Airborne_Again wrote:
Please explain how someone shooting touch-and-goes at ENOP would use up any SAR or ATC capacity?
It won’t, not normally. The point is, the capacity for SAR and ATC if something should happen, simply is not available anymore. Look, there have been heated discussions about this in social media since Thursday when NLF said no club activity is allowed. When LT came with this announcement yesterday evening, it wiped all discussions clean off from the table. “Everybody” in the GA community here accept the decision from LT, there are no reasons to disagree or discuss it. Private GA is shut down for a while. It’s not the end of the world. However, the Corona virus will mean the end of the world for many. If we in the GA community can help to keep that number to a minimum, then we will. It’s as simple as that in the end.
How often is SAR needed for GA in Norway? It seems as if they could just say, we’ve not got capacity for SAR so if you go out you’re on your own.
I’m pleased you are so understanding of the governments reasoning and decision making. I’d find it more than a bit annoying, especially if I was of no risk.
I’d find it more than a bit annoying, especially if I was of no risk.
I think we just have to accept that other nations/cultures see things differently. Like taxing pickup trucks with a crew-cab more heavily (to prevent excessive car-sharing?) or eating bats or sheep or drinking whisky. These perversions surely make sense to someone.
Off_Field wrote:
How often is SAR needed for GA in Norway? It seems as if they could just say, we’ve not got capacity for SAR so if you go out you’re on your own.
They could have done lots of things. They could have done this, they could have done that. In the end, so what? It’s like I read in another social media. Your grandparents were drafted to war, and you are crying like a baby because you are not allowed to play with your toy. It’s a time and place for everything. Right now it’s a virus.
LeSving wrote:
The point is, the capacity for SAR and ATC if something should happen, simply is not available anymore.
It’s not? Have Avinor shut down ATS?
Compare to ATC strike situations. Then it is IFR which is restricted because of capacity, not VFR. Also, decisions are made on a tactical basis, not a flat out ban for an indefinite time.
You Norwegians are the ones who primarily are hit by this, so if you feel it’s the proper thing to do then who am I to argue? 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.
LeSving wrote:
In the end, so what?
If you’re happy with authoritarian government no problems at all. I feel more comfortable without draconian measures which seem to have no obvious benefit. I do think stopping events and gatherings is a good idea and probably should have been done sooner, same with border controls. Stopping people flying vfr alone with no interaction with others seems unnecessary to me.
However, as has been said, your country your rules. I’m more than happy to comment on them from my point of view, but agree with a sovereign nation’s ability to set what rules it sees fit to deal with things.
I’m sorry, even as an emergency physician I find the reasoning behind the VFR ban in Norway farcical. SAR has to be provided anyway, it is not like the SAR helicopter crew are now all working on some intensive care unit helping Covid-19 patients, nor should they.
From a medical point of view, Covid-19 patients do not “beat” all other patients in treatment priority. Multiple trauma due to accidents can and will still occur in times of a pandemic, and needs to be treated properly.
It’s not like pilots in Norway crash every day and occupy loads of ICU beds afterwards, or do they?
Off_Field wrote:
Saying that I would like to be able to go out for a flight if there’s a nice weather window. But I can do so without having to interact with anyone.
Indeed! Light GA flying must be one of the pastimes that carry the least risk of spreading diseases.
Actually if it’s your plane then there is no problem. In a club environment, we are struggling to decide whether or not continuing activity. Public activity is stopped now as considered as an opened service, but even for club member we may get sick of it if we don’t carefully clean the aircraft before…
We have instructed all our members to clean the interior surfaces of our airplanes before and after their flight and not to share headsets with pax. Canceled our Spring BBQ and will hold a virtual (i.e. online) monthly meeting next week. Depending on how the situation evolves we may have to shut down, although I doubt that. This situation is so much in flux that it’s hard to make any plans. That said, it looks like the wave is rolling East to West, China > Iran > Italy > Austria > Spain / France > prob 90 UK next, then East Coast US. Here in CA we’ve had our own outbreaks, prob99 because of close economic ties to China (Silicon Valley is hardest hit here). Will be interesting to see what influence (if any) the wx has. For the time being, the biggest outbreaks in the US have been in rather cold and damp parts of the country. Here in SoCal, the last week was cool and rainy with another week of similar wx forecast. Thereafter we should go back to the usual warm and sunny wx. All that said – at the moment the only certainty is uncertainty.
