My friend told me yesterday, "If I land out, don't come to get me. I
don't want to expose you to anything (he's a doctor).Â* I'll call my wife
and she will come."Â* Though, for her it would be a 2 hour drive to the
airport, plus find and hook up his trailer, etc.

Now, for the lighter side, his battery failed shortly after take off.Â*
He announced the problem and said that he'd be turning his radio off.Â*
We met in flight around 2 - 2.5 hours later and flew together for many
miles (never closer than 100 feet).Â* Having flown in light sink for a
long time and feeling uncomfortable with the altitude (I NEVER rely on
the engine) I turned back and he continued happily on.

After landing, I remarked about how much more performance his ship has
than mine, telling him how I turned back because I was below glide slope
for home and he just kept going outbound.Â* He said, "Oh, I didn't have a
vario.Â* It quit an hour or so earlier!"Â* Oh, yes, we always kept 10 or
more feet between us the whole time.

Dan, next time you get to Moriarty, look me up and we'll share a beer or
two.Â* Dan

On 4/5/2020 9:52 AM, Charles Longley wrote:
Here’s my opinion because I am not afraid to share it. If you choose to fly solo in your personal ship right now social distancing isn’t really an issue. Sharing a club ship isn’t the greatest idea. It’s very hard to get the cockpit completely sanitized. Then there’s the issue of having an off airport landing or accident. Someone’s going to have to come get you on an off airport landing. If you have an injury do you really want to go to the hospital right now? Not only are you exposing yourself to disease you’ll be using supplies and resources that would be better used for a Covid 19 patient.

My club has not completely shutdown. They’ve cancelled scheduled operations and left it up to the individual members and tow pilots to decide if they want to fly. I haven’t heard of any operations in the last three weeks.

Personally I don’t intend to fly until sometime in May. I’ll look at what’s happening with the pandemic and make a decision then. I am a firm believer in the ability of each pilot to make their own go/no go decision.

--
Dan, 5J