These precautions are…inconvenient for most of us, but not unreasonable. Social Distancing, greater awareness of handwashing, all are good things, reasonable precautions…. things we likely should do every cold and flu season. Now that we have this additional disease, we should all take precautions to not spread this and other diseases, despite the inconvenience….

To a point…..

At what point will we decide, when the tens of thousands of cases of CoronaVirus DON’T appear at the hospitals, when the health care system ISN’T overwhelmed, when the inconvenience stretches for weeks (or months)…when folks can’t pay their rent, their car payments…..When the economy in which they live is destroyed around them….when will they say “Ok, this has gone too far”.

The infection rates of this virus don’t appear to be even as high as the “Swine Flu”/H1N1 of 11 years past. Yet the reaction by our government is greatly more….in fact, it is bordering outrageous and over the top. (I think they are doing what they can to emphasize the stats to scare us, actually)

Effectively holding people prisoner in their homes? Closing restaurants and stores? Putting hundreds of thousands (or more) out of work?  Effectively destroying our economy? Over the fear that this virus, with a rate of sickness that is lower than the “Normal” seasonal flu, with a rate of death that is near to or lower than the Swine Flu of years ago, that this “MIGHT” grow greater?

At what point will enough be enough?

What happens then?

Especially since we are probably “Flattening the wrong Curve”

Plus there’s this:

Now part of this may simply be the testing…what percentage of the population gets tested vs deaths.
But there may be a LOT more to why Italy is approaching 3 times the rate of the US or Australia or even Japan. And it appears that the Italians have pretty poor health care facilities…and even there, the rates are still actually pretty low…

Either way, at what cost are these precautions?

(Note: These precautions MIGHT be valid,…if the federal government knows something about the virus that they are’t telling us….But so far, this whole debacle looks to be a terrible overreaction.

Then again, at moments here and there, I can’t help but wonder if those tin-foil hatted folks might not have a point that there is something more sinister to this….Some sort of “economic reset” type thing and the Wu-Flu is just a convenient vehicle to make it happen….That explanation would, perhaps, explain Trumps performance the other night when he made his wooden speech to all the American People……)

Ferinstance: Flight schools are considered “critical” and are, therefore, mostly exempt from many regulations during the “Travel Ban” in California.

So now we see that the :Social Distancing, etc so much so that the Government of California and the United States, has decided that having flight students take 2 or three weeks off is a Bad Idea, even though the rest of the country is essentially crippling parts of our economy to (supposedly) keep this disease from spreading….and we are essentially stopping education for our children for the rest of the school year.

March 20, 2020

Flight Schools Remaining Open

On Thursday, March 19, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom of California issued an Executive Order (N-33-20) issuing a stay-at-home decree and the shuttering of all non-essential businesses in California. There are many questions from flight schools within California and elsewhere about the California Executive Order and how it affects whether a flight school can remain open.

The Executive Order States:

“The federal government has identified 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, economic security, public health or safety, or any combination thereof. I order that Californians working in these 16 critical infrastructure sectors may continue their work because of the importance of these sectors to Californians’ health and well-being.”

The Executive Order includes a link to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) which identifies the 16 critical infrastructure sectors and detailed information of which businesses are included in these sectors. You will find that the Aviation sub-sector of the Transportation Systems Sector details the following:

“… the aviation mode includes commercial and recreational aircraft (manned and unmanned) and a wide variety of support services, such as repair stations, fueling facilities, navigation aids, and flight schools.”

If your flight school is a college or university program or works with a college or university, the definitions are less clear.

According to California Executive Order N-33-20, flight schools in California may remain open.

Why is this important to flight schools outside of California?

The California Executive Order is important to all flight schools because it specifically ties the list of businesses that may remain open to a federal agency, CISA. It is FSANA’s opinion that flight schools outside of California may also choose to remain open because of this very important designation. FSANA believes the CISA definition of critical infrastructure businesses should preempt any state or local declarations that are to the contrary.

If you decide to keep your flight school operational, FSANA strongly recommends following all CDC, WHO, and medical advisories regarding employee hygiene, aircraft and facility sanitization, social distancing, and any other precautionary measures that you deem necessary to keep your employees and students safe and healthy. FSANA is developing a set of recommended COVID-19 Precautions and Best Practices which we will provide in the coming days.

Flight Schools are “critical”.

Really?

One wonders what other “critical” activities have been designated that really….aren’t