Flight training is part of the “essential transportation infrastructure” during the COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, according to officials with the Flight School Association of North America.
“As our country works through this challenge, an important factor is continuing the viability of the current and future air transportation system to provide transit of persons and goods as necessary during the emergency and during the recovery,” officials said in a prepared release. “Without continued training and currency of our pilot community, this ability would be hindered. As such, FSANA has sought input and interpretation from legal counsel.”
On March 24, 2020, attorney Gregory Winton, who previously was a senior attorney for the FAA and U.S. Department of Justice, and now operates The Aviation Law Firm in Annapolis, Maryland, provided a memorandum of understanding.
“This memorandum affirms the statement that…flight training would be included as a critical infrastructure activity. Those engaged in the provision of and receipt of flight training who work to provide enhanced compliance with CDC recommendations for limiting potential COVID-19 exposure and spread would be considered exempt from travel limitations imposed by local authorities.”
The memorandum was sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)’s Director, Christopher C. Krebs.
The letter begins by noting that:
“CISA listed Other Community-Based Government Operations And Essential Functions as follows: Workers who support necessary credentialing, vetting and licensing operations for transportation workers.”
“The aviation sub-sector stakeholders involved with operation of recreational aircraft and flight schools, who employ Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers from the Transportation Sector, support necessary credentialing, vetting and licensing operations for transportation workers seeking pilot certification by the Federal Aviation Administration,” it continues. “Since CISA intended to be overly inclusive to reflect the diversity of industries, the aviation mode stakeholders understand that essential employees involved with the operation of recreational aircraft and flight schools continue to be identified as Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers from the Transportation Sector. Accordingly, the aviation sub-sector stakeholders who employ Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers from the Transportation Sector will continue to operate recreational aircraft and flight schools, appropriately modified to account for CDC workforce and customer protection guidance, based upon the CISA memorandum dated March 19, 2020.”
FSANA leaders say “this leads FSANA to the position that flight training operations qualify as essential transportation infrastructure during this time and that their customers seeking training continuation are doing so under exemptions from travel restrictions that have been issued in some locales as they work to become certified or maintain their qualifications as pilots for our transportation system.”
This is further supported by the CISA statement that noted that essential infrastructure staff included those “who support necessary credentialing, vetting and licensing operations for transportation workers,” FSANA officials added, noting “pilots and those who train and credential them fall into this category.”
FSANA is sending the memorandum to flight training providers to help them understand the “applicability of flight training when conducted with enhanced screening and cleaning procedures as recommended by the CDC as an essential transportation infrastructure piece of our economy that will allow training operators to continue training operations in locations where orders restricting movement of non-essential persons have been issued.”
You can view the full memorandum letter here.
FSANA encourages persons involved in flight training to keep a copy of the memorandum with them as they travel to or from their residences for flight training activities in the event that their travel purpose is questioned by a government official.
FSANA officials said they expect that any local or state officials will properly recognize the federal level of oversight and activity that is involved in flight training and “not attempt to limit these activities when they are conducted with appropriate social distancing considerations.”
FSANA officials add that they are not saying flight training operations must stay open.
“That will be a choice for each individual operator based on their business model, their ability to provide enhanced cleaning and operational safety, or even personal desire to operate during this time. But, should you decide to continue to operate, we want to provide you with as many resources as possible.”
Several FSANA member operators have developed independent, school specific, COVID-19 operations manuals. FSANA thanks AeroGuard Flight Training Center and U.S. Aviation Academy for sharing their COVID-19 manuals as examples for the industry to use as a basis for their own responses and continued operations.
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 sanitation, social distancing, and any other precautionary measures that you deem necessary to keep your employees and students safe and healthy, officials added.
FAA Issues Exemptions for DPEs to Continue Testing During COVID-19
On March 25, 2020, the FAA offered a memorandum for Designated Pilot Examiners (DPE) to authorize continued testing of pilots under FAA guidelines even in the case of expiration of oversight or training requirements unless a specific DPE has been contacted by their managing specialist and asked to stop for non-currency related causes.
The implications of this memorandum are that the FAA has in no way at this time asked DPEs to stop testing applicants for pilot certifications.
“This is critical to continuing our pilot training and testing pipeline for our nation’s transportation needs,” FSANA officials said. “Specifically, the memorandum offers DPEs the ability to continue testing in the event that required re-currency training or oversight has not been able to be provided by the FAA during this national emergency.
The full text of this memorandum can be seen here.
