You had plenty of opportunity to comment on Paul’s socially responsible blog and others’ comments on the impact this virus is having on aviation, maybe offer some suggestions, sympathy for those of us in aviation who are directly affected, or just give general goodwill to all. Maybe thank Paul for his non-aviation mentions of not going to his gym, talking about health care workers, ICU suites and ventilators, and for his mature, objective and responsible take on government’s responsibility, and its documented and fact-checked failure to act timely in this.
Most of the posters here can discriminate when the subject veers off, around, or over the aviation theme at core. It’s rarely problematic. If you need a test for the virus, sir, I hope you can find one. Here at the local VA, we still don’t have enough.
So far, this epidemic has shown a doubling of the number of people affected every five days.
And no-one can say for sure how long the incubation period is – some people seem to be sick, even very sick, within 48 hours of being in contact with carriers – others seem to only get sick 20 days later.
So if everyone follows the advice (which requires help from the government to businesses affected, otherwise they will carry on working just to be able to stop the bank from taking the house), the number of cases will probably double in the next five days, and only then start to slow.
In places like Qoms, where there are lots of elderly men, more inclined to put faith in some supreme being than science, (and where newspapers and other media are discouraged) they are using mechanical diggers to make mass graves.
Couldn’t happen in Florida, could it?
I will offer one last suggestion to a couple of you who asked pertinent questions concerning what to do as aviators. Do what you always do, plan for the worst, hope for the best and if you have to use your planning and knowledge do it. If sick stay home. 9/11 we shut down everything for a few days and curtailed flying for a few years. This will pass. In 50 + years in aviation I have seen much worst. We survived.
I also over those years trained and prepared many times for an engine fire. Never had one, yet…, I have been asked as most of you as pilots have, have I ever had an emergency’. In 30k plus hours a few, but due to training and preparation most were non events. The one event I remember that was most testing was one you will think comical at this time. It had to do with the toilets, blue rooms, shutting down. All of them on an AB 330. We were only 10 minutes to commit point and I had to decide should I continue on for 5 more hours, the total flight time was 9 hours, to destination or turn back and land to get them fixed at an airport less than 2 hours away. I never trained for that… but I could imagine what was going to happen in about three hours when 200 of the 300 including me had to use the bathrooms. We turned back…
Aviation as I have said has survived many such set backs. What you should be discussing is how do, we keep an eye on the politicians going forward who want to sneak riders in on bills, to prevent them from injecting something that will do more harm to our rights to pursue our passion or profession.
Learn from the past.
Next just like an engine fire, first thing, don’t PANIC. Fly the plane…then do what you do best.
Mitigate the situation.
let the politicians point fingers, they are good at it. I should say that’s about all they are good at… This. Is not the place to campaign for your choice of candidate.
PS… Larry S was a great student and went on to do some pretty amazing things in aviation.
Can’t believe that was almost 50 years ago…
How would I feel about
you denigrating the CVYAEP? I’d feel disappointed and consider your attack on the Youth Aviation Education Program I sponsor, as cowardly. On the other hand, your comments against my political views are fair game.
Well, Tom, actually some of us are “in the game” as you read this and we’re having to deal very directly with the fallout from all of the bad decisions made by this administration.
Woe be to the department head who offers a contrary advisory. There are several examples of crippled administrations or at least, terminations, from this exact scenario in the wake of this presidency. Fall in line or GTFO.
There are some people here that would’ve looked Noah straight in the eye and denied the Flood because no one individual raindrop could be held responsible.
It’s like arguing with moon-landing conspiracists:
“Oh yeah? Well whatta ‘bout THIS?!” [show evidence, prove that point wrong]
“But this, too!” [show evidence, prove that point wrong]
“And this?!” [show evidence, prove that point wrong]
“don’t forget this, too!” [don’t have evidence at hand to disprove that one point]
“See? I KNEW I was right!”
This kind of separation (social isolation) is necessary to slow and eventually stop the spread of the virus. Those Asian countries that went through SARS and learned from it were better prepared for this outbreak and have had much better outcomes, despite being next to China. Italy didn’t have that experience, didn’t have the protocols in place, and suffered as a result. How will the U.S. end up? Hopefully in better shape than Italy.
And when we do, there’s going to be a vocal minority that says, “See? Nuthin’ much happened, it was all an over-reaction!”
PS - I’m going to socially isolate myself in the hangar. But if spend too much time in contact with the airplane I could end up catching AIDS - Aviation-Induced Divorce Syndrome
Calm down, Kirk. Don’t be hasty and lose your wife to the incessant media overkill on this subject. The US death rate per million in the US is the second lowest on the planet … 7 in a million of population. That’s lower than the death rate from flying E-AB’s. Don’t give up your liberties or become neurotic. There are liable to be more deaths from suicide and heart attacks over he issue than CoV-19 itself. Just use some common sense.
Here are some alternate instructions on the subject of “Germs and the Immune System” from a New York ‘street guy’ you likely know and who knows a bit about super virus’. As you say, HE was prepared …
I really liked Jim D’s post. Modern aviation systems and procedures are the poster child for a process that is fact based, non punitive, and is designed to learn from people’s mistakes.
