172driver wrote:
Here in CA we’ve had our own outbreaks, prob99 because of close economic ties to China (Silicon Valley is hardest hit here)
At the moment 288 people in California have been diagnosed out of a population of 40 million, or one in every 139,000 people. I think you’d have a very difficult time finding one of them if you wanted to contract the virus intentionally.
Four people with other health conditions have died of Coronavirus within California, in total. About 10 people have died in car accidents in California within the last 24 hours.
Today is a nice day to go flying.
Fortunately a driver who has an accident, doesn’t cause anyone he’s driven near over the past few days to then go off and have accidents, etc.
EHDR
+
AIRPORT TEMPORARY CLSD DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) OUTBREAK.
FROM: 16 MAR 2020 08:00 TO: 01 APR 2020 08:00
I wonder where it will end.
My club has shut, now my travel is affected.
Sorry for the norwegians. I guess every authority is wondering what to forbid, and they don’t have a clue.
In the end we may be reduced to just doing engine runs on the ground, every few weeks.
Jujupilote wrote:
My club has shut, now my travel is affected.
Mine has not yet, they will allow private flying, but are giving decision to pilots and instructors.
I visited an aeroclub west Paris today, all club flying and instruction stops tomorrow (private flying is not impacted but some expect it to stop as well), altough GA has small risk as most pilot population will not fly if they are sick and human contact is minimal but average club house age is worrying for group hangouts and not worth risks IMO
Overall things are moving quit fast: early this month, I was planning two GA flights on weekends to Paris from London, I cancelled the first one and decided to drive by car due to bad weather, now I am planning to stay in Paris for the next 6 months…
Yes that sort of thing, taken literally, is completely nuts.
We are stopping cafes etc and supermarkets, but will still do small local shops. The funny thing is that there is no panic buying of veg – that won’t surprise anybody 
There doesn’t appear to be a move coming up in the UK to ban GA flying, although obviously it is possible only (more or less) within the UK only.
Those countries which have total lockdown also have consequently shut down GA. Austria and Italy for now. More will come tomorrow
Airborne_Again wrote:
It just seems to me another panic reaction which is hurting the economy (in this case that of light GA) with no actual effect on the epidemic.
This has nothing to do with the epidemic as such. It is a measure to make sure ATC and SAR have enough resources to do their jobs.
Off_Field wrote:
If you’re happy with authoritarian government no problems at all
It’s not the government, it’s LT (exclusively in this case). The aviation authorities are authoritarian per definition, or they wouldn’t be authorities. Flying is no human right.
MedEwok wrote:
SAR has to be provided anyway
Not if they are occupied with something else. Right now the focus is on this virus. Other “non essentials” have to wait until things are under control. Maybe other places there are 3-400% over capacity of SAR and medical services, but we don’t have that luxury. If you think it’s easy to find a crashed GA plane in the middle of nowhere around here, with the typical bone head “I do exactly as I want” GA pilot flying with transponder off, no radio, no FP, you are sadly mistaken. In the last accidents they were eventually found by F-16s using some fancy weapons target finding technology after 2-3 helicopters had searched in vain for a day or so.
MedEwok wrote:
It’s not like pilots in Norway crash every day and occupy loads of ICU beds afterwards, or do they?
That’s actually much closer to the truth than what you probably would think. The ban is for ALL users of airspace (except IFR flights). This also includes paragliders, skydivers and similar.
I find it very unnatural to actually sit here and defend this. A decision from LT that I would never see coming, not in my wildest dreams. I don’t like this decision at all. It’s just that LT would never go to such a drastic step if they didn’t find it necessary. It will be lifted as soon as some control has been gained on the situation. They have also said now (not officially yet) that they will make temporary changes to the rules regarding renewal of licences and stuff affecting maintenance. Glad we are not in the EU at this time