I can’t believe that the propaganda that is spewed by the government and media is so easily accepted, they don’t know how it is transmitted, they think they know, what happened that pangolin sneezed on someone. First the virus dies in hours then it dies in days then it can last up to 9 days, don’t wear masks then wear masks, started months ago or not. You know who you should be upset with the government, knew it could happen were not prepared,they buy critical supplies from other Countries,that is just plain stupid. then you are Going to listen to those fools. Shame on you. Whats the plan,is this going to happen every time they fail.. The federal and state governments have FEMA and state emergency management all failed, you people should be steaming mad at the government and how this was handled.
Stop all training! The airlines are cutting jobs by the 1,000’s so even if you get your ATP, there is no work. News Flash: there is no pilot shortage. This whole charade is pathetic.
Former American Airlines
It’s been my experience that when given a “lifeline” such as the letter in question, a for profit business will almost always choose to put profit before common sense since they presume to have a get out of jail free card. In an industry where we focus so much on safety, what message are we sending students when we continue to train in these circumstances.
While the FARs have rather liberal currency requirements, if a pilot doesn’t fly regularly, performance degrades.
Once the quarantine is lifted, the accidents and violations could easily rise.
Since the quarantine will likely last for months, who will truly be sufficiently proficient to train anyone as the weeks pass?
Myself and another CFI are in our early 70s and very active CFIIs at a busy flight school. Both of us are ceasing flight instruction for now, along with 1-2 younger CFIs, until more info and solutions concerning the virus are achieved. IMSAFE comes into play, risk also. I have noticed a tremendous drop off on the flight school schedule which tells me some of our students are staying away also. There are a few other CFIs still instructing and I’ve turned some of my students over to them. Their personal decision.
So does this include A&P Technicians we have not been allowed to continue school and training as this covid-19 is an impedance to our education as well. Without us pilots cannot fly for very long as repairs and standard inspection and procedures at 50hr 100hr and so on and so forth is there anything in the memorandum for us technicians to be allowed to continue testing aswell?
This part of the paragraph from the statement would make me say yes.
“essential employees involved with the operation of recreational aircraft and flight schools continue to be identified as Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers from the Transportation Sector.”
The key word I see is “involved”, that would cover administrators and dispatchers as well.
I think this warrants further investigation. So, this attorney sent a memorandum to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency….great, but what did CISA say in reply to this attorney’s interpretation? There was no mention of a response from CISA. Do flight schools continue to operate because some attorney with a fancy title says it’s ok based on HIS interpretation? Sounds like an easy way for a flight school to get into a legal battle and then pay thousands of dollars to an attorney to defend them when they are questioned. Who would be ok with this risk?? An attorney of course!! They live (and get paid) to have legal battles.
In addition, it’s difficult to agree that a Part 61 flight school who is primarily training recreational pilots are performing a “critical job function” for a group of people who just want to get his/her private pilot license to fly for the fun of it. Do we risk infection and spread of COVID-19 so that Joe Blow can fly his wife and kids to the beach someday? Perhaps a Part 141 flight school that is training individuals who are focused on a future career in the military or for the airlines could be considered critical…but for Part 61 flight schools where the vast majority of enrolled students are going to stop after they get a private or instrument license? Hardly seems like a critical function. I don’t think you can say that EVERY flight school is considered an essential business…and that’s where further investigation and research is warranted. I suggest all who read this article not take it at face value. Proceed with caution.
Agreed. There is nothing directive in this memo from FSANA. Of course this association would be expected to support a position to “keep em flying”. The FSANA statement that local and state officials should not question training activities, …“not attempt to limit these activities when they are conducted with appropriate social distancing considerations,” makes absolutely no sense. How can appropriate social distancing be guaranteed in a single engine piston aircraft?
How can appropriate social distancing be guaranteed at home with your family? Send them packing I assume…Give me a break.
The lawyer’s letter does not mean Flight Schools and Flight Training are exempted. It simply states a private lawyer’s *opinion* that they should be exempted. Exemptions must still be made at the individual local and state level.
The CISA’s own document that the lawyer refers to states, “This list is advisory in nature. It is not, nor should it be considered, a federal directive or standard. Additionally, this advisory list is not intended to be the exclusive list of critical infrastructure sectors, workers, and functions that should continue during the COVID-19 response across all jurisdictions. Individual jurisdictions should add or subtract essential workforce categories based on their own requirements and discretion.”
Note the last sentence.
