AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 18

WAYPOINTS

Missing the handshake

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Agonizing over cancellations

Over more than
35 years covering
general aviation,
Editor in Chief
TOM HAINES has
seen many GA and
economic ups and
downs, but never
one with a health
crisis thrown in as
well.

18 | AOPA PILOT May 2020

AT SOME POINT during the hour-long presentation, I
looked around the room and suddenly felt disconnected,
almost alone among the group of 35 or so other members
of the Northeast Bonanza Group (NEBG). Bonanza pilot
Mike Friel was speaking about obstacle departure procedures, something most of we instrument pilots know
too little about. In addition to being a NEBG member,
Friel also is a flight instructor in the Beechcraft Pilot
Proficiency Program (BPPP), an arm of the American
Bonanza Society's Air Safety Foundation.
Many of us in the room knew each other. You'd
expect the morning would have kicked off with a lot
of backslapping and boisterous tales of our flights into
Pennsylvania's Reading Regional Airport, where the
BPPP Live course was being held. Instead it felt subdued and quieter than you'd expect as the individuals
sat-without prompting-one chair apart from each
other. Maybe it was the lack of handshakes that made
me feel as if we hadn't really greeted each other. But
on this mid-March Saturday, handshakes were being
avoided. Even the replacement elbow bump had come
under question as the nation grappled with the reality
of the global coronavirus pandemic.
I had hoped the Saturday BPPP safety seminars
might lead to a feeling of normalcy in what had been a
tumultuous week. Throughout the preceding days we
were constantly assessing the latest news on the spread
of the virus and considering the impact on spring aviation events. One by one the events began dropping
off the calendar. Aero, Europe's largest general aviation show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, postponed its
event, scheduled to occur the same week in April as
Sun 'n Fun. The National Business Aviation Association
shortened a couple of events already underway. We
made the difficult decision to postpone the presentation of the Bob Hoover Trophy, scheduled for March
18, moving it to the fall. The Experimental Aircraft
Association canceled Hops & Props. The Aircraft
Electronics Association canceled its Nashville convention, scheduled for the following week. And finally, late
in the week, Sun 'n Fun leadership reluctantly postponed that longstanding spring break for pilots, which
will create financial havoc for the organization and the
Aerospace Center for Excellence, which provides support for numerous aviation programs.
Sun 'n Fun management tentatively moved
the event to May 5 through 10 and was planning to

reevaluate that on April 17, most likely canceling it for
the year if the virus was still out of control.
The weekend brought no reprieve, as discussions continued about other upcoming events.
Recommendations from various federal and state
agencies and governments were often conflicting,
especially in regard to likely timing of the end of the
outbreak and the number of people that it might be
safe to associate with.
Sunday evening, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention issued recommendations that people
gather in groups of no larger than 50 for the next eight
weeks, well beyond the new proposed Sun 'n Fun dates
and just shy of the AOPA Fly-In to San Marcos, Texas,
at the end of May.
By the next morning the stock market crashed
and state governments began mandating the closure
of restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, and other public
gathering places. President Trump floated the idea of
a possible ban on domestic travel. He also suggested
that the pandemic might continue for several months,
all the way into mid- to late summer.
With that we were forced to consider canceling
or postponing the San Marcos event. I likened the
experience to trying to decide whether to make a challenging instrument flight. Study the weather, analyze
a dozen different forecast products, consider alternate routes, agonize over whether to go. Should we?
Shouldn't we? After great consideration and discussions with many stakeholders, we elected to postpone
the event until at least the fall and possibly into 2021.
Stay tuned for more details and check our various
media channels for updates.
To continue the flight analogy, we elected to drive,
knowing we would rather be on the ground wishing
we were flying than in the air wishing we were on the
ground. For the sake of all, I would be happy to have
May 29 and 30 roll around and we all look at each
other and say, "Dang, we should not have canceled.
All is good."
Fly safe. Wash your hands. Look out for one
another. We will see you at the next aviation event,
and we will be especially appreciative for the opportunity to be there and to shake hands again.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

@tomhaines29

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020

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