Sadly the brutality politicized dynamic surrounding the response to the pandemic, especially in the US, but prevalent in most of the rest of the world, is the exact opposite of the methods that have been so effective in making aviation so safe
The only answer I see is to embrace the central concepts of most faiths. Be kind and help your neighbours, take care of your family and your community, don’t be selfish.
Thank you David G for referencing Jim D’s comment and modern aviation safety culture. SOPs are one thing. Honest self evaluation after the performance is another. My 50 plus years “in the game” culminated in the opportunity to fly with and help form a culture in a civilian self regulating part 91M group which to this day intentionally values and practices a just safety culture. The emotional, sometimes humiliating bottom line there is the requirement to self confess after every mission during a required post flight “two minute debrief” which we gleaned from Bombardier Safety Standdown, applicable in almost any human endeavor:
Safety: Were safety margins eroded at any time? If so, how, where, when and why?
Standards: Were flight standards compromised in any way? If so, how, where, when, and why?
Unanswered Questions: What events prompted questions in our minds that were never adequately answered?
Where might I / we have executed at a higher level?
An honest engagement in such a debrief demands utmost honesty, is never ever perfunctory, is sometimes humiliating but always therapeutic.
”What you should be discussing is how do, we keep an eye on the politicians going forward who want to sneak riders in on bills, to prevent them from injecting something that will do more harm to our rights to pursue our passion or profession.
Learn from the past.“
You’re not going to stop this, not in the short term anyway. Politicians will and always have held bills hostage for their own personal benefit. Holding up a bill that benefits the majority because of the hostage taking of a few politicians would not be wise in the short term. The “hostage taking politicians” can be dealt with later (and should be) when time is not as critical as it is now.
Exiting China as fast as possible of all our manufacturing, prioritizing those sectors that have the greatest negative impact on our society from a health care to economic must happen immediately and this includes aviation obviously. Over the last four decades we have sold our souls to the Chinese for the almighty dollar and we are now paying the price. All you have to do is listen to the threats and rhetoric coming out of Beijing the last few days. That should scare the heck out of everyone here.
Notwithstanding what the Feds do, Ohio’s governor has [quite surprisingly] handed down some fairly hefty restrictions; one is the cancellation of any public gathering of more than 100 persons. Spring break has been extended several weeks, as well. So, for essentially the first time ever, Ohio is ahead of the curve.
It’s a PITA, this thing. But as someone with two risk factors, I don’t want to catch what, to some, may be a minor inconvenience. So, unlike many of the other ‘scares’, I’m all in on this one.
Full disclosure: I’m an introvert, so it may be easier for me.
Baloney. All you have to do is go across the river to West Virginia( did that yesterday)or to Pennsylvania and you can do what you want. I am guessing Indiana is the same but a bit to far for me to drive to. As I said before the whole thing with this virus has been way overblown and the Ohio governor just demonstrated that once again. If domestic travel gets restricted aviation will again be stuck with the worse of this. I wish our glorious leaders would think about the consequences of these actions. I am no fan of New York politicians but for once the mayor of New York City finally did something that makes sense in refusing to close NYC city schools. Imagine the unnecessary disruption to families, especially single parent, now with their children home during working hours. It’s to the point now where the “cure” is worse than the problem in the first place, just like most of the “solutions” to 9/11. GA is still dealing with worthless “solutions” that restrict aviation, the DC SFRA is a perfect example. Unlike the idiot governor of Ohio, politicians need to stop and think about the real effects of their “got to do something” actions. BTW, I am flying a trip tomorrow, to another state, will use my own headset instead of the ship’s. Along with extra cleaning the company now does with the current virus situation, unless my trip cancels, I am not doing anything else different than usual. Sorry for my rant, now that I have finished I will demonstrate my contempt for the Ohio governor’s restriction and drive to Pennsylvania to do what I would have in Ohio.
Re cut this president some slack: He was elected by people who were happy to cut some slack. The slack of his intellect and reasoning skills at one end versus the lack of accountability for him at the other end. A guitar string needs to be anchored at both ends to produce a true tone. So does a president need to be anchored in intellect, knowledge, experience and reasoning skills and also be accountable. Lacking any of those it becomes all slack and is just a Sh…t show.
Pouserhood is not leadership.
So I signed up for this site just so I could leave a comment. I will delete my account immediately after I post a response to this lazy, pathetic article. It’s really a shame, because it looks like it could have been a nice site. Paul, by being so disgustingly political, you have done a major disservice to AVweb specifically, and the flying community in general. It’s a shame that in every aspect of life these days, there is no shelter from hacks like you who use whatever platform they have available to spew hatred and division. This is not a time for finger pointing. This, above all times since 9/11, should be a time when we put our differences aside and come together as people against a common enemy…but not the likes of you. No, you would rather use your platform to try and score cheap political points against someone you just don’t like. This someone happens to be the President…Your President. I’ll be the first to say that you have every right to your opinion, but that’s not what I came to this site to read. Maybe it’s just me, but I had the crazy notion that it was an aviation site. It seems like you’d be more at home around the Twitter crowd than aviators.