Therefore, FSANA members or other flight schools and training organizations will still need to seek individual exemptions from their local city/county/state authorities’ COVID-19 mandates to legally be able to operate if a local COVID-19 declaration does not list them as “critical.” Flight Schools may use the letter written by Gregory Winton to bolster their argument, but the letter does not mean they are automatically exempted.
Completely agree! Well said.
Demonstrating savvy risk management is central to safe flying as well as flight training and testing. Given the current pandemic, which is exponentially growing (and predicted to result in about 2,000 deaths >a day< in April), I think the risk of infection in a confined space with an untested stranger is pretty high: bit.ly/FTbreak Is it worth putting your life at risk to advance your career (and also consider the current sad state of airline employment). The world has changed and we need to adapt!
If and when rapid and accurate testing becomes available, it will be the correct time to resume flight training. We are, unfortunately, behind the curve right now with too few scientific tools and facilities to assure safety from this virus.. Like flying in one mile, clear of clouds, it may be legal but certainly not safe or smart!
“I think”, “I’d guess”… That isn’t science that is conecture diriven by fear.
Our prisons , certainly the ULTIMATE shelter-in-place situation are reporting high amounts of infections but very low deaths.
Total deaths as of CV19 as of 4.30/2020 is 61,000 (and there’s already concern that number is being comingled with other conditions, inflating the number) as a percentage of the population of the U.S. as of last census (2017) is 327,000,000, that .019 PERCENT (rounded up). For ‘kicks’ let’s multiply that death number by 10,,, for 610,000 (a number that won’t be achieved) that’s 0.19 PERCENT. Show me the ‘sky is falling’ need for a response to what we are actually seeing?
As instructors we should teach risk assessment USING math/science and not ‘feelings’. Your ‘feelings’ will kill you…(a lesson taught during flying in IMC)
The largely liberal nonsense about the testing is absurd. It assures nothing. One hour you could be shown to not be infected and in the following hours or days you could become infected. DUH!
For the majority of the population this CV19 is proving to be a humongous ‘nothing burger’ when compared to other causes of fatalities.
Wash your hands and never touch your nose mouth or EYES with unwashed hands you’ll do just fine. BTW the BIGGEST mucous membranes on the face that masks never cover, so if transmission through the air was really a cause the numbers would be MUCH higher. But they’re not. People are picking this up from contact with contaminated surfaces. Think of ALL the hands that those grocery items you buy have been through before they get to you. The six feet apart is magical thinking and so are the masks for healthy people.
Study about viral load requirements alone and just with that you’ll walk aways a much wiser person.
Couldn’t agree with you more…This Pandemic which came off as a Dempanic was really more a Ploy. And some people buy anything. Hence the success of pet rocks.
With all respect to the lawyers who have made this determination …
I beg CFIs and trainees to look to alternative methods of training to substitute for in-flight instruction. It is essentially impossible to CDC recommendations for personal protection in an aircraft. And it is impossible for the student or instructor to protect themselves from careless behaviors that are inevitably or inadvertently made by colleagues and other students.
This is a pandemic. Listen to the most conservative advice of medical and public heath professionals. Consider the source and motivations of lawyers and bureaucrats and those in the aviation community with economic interests in this matter
I’m a flight instructor and Totally agree with you! The only way to stop the spread is staying at home. This interpretation make 0 sense.
By all means..Stay at home Dan & Rafael. America is wonderful. We have choices. This article not only shows a lawyers work but also the FAA ultimately agreeing with it and opening schools and training again. Some people cannot get over their fears with regards to many things. I understand yours here. But responsible people that keep clean, and follow the CDC guidelines for safety with this virus will be as safe as any family that does the same thing. If you or anyone thinks this virus situation is going to go away in a matter of weeks or months you are mistake. The flu has been around for decades and has killed way more people than covid 19. That hasn’t kept you from interacting with people or flying. I’m being trained in my own plane. My CFI is married with children. They practice safe living and I have no fear of him being infected. Me and my wife do the same. My plane is kept clean (as the FAA states is required for continued flight training) and I stay clean. I will not stop living for this. I will however take more care and diligence in protecting myself. There is not a “Cookie Cutter” answer for every situation. I’d probably be skeptical to continue my instruction if I had to share a plane with 10 other students at a flight school that didn’t sanitize the plane between flights. Or didn’t instruct their CFI’s to wash their hands and practice the CDC protocols.
I recommend that everyone should be READING all the info on how you actually can contract this virus. That does not mean turning on CNN or MSNBC. The MSM will fill your head with gloom and doom and make you want to hide in your house until a Democrat is back in the White House. Pilots are supposed to be smarter than that.
