, and very upscale décor. The Villas will continue this substantial renovation into the near future, with new meeting facilities and the addition of many new rooms.

The Winter 2013 meeting was a complete sellout, with great attendance. Your President-elect Jim Gilman did a simply superb job of arranging a stellar lineup of speakers for the Winter meeting, which took place February 20-24, with CLE topics ranging from cutting edge e-discovery issues by Brett Godfrey, who is speaking once again during our Summer meeting, a great panel on the very recent Pilot’s Bill of Rights, chaired by John and Kathy Yodice, and a spellbinding discussion of the Air Force’s support in relief of the Japanese Tsunami by Lt. Col. John Traxler, USAF. We earnestly thank all of our speakers for taking their time to help us present the highest quality CLE events.

We experienced a Friday afternoon filled with aviation activities, including a group visit to the Fantasy of Flight aviation museum, and the famed LPBA Spot Landing Event at nearby Winter Haven Airport. Our hosts at KGIF were nothing short of wonderfully accommodating, and the Spot Landing Event, chaired by your famed LPBA Editor Gary Allen, went off without a hitch, with LPBA first timer Drew Coats garnering second place in his Bonanza, while Will Roberson secured third-place in his Turbo-Cherokee.

We are always extremely grateful to our meeting sponsors, without which the costs of meeting registration and attendance would be substantially higher. Your Winter 2013 meeting sponsors included Art & Susan Luman, Jim & Betsy Gillman, Russ & Mary Klingaman, Mark & Donna Pierce, and your President and his lovely wife Penny. Thanks to all for your gracious and continued meeting sponsorship!
The LPBA meeting experience, featuring beautiful destinations, appealing accommodations, entertaining and informative CLEs, and, most importantly, a unique and unparalleled combination of people who share a love of aviation and the law, remains unequaled. The LPBA features none of the stuffiness associated with many similar endeavors, and the tremendous enjoyment, humor, and camaraderie we collectively experience during our meetings remains unequaled as well.

As we discussed during our last meeting, and in preparing for it, the LPBA has made great enhancements to its recognition and appreciation programs. Jim Gilman and Mark Pierce took up the award project with vigor, and secured gorgeous crystal glass awards for our sponsors, our speakers, the golf winners, and the Spot Landing Event participants. Gary Allen, your LPBA Journal Editor since 1996, and an LPBA member for almost 35 years, received special recognition for his tremendous and irreplaceable participation in the LPBA throughout the years. Significantly, Gary’s gorgeous crystal symbol of appreciation noted his status as LPBA Editor since 1996, without an ending date, stating for all to see that it is in fact a lifetime appointment! Thank you Gary for all of your efforts in support of the LPBA over many, many years!

There is no other organization related to the practice of law that more actively serves pilots and aviation enthusiasts than the Lawyer Pilots Bar Association. There is no other aviation related legal organization that spends half of its meeting time having fun with fellow members, or that emphasizes collegiality the way the LPBA does. There is no other organization that draws from such a diverse group of legal practice specialties, because our members are not bound by the practice of any particular kind of aviation law, or even the practice of aviation law itself, since most find it necessary or desirable to engage in practice areas completely unrelated to flying.

The foregoing, largely plagiarized from your LPBA Editor’s pen, was largely responsible for your President’s first interest in the LPBA dating back to 1998 or so. For the upcoming Summer meeting, July 10-14, 2013, the LPBA is returning to one of our best-ever attended meetings at the gorgeous Fairmont Chateau Whistler in British Columbia! LPBA has negotiated discounted room rates starting at $199 for a 400 square foot room. You can book directly on the Fairmont website at the discounted rates by clicking the following link: https://resweb.passkey.com/go/lawyerpilotsbarassociation.

Book soon because Whistler is very likely to be a sellout as well! This meeting promises to be a wonderful mid-summer’s getaway to this fabulous resort deep in the rugged and beautiful Canadian Fitzsimmons Mountain Range, home to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games!

My lovely wife Penny and I first met in late 1999, and Penny accompanied me to the Breezy Point meeting during the Summer of 2001, where I “popped the question”. Many of our members and attendees shared that memorable moment with us, one of many LPBA moments that we will never forget. Penny graciously and perhaps sympathetically accepted, and we were married during the 2002 meeting in Whistler, British Columbia. Errol Kantor affectionately agreed to stand up for me during our wedding ceremony, and Penny and I have not missed an LPBA meeting since. Penny and I are renting the rooftop gazebo at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler once again, and invite all of our LPBA family to renew their wedding vows as we celebrate our 11th anniversary! If it is anything like it was in 2002, we will be surrounded by some of the finest scenery on the entire planet, with July high temperatures hovering in the 70s.

The Pemberton airport is but a short ride up the valley, and we checked it out after our meeting in Coeur d’Alene during 2011, as well as the Fairmont, which continues to be one of the most beautiful resort properties you might ever experience. The quality and comfort of the rooms remains extraordinary, as well as the diverse number of year round activities available to the entire group. Many of our colleagues in the great NW are helping to put the word out about this meeting, and we anticipate another great turnout!

For those reading this column who are not members, please consider joining so you can share in the benefits of LPBA membership. Annual membership dues are a low $119 per year. You also have the option of paying $250 for a sustaining membership, a concept initiated by our immediate past president Robert Feldman, and one that gives you special recognition in the LPBA Journal, on the LPBA website and at meetings, a link to your website from ours, and the knowledge that you are making a definitive statement of support for the LPBA. You can apply online or you can print out a membership application and send it together with a check for the dues to Lawyer Pilots Bar Association, P.O. Box 1510, Edgewater, MD 21037. You can also fax the application to (410) 571-1780. If you have any questions, please call our Executive Director, Karen Griggs at (410) 571-1750.

If you have any ideas or suggestions as to what direction LPBA should take, where our meetings should be held, or what we can do to improve our organization, please email me at: evans@texasaviationlaw.com, or call me any time at (832) 541-8037.

Please also email us the names and contact information for any of your colleagues whom you think might be interested in becoming members of LPBA. Thank you for your support and participation in all things LPBA!

We hope to see you at some or all of our upcoming events, and most of all at the Summer 2013 meeting in British Columbia!

Sincerely,

Gary L. Evans
LPBA President 2012-2013

News

Learn more about our new Sustaining Member category of membership

» Please change your records to reflect LPBA's new email address: karen@lpba.org.

President and First Lady Gary and Penny Evans