This is a big issue here in the UK.
A lot of GA watering holes have simply shut – because they cannot run the cafe (they can do a takeaway but the business would be too low) so why bother opening at all? The govt “guidance” “permits” flights for engine welfare and there is no limit defined there, but all pilots based at these places are totally screwed.
The pilots can’t do anything because trying to force it legally will result in them being kicked off the airfield.
There is going to be a big price to pay, in engine damage and separately in pilot currency.
I’ve just had my last oil analysis back and it shows a slight rise in some things, including a trace of water in the oil which was never there before, as a result of flying every few weeks rather than every week.
It will become an even bigger issue once it becomes clear that borders will stay closed for a long time and lockdowns may well go into 2022 or longer.
Basically, sell off and let someone else deal with it may well be the best solution of asset protection, before the planes become worthless by disuse or simply disappearance of their use.
I think basically you’re going to have to “pickle” your engine at this stage.
To be honest I suspect if you’re in this situation, you don’t have anything to lose, so being “forced off the airfield” isn’t the threat it otherwise would be so I wouldn’t be surprised to see legal action.
In my case when the airfield closed and wouldn’t allow operations in lockdown one, I escaped to a friendly airfield a little further away. I’m very pleased that I did, flying has been much more enjoyable since.
I realise that I’m very fortunate that I was able to get out and that many are stuck without an alternative. It’s going to be really terrible for lots of aircraft especially if they’re in a damp leaky drippy hangar which is no longer getting the doors opened frequently to move some air.
I would imagine there may be some argument that the actions of the airfield have damaged / diminished the value of your aircraft, however as pointed out if you do go down that route keeping your aircraft there is probably not going to be possible. It’s not a good situation for aircraft or owners.
I think we are going to see once these places open up again, lots of tech issues and rusty pilots not as capable to deal with them as they normally would be. It’s rather a downhill spiral the longer it goes on.
In GA, each “big event” forces a lot of people to give up flying e.g.
Actually a lot of these also apply to horses 
I reckon CV19 will cause a number of owners to give it all up, and these can sue because they have nothing to lose.
If I owned an airfield, and didn’t allow any flying, I would want to crawl into a hole afterwards and never come out. The least the airfield can do is open up for some defined days each month.
Surprised that any airfield won’t at least permit a ground based engine run on a regular basis, even if they won’t support flights (and as you say, maintenance flights are permissible under the guidance). If the airfield isn’t accommodating … then surely you’re paying a fee to keep your plane there, and you have some contract T&C to start looking at (in addition to grumbling and talking to other aircraft owners on the same field) … if things are still blocked there, wouldn’t you want to give your insurer a call, I mean because if the engine seizes up you don’t want them pointing the finger back at you for not maintaining it properly … I’d be surprised if anyone is still stuck at this point and boxed in a corner … I’d be having the insurer call the airfield manager next ….
One airfield I know about used to open for engine maintenance flights but the concession got abused by instructors who started to take people up so this time round they shut altogether.
I’ve known people to pull used aircraft engines off the shelf that have sat for many years, and then run them for years. If an engine has some small level of internal corrosion there is a very, very small chance (although measurable) that it will be less reliable as a result. The typical thing that might occasionally cause trouble would be a corroded valve spring, a component that is both highly stressed and subjected to fatigue loading that propagates cracks from corrosion pits.
Otherwise, the engine is likely to run exactly as it did. If there was some added corrosion on cam/lifters, cylinder bores, valve sealing surfaces etc that may in the end have the effect of shortening the engines hours before a condition inspection indicates top end or complete overhaul is necessary. That could be many years in the future, by which time the engine may be overhauled anyway, the plane may be sold, something else unrelated may have happened to the engine and so on.
These engine types have spent decades in service and a lot of it hasn’t been so cosseted. I remember as a kid that there were lines of planes sitting outside in the snow for weeks to months every year, ground run occasionally by their owners until spring, and all sorts of other bad things. In the springtime people ran them a couple of hours, drained and refilled engine oil and forgot about it. It was not ideal but the kind of black or white logic and hand wringing that the internet age has promoted is not the real world in which these engines are intended to operate – a hard to analyze multidimensional space in which the engines operate reliably anyway via conservative, fault tolerant design.
Words of great wisdom Silvaire.The Lycoming 30 day directive is likely a warranty avoidance measure and ideal world scenario which has caused great angst in our communities.Over 50 years of flying I have had many aircraft weathered in on waterlogged English airfields for months on end on occasions.Most lived happily to TBO or near with the usual maintenance and Aeroshell products! I am told there is no inhibiting oil remaining in stock in the U.K.Fly safe Stampe
We have done this one is various threads – search
There are various “problems” with this argument e.g.
so basically until your camshaft is really trashed, you won’t notice from the engine performance.
