alioth wrote:
Since we can’t have one man bands instructing the PPL any more thanks to EASA, if FTOs implode or are just too few in number (meaning nearly anyone wanting to learn fly has to travel and stay in hotels – making it very unappealing), where do we get new PPLs?
I got my PPL at a “true” aero club which was also a non-commercial, non-profit FTO. All of the students there got their PPL for fun, not to end up in an airliner RHS.
I’m a glass half full sort of person when it comes to GA (and in that I include ULM) after the virus. @Alioth and @Peter paint a pessimistic view of flight training post virus, if there is a post virus. Jacko paints the picture of everything in the UK being wonderful in the post Brexit world.
If you will allow me I would like to paint a less UK centric picture of private flying in the years to come..
For a start here in France we have a large club scene, most of which are now either ATO’s or DTO"s, so very few people have to travel for hours or spend large sums of money on hotels to get a PPL.
Many of our instructors are “benevolant” in other words they give their time freely or just to cover expenses. I have seen no signs of the changing at present. Our club has just about returned to pre covid19 days now except for instructors and students wearing masks.
The owners club is nearly back to pre Covid days. Interesting point is that more hours in total have been flown since the beginning of Covid19 but there has been less flying as a club/group activity. So it would appear that a few owners in the club have been using their planes for business/family visits etc. It would appear that at least some of these who would normally make the journey by train, have now recognised the advantages of GA for these journeys and intend to try to continue with this means of transport.
The kit and experimental builders are back to normal after a brief spell of not being able to go to the airfield. A number of the older guys with part66 credentials are wearing masks to help out. And they have started a tool sharing and hand on scheme but disinfecting the tools before handing them over.
The gliding club is fully back up and running and they have bought a mobile fuel tank to fill the C41 glider tug with mega and save multiple visits to the local petrol station.
On top of that taxiways have been flattened, runway markers changed and refreshed, club houses painted and cleaned.
The next goal here and in another club I am a member of is to facilitate flight sharing and fly outs so that if a pilot wants to go and visit family or a business, another pilot or pilots might go too, drop off the visiting pilot and return, sharing the costs.
What’s not to be optimistic about?
Jacko wrote:
For another four months and 28 days.
Well, two years, four months, and 28 days – I believe the CAA has committed to following EASA for 2 years after the transition period.
Oh by the way I forgot to mention that many of France’s top aerobatic pilots are returning to LFFK to perfect their exercises ready for the Championship of France. They are limited to the number who can come at once and how many flights they can make in a day.
But some of these restrictions have nothing to do with Coronavirus. With a new mayor who is very sensitive to noise complaints from a few, who are blaming the noise on aircraft from our airfield when what they hear is the military practicing dog fights in their TB30 replacement aircraft (I’m not sure what the latest replacement is). And occasionally a fast jet fly by. I do dislike people who move into an area and then complain about the normal life there.
gallois wrote:
who are blaming the noise on aircraft from our airfield when what they hear is the military practicing dog fights in their TB30 replacement aircraft (I’m not sure what the latest replacement is).
As far as I remember, Cirrus 20/22 in Provence then Grob120 in Congnac for elementary pilot training
I do understand frustration, people are locked down in their place with nothing to do these days, so complaining about what others do seems natural…
Ibra wrote:
I do understand frustration, people are locked down in their place with nothing to do these days, so complaining about what others do seems natural
Anybody who lived in e.g. an Eastern European communist-era country could tell you all about it. Using neighbors against each other was one of the mechanisms used by those governments for centralized control of a population much larger than itself. Only Cold War with outside forces ended it.
In the absence of a complete totalitarian takeover, a diverse society is most stable when people are left alone to manage their own lives. The current urban looting and aimless demonstrations are a completely predictable direct result of lockdown.
It’s an odd twist that in the current US environment, behind the airport fence in a Federally regulated area is one place you can go in any area that isn’t being pressured by would-be state-level demagogues attempting to direct a fear laden population… so I’m spending more of my free time than ever behind the airport fence.
I go in a ‘public’ area no more than once a week nowadays, generally less than that, and my only commercial activity is on the internet. My wife does the daily shopping, with little risk but considerable annoyance. I’m happy she does it!
In most of the UK land area, it is practically impossible to catch this thing even if you really wanted to. These are the numbers for daily new cases for towns around us
For real cases you need to multiply by 5x to 10x, apparently, but it is still “nothing”. We are still avoiding supermarkets, and restaurant eating etc indoors, as we have been since March, but then this is no hardship for us. Food deliveries are now running ok, though obviously only because most of the country does go to supermarkets (the food delivery firms are not “cheap food”). Ocado has just had a big bust-up with Waitrose (whose products they were delivering, among others) and switched to distributing M&S food, so Waitrose are greatly expanding their home delivery fleet. But none of these outfits ever did a 10kg pack of doughnuts fried in butter for £3 
So it seems so bizzare to hear on the news of plans to lock down Londoners to stay within the M25
It will be interesting if this crisis changes anything in the UK obesity situation which is horrendous and among the worst in the world. I very much doubt anything will change… especially by the time the junk food lobby gets into gear.
However, for a recent fly-in to Le Touquet, nobody I asked could find any source to comparable French data. Is it really not available? If that is still the case in mid Sep, the turnout for our fly-in to Annecy will be close to zero. Doesn’t France have a website similar to this where you can look at different cities?
alioth wrote:
I believe the CAA has committed to following EASA for 2 years after the transition period.
Is that written somewhere?
Not that I’ve been able to find with a quick search, but it was mentioned several times during the BGA Inspectors Course done about 2 months ago, in response to questions on how things will change. For instance, we still have to get all our new inspector stuff in by later this year to avoid some significant new EASA impositions on new inspectors (which basically makes becoming a glider inspector in a club environment completely impractical) by this time. The CAA have mentioned no relief for this so the BGA is full steam ahead on trying to get as many new inspectors done while they can.
The CAA knows that the BGA system has worked for decades, but don’t seem to have said ‘come January 1st we’re restoring the way you previously worked’, they seem to have told the BGA that for at least the next two years, you’ll have to follow EASA including the new stuff that’s being imposed.
The government approach seems to be all over the place now. Whilst I’m certainly on board with going for more region specific actions rather than the blanket lockdown approach. I do question the value to locking down. Rather than having social distancing and just limiting numbers of people gathering inside.
I saw this article from 17 years ago has about SARS and masks which is interesting. Sydney morning hearald on masks.
