soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Moderators: Uros, OXO

Post Reply
User avatar
soaringeagle
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2016 9:17 am
Contact:

soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by soaringeagle » Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:22 am

I know most comercial operations are most likely on shot down or minimal operations (was sure nice seeing some gliders in the air while we pulled old 217 out of her trailer to put her shiny new wings on) at blairstown last saturday
but we fly with a mostly 'at risk" population, with many pilots/instructors in the mid to late 70s students, pilots, instructors, and passengers all with disabilities.. so what are you doing now differently, especialy in shared or 2 seat gliders to help prevent infection?
we had 3 years of tfr's due to golfing ..and now this.. we are dying to fly, but not flying to die.. so what is the infectious disease protocols your glider clubs are adopting?
at the very least, with my 1st stimulus check, i'm putting up 3 hand wash and sanitation stations at vansant and blairstown 1 at tieedowns/hangers
and 1 at each end of the field

but what is the best option for sanitizing the cockpit? and what about minimizing the risk when your "social distance' is crammed into a tiny cockpit sharing the same air

has anyone come up with any ideas like maybe the o2 system can be rigged to act as a filtration system too?

(side note unrelated, does anyone know of any gliders anywhere in kenya at all? been trying to find any but don't seem to be a single glider in the whole country)
http://www.freedomswings.org Freedoms Wings International Soaring For People With Disabilities

User avatar
wickid
Posts: 2429
Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2006 7:32 pm
Location: Venlo, NL
Contact:

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by wickid » Sun Mar 29, 2020 10:04 am

All glidingclubs (and sport clubs in general) are not allowed at the moment in the Netherlands so most fields are closed. I think it is good to keep to the health authority regulations for now to get this over with as soon as possible. Although it is quite lame not to be able to fly now.

At least the online competition flying is booming now which is fun :D
PH-1504, KOE

User avatar
soaringeagle
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2016 9:17 am
Contact:

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by soaringeagle » Sun Mar 29, 2020 2:13 pm

i was surprised to see a dozen older men flying
but they were all flying their own planes (it was a totaly blue day and although it seemed like it would be a decent ridge day don't think it worked out that way)
i don't think aca or jersey ridge soaring were operational, but they had a tow pilot and a wing runner so off they went

i had my headset/head tracker break ordered a new 1 got the wrong parts etc etc so havent even flown virtual in well over a week or 2
http://www.freedomswings.org Freedoms Wings International Soaring For People With Disabilities

User avatar
soaringeagle
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2016 9:17 am
Contact:

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by soaringeagle » Sun Mar 29, 2020 2:24 pm

wickid wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 10:04 am
All glidingclubs (and sport clubs in general) are not allowed at the moment in the Netherlands so most fields are closed. I think it is good to keep to the health authority regulations for now to get this over with as soon as possible. Although it is quite lame not to be able to fly now.

At least the online competition flying is booming now which is fun :D
and we have suspended our operations during the height of it at least (americas pretty screwed right now)
but i was thinking for after
i think there will likely be a long period between when the peak subsides and things are more normalized, and when a vaccine makes it 100% safe
i have a feeling there will be close to a year where the transmission will be greatly reduced, but still.. a possible problem
and here we don't have the smartest people making the best descisions, and they are wanting to open things up even while its getting much worse
so i am not trusting in the governments decision to tell us when its safe to fly
i'm trusting a genetisist/pilot friend to give us fact based advice
http://www.freedomswings.org Freedoms Wings International Soaring For People With Disabilities

Gunth3r
Posts: 51
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2019 10:17 pm
Location: North of the 49th

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by Gunth3r » Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:44 am

We are not flying. Canada.

Be smart. Stay safe.
Image

User avatar
tommyp
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:28 am

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by tommyp » Sun May 03, 2020 7:45 pm

Flying members of the public will probably not be a thing for a while, I doubt it will restart in the UK until 2021.

That leaves flying purely for members for the near future...

Solo pilots should be OK provided some sort of currency check can be done (thats a whole other topic). Those who own or have access to a private glider will not need much encouragement to fly those instead of club aircraft, provided they are current enough to fly them.

Cross Country Soaring how we know it may not happen this year, at most it will likely be heavily limited as to how far from the airfield you can go as that should minimise the risk of an outlanding, therefore requiring a crew.

Instructing obviously throws up alot of questions... It is all about a sensible approach to the whole thing. Imposing rules for the sake of imposing rules will likely make it worse. It's all about making fair, reasonable, pragmatic and practical adjustments to the normal daily operation to allow it to function as normally as possible whilst keeping as close as possible to best social distancing practices.

The club I am based at in the UK largely relies on volunteers to run the daily operation so limiting the number of people to each role would be one of the things are we considering once restrictions start to ease.

Obviously those who are deemed "high" risk should probably not come to the club until the risk is at a low enough level for them to deem it safe to come along.

I guess the only good thing to take away from all this is that now would be a good time for clubs to fully assess their operations and see if there is anything that can be done to improve it longer term.
Image

bsd_AT
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:33 pm

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by bsd_AT » Mon May 11, 2020 12:03 pm

I can only speak for Austria.

Since May 1st we are allowed to practice some sports again, gliding included.

Single seat flying is the preferred option for now and we ask to clean the cockpit after every flight and disinfect surfaces that may have been touched.
For checkflights, both pilot and FI have to wear a mask to reduce the risk. Guest flights are currently not allowed by the club (although technically legal again).

For ground operations we try to keep a safe distance from each other as much as possible and wear masks where necessary, non-flying visitors are not permitted on the gliderport until further notice.

User avatar
soaringeagle
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2016 9:17 am
Contact:

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by soaringeagle » Sat May 30, 2020 7:08 pm

ive had this idea, but can't get accurate info
for dual flight and/or instruction ihad the idea of seperating the cockpits with a plexiglass splash sheild

it wouldnt need to be a permenant modification, and could even just be taped into place
but what are the regulations (usa) regarding that sort of temporary safety modification
i was thinking could use plexiglass above the console where visions important, cardboard or something else flexible below to just try to seperate the air being breathed by the 2 pilots

is that legal without having to get faa approval?
http://www.freedomswings.org Freedoms Wings International Soaring For People With Disabilities

User avatar
jmurtari
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:10 pm
Location: Lyons, NY
Contact:

Re: soaring safety with at risk pilots/passengers/students in the covid-19 era

Post by jmurtari » Tue Jul 28, 2020 2:29 pm

Folks,

I'm with Harris Hill Soaring in Elmira NY (USA), http://HarrisHillSoaring.org. We had stopped rides for a while, but resumed on June 29th. We primarily use ASK-21s for rides. Both pilot and passenger wear masks, we keep the vents open, and clean contact areas inside the glider between flights. Pilots/workers on a volunteer basis only.

So far it appears to have worked out well.

Post Reply