I knew all that, thanks anyway, not Federal laws. As you explain in California the regulation is that you post bond after you have an accident, if the accident involves personal injury to others. This makes sense to some people, and of course for those flying a slow Cub, ultralight, whatever solo in the middle of nowhere it’s largely irrelevant.
@Silvaire – I don’t doubt that you’re right but unless you’re a pauper, flying without liability insurance strikes me as a thoroughly bad idea, though to each his own. Hull insurance is a different question though it’s hard to imagine anyone except maybe a billionaire flying a Pilatus or bizjet without it. I’m all for self insurance and do it myself where I can take the downside without too much pain, but that would be a bit of a stretch.
I carry liability plus ‘not in flight’ hull coverage on my plane, which works for me – the hull value is not enough to worry about. OTOH I’ve never made a claim on any vehicle policy I’ve ever bought over 40 years. I wouldn’t have any issue flying a Luscombe or whatever in the middle of the CA Central Valley minus liability insurance, the chance of a claim by others that I couldn’t cover out of pocket is just slightly above zero.
I buy no insurance that I can afford not to buy, except for health insurance where from one POV I’m using the money saved elsewhere to buy the most flexible (and costly) option available to me.
johnh wrote:
And the UK government has NEVER made a rapid U-turn
It maybe a problem making rapid turns if you are vaccinating on mass, but have a passport system in place – which they dont. Other forms of u-turns are easier.
I guess a letter from your doctor, as they say, may have to do.
We never had an insurance requirement in the UK at one time – no longer the case.
The slight problem with no inusurance is it is possible to cause damage way beyond the means of the person causing damage. I know someone who had a new Cirrius almost written off when some taxi’d into it, in an aircraft probably worth no more the $70K. Possibly they could have paid, but it would probably have wiped them out.
Sorry for the drift.
The way I see it is that the UK will have a “no vaccine passport” policy in the same way as it has a “no ID cards” policy… And we know how well that is working after the EU introduced a standard EU driving licence format… with photo to be “renewed” every 10 years…
Peter wrote: (Post 2115, about solitary confinement in a hotel room)
Not sure if this will apply to GA arrivals.
Why wouldn’t the same rules apply to GA as for commercial airline passengers?
The current UK rules for travellers here confirm that
- private/leisure travel outside the UK is banned.
- You need a proof of a recent PCR test on arrival
- You must self-isolate for 10 days.
Those arriving from Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Ireland (North or South), Wales, Scotland, Ascension, Falklands & St Helena don’t need a PCR test.
Those arriving from Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Ireland (North or South), Wales, Scotland don’t need to fill in a Passenger Locator Form if they have been there for at least 10 days.
Flight crew are exempt from a PCR test, so I’d assume a GA pilot flying for a good work reason (arguably could be PPL not CPL) could make a flight if justified as essential travel. However, any passengers would need to present proof of a test. I would expect the incoming flight to be met by Border Force and paperwork checked. You would also need everyone to have filled in a Personal Locator Form and send a separate form for the flight to Public Health England.
I don’t see why GA arrivals would be treated any differently to airline flights – solo flight crew might manage to avoid PCR tests and even self-isolation, but pax would surely need both. Once the hotel quarantine is mandated, I would have thought this would include transport to/from your hotel which may be closer to a regional airport.
Hard to see how this will evolve. I’d like to see the requirement for a separate form to Public Health England merged with the GAR form and the process to fill in a Personal Locator Form simplified – it was really tedious to do that last year, especially when completing duplicate forms for family members. I would expect mandatory hotel quarantine to revert back to self-isolation after some period. PCR tests could well remain for some time, even with proof of vaccination, and discourages those short notice day trips especially enjoyed in the summer months.
Why wouldn’t the same rules apply to GA as for commercial airline passengers?
Only logistically; there isn’t going to be a bus waiting for you at some small airfield, with security guards.
The list of countries which will invoke the hotel quarantine is here and apart from Portugal none of them are GA-relevant. So I reckon no effort will be made to make this run for GA, because there would not be any qualifying inbounds.
private/leisure travel outside the UK is banned.
I can’t see that, at that URL.
Hard to see how this will evolve.
Indeed; 2021 may be impractical for day trips to the mainland given the mainland’s very slow vaccination rate. However they will speed up over time; they have to. One could do it but would have to get a test before departing, even if returning the same day, which is a bit daft. However, someone did suggest to me that if I did this flight then getting a test before departure would be useful insurance in case something happened.
I see they have published the 5 day quarantine option. That’s potentially very useful. The site says it’s been available since Nov 2020!
The way I see it is that the UK will have a “no vaccine passport” policy in the same way as it has a “no ID cards” policy
I reckon this will change as soon as popular destinations start demanding vaccine certificates. GPs will absolutely hate doing letters. I don’t want to sound so negative about GPs but IME they really live in another world. They are very busy and can’t do this stuff, but even where they could implement really useful stuff easily (e.g. a Contact form on their website) they can’t be bothered. One in the next district has got one though. A few years ago I found a load of stuff on my practice’s website about blood tests for a fee and when I enquired, was told, with laughter, that that stuff has been on there for years and they can’t be bothered to remove it! Vacc letters are not going to fly at all.
Any commercial vaccinator will absolutely give you a cert because it is so obviously potentially or actually useful. When I did an antibody test summer 2020 I was given one then. A no-brainer. But it will be many months before CV19 vaccinations will be available commercially.
The problem is CAC effectively isolate in the cockpit, as could a solo GA pilot, but the few CAC without an isolated cockpit (I can only think of CI’s in terms of vaguely international flights) and GA with passengers do not have this luxury. It is far more likely there would be transmission in these scenarios.
Are the Sheds still operating – I assume so?
My friend is just off to St Helena and as DavidC says there are no requirements for crew so this is straight forward.
Aveling wrote:
Does anyone know of an authoritive site that responds to common beliefs including, but not limited to:1) Covid is much less dangerous than the government say because fatality counts are hugely inflated by including everyone who tested positive regardless of what they died from.
Well the unfortunate fact is that as of the end of December 2020 a grand total of 388 people under the age of 60 with no underlying conditions have died of CV19. This does rather suggest that for those in that category of fit and under 60, CV19 is not so much less dangerous than HMG would like you to think but more a total irrelevance from a statistical pint of view.
The other problem on the number of cases/tests/infections is the rather large number of people who have the symptoms but have no intention under any circumstances of going anywhere near an NHS testing station. I have heard estimates of the real infection rate being over double the officially stated one….which of course brings down the ifr figure even lower. Taking this to its logical end if everyone simply stayed at home with it and did not get tested the daily infections would drop to near zero and we could all get on with life!
