Flying club ops and Corona virus
 

I was wondering how "your" flying club is dealing with this current situation?, closing for a while, operating until you are told to close!? Etc etc.

The clubs around me are all still operating for private flying, but the social spaces (cafes, etc.) are closing.

G

Ops are normal with a bit of sanitizer slapped around.

Looks like a chance to sneak off and do some flying while 'working from home'.

We're swabbing all surfaces inside the aircraft in between instructional flights. We're checking students are symptom-free. We're swabbing all surfaces in the office and telling visitors to wash their hands before coming in. One issue that's been highlighted - we're using alcohol wipes and 90% alcohol inside the aircraft. Apparently alcohol is REALLY bad news for transparencies. What is everyone else using?

We're planning on carrying on flying training until we're told to stop (or instructors have to self-isolate - one has already, as a precaution due age and underlying issues)

As we're remote from the major population centres, we're thinking that it'll take some time to become prevalent here. We'll see.

TOO

many thanks 👍

I fly in the San Francisco area. Our club is still open but only allowing health/Angel Flight-related activity. No instruction. Unfortunately no solo flights even to maintain currency. The club is looking for a clarification from the authorities on the "shelter-in-place" order to see if solo flights for training, or recreation, are allowed. The club has the usual disinfectant and sanitizers at every corner.

It seems that flying solo, or with someone you share an abode with, is no different from the rule allowing people to drive with the same caveats.

I wonder what this shutdown will do to safety statistics once we all start flying again. We're being told to expect this to last months. If so, lots of rusty pilots.

My daughter us at college right now and says that Gen-Z'ers are calling this the "Bye, Bye Boomer" virus.

Haha! Excellent. This could certainly help to adjust some of the demographic anomalies and take away a lot of the burden of retirees with long-term health needs.

But I agree, solo flying could be done while maintaining social distancing, and should be much more fun without all those pesky commercial aircraft.

Here in BE things are very simple and very clear but not very fun: all flights for training, recreational and sports purposes are forbidden. And all small fields that I know of are effectively closed, at least till early April, but I feel sure those measures will be extended.

(the side comments on the virus outbreak and its effects on demographics are ridiculous. Take a basic course of statistics and you'll see the mortality figures barely rise above the noise bottom of statistics. The damage to the world economy, on the contrary, is going to be big if not devastating - to all of us)

True of course. It was an attempt at humor.
(In case anyone is in any doubt, none of the great 'plagues' or wars of the last few thousand years have caused more than the tiniest blip in the human population growth curve)

Fair enough, though a bit of emoticon had been helpful. Still, the remark was pointed elsewhere.

It goes to remind one that one cannot take it with one when ones goes.

If I get through this I am upgrading the Archer to a Baron 55 one maybe one of those Cessna 337 thingies:)

We were wintering in France...now, it seems we will be 'springing' and possibly 'summering' as well. All private flying completely shut in line with the enforced lockdown. We live reasonably close to the local strip - silence in the skies similar to 2001.

A private pilot in Brittany has been fined €135 for taking an unauthorised trip..... because he was bored!

https://www.laprovence.com/actu/en-d...ne-amende.html

I've just relooked at the attestation. If he'd said 'Going Mad' rather than 'Bored', he might have wriggled out of it under 'Health reasons'... :ooh:

Pretty daft, really. How is going for a flight alone possibly going to affect anyone - virus wise?

Well, at my homefield - which is closed anyway, just like all of my national airspace, except for "essential" flights - there is a house rule that moving a plane in or out of a hangar shall be done by two people, at least, never alone. There are those who think that rule slightly daft, too, but there it is.

I just took a quick envious look at all those lucky GA types flying in southern UK at the moment. I didn't count them but I had the impression that there were almost as many GA types a there were airliners.

Jan,
We have the same rule. One on the stick, the other watching all around. Too many cases of hangar rash caused by folk trying it solo...

TOO

It depends on the layout of the hangar and the way that aircraft are often crammed in. Poor layout and too many aircraft are both recepies for hangar rash. Sadly the high costs of hangarage and the shortage of space means that there is seldom enough space.
Personally I am in favour of individual or T hangars. There are companies who will build a typical light aircraft hangar for around 6-8 thousand pounds but that implies that there is space to build it and that the airfield owner is willing to rent the space at a reasonable price.

EFATO or a bad landing resulting in injury...... think about it carefully guys......