This is a disease that spreads, via the air, from persons who can be asymptomatic. The disease doesn’t care that your CFI practices “safe living.” And it doesn’t care about your opinions on the media. It may have already infected one of your CFI’s asymptomatic kids, who has already passed it on to your CFI. And because of the disease’s long incubation period, he’s been passing it on for a while.
That’s how pandemics work.
I agree with you on one thing though: pilots should be smarter than that.
Stephen….Stay home. Don’t go out. At all. Including the grocery store. Lots of people go there. Way more than a plane for training pilots. Don’t you dare leave your house for anything. That’s your choice. And your opinion is noted. But you smell of Liberalism. Which means you think you are right no matter what. And that I should live my life based on your opinion. NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. I’ve flown 5 times since my original comment. With my CFI. I’m 64 years old with a lung condition. Am I nuts? Perhaps…But, I’m also happy and living my life. And I’m not sick. Ostrich’s stick their heads in the sand when they are afraid. That’s when they are the easiest prey.
Doug:
When you resort to “you smell of liberalism” ad hominem attacks, I’m afraid I’ve lost you, but I’m going to try using your logic. I think you smell of “I’m self-reliant, and I don’t want or need anyone else telling me what I should do.” Only, you know that isn’t true. You just don’t want to be inconvenienced. Whether you like it or not, we are all dependent on each other, including all of us helping to slow the spread of this disease, and your decision that it’s just fine for you to not change a damn thing about what you’re doing ends when it runs up against my right to stay alive. You made a choice to live in this society, and in this society we all have obligations to each other. Civics 101 – that’s how it works.
I guess that means you were opposed to the draft, when we had one. You’re the right age to have been a participant in the draft lottery. I would suppose, based upon your position, that you refused to register for the draft, right? And that next year, you will refuse Medicare.
The smell has gotten stronger….Now I’m convinced . Yes, I was opposed to the draft. I was also registered for the draft. It ended as I graduated high school. I was very happy about that. And Medicare is paid for with MY MONEY. Just like MY MONEY paid for all those Obamacare bums. What that has to do with this eludes me….
That has nothing at all to do with “Everyone must wear their helmets Liberalism”. Seriously, go hang out with your own and push agendas on each other. That doesn’t bother me at all. I’ll repeat what I said so maybe it will sink in this time… But you smell of Liberalism. Which means you think you are right no matter what. And that I should live my life based on your opinion. And here you are doing it again. I don’t think you can stop yourself. It’s an uncontrollable urge.
I made a choice to live in society? Civics 101? Lemme guess…California schooling?
America 101. I’m free to do what I please as long as I don’t hurt anyone. Pretty good rule. And me flying in my plane with another person that has made the same determinations is none of your d*mn business. So mind your own business. And I won’t come over to your house and tell you to shut up your kids, stop eating beef, put on your helmets, get an electric car, or cough on you.
What I remember from civics class was that we all have a right to privacy and “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” There is nothing in our Declaration of Independence that ever said I need to tolerate opinionated Liberals with bloviated ideals and smile about it. Again, not going to happen.
I’m curious. What liberal State and City do you reside? California? Washington? Illinois? New York? I do hope you and your family are and stay safe. And you are entitled to your opinion. But, you know what they say about opinions.
That is entirely wrong! The way to stop the spread is to develop “herd immunity”. That’s done with a vaccine over a year from now or by coming in contact with the virus. If you are a member of a class of people with comorbidities or advanced age protect yourself but let everyone else live a normal life. The nation can’t hide until this is over or everyone has a vaccination. This is the flu not the Black Death for crying out loud!
This is not the flu. This is much worse than the flu, with at least 10 times the mortality of the flu. It’s apparently easy to catch, it kills in a particularly nasty way, and it’s a pretty painful way to go as well.
Actually, we don’t have to “hide” until this is over. We have to slow the inevitable spread of the disease so that some things can happen: first, so that we can actually treat those infected, instead of being overwhelmed; and so there is some ability – and available supplies- for us to treat others who are having the sorts of medical emergencies that still happen, every day, across our nation. And also to give our scientists time to come up with symptomatic relief while waiting for vaccination trials to successfully conclude.
Herd immunity? You do know how many people die (and not just old folks – not at all, this thing is bad for everyone, it seems, except perhaps the very young) if the plan would be to just let this “burn through” the population, don’t you? Perhaps you are willing to write those people off. I am not.
We have already bungled this so badly that, by the time this is done – even with “social distancing” – that all of us will know someone that was affected .
So, if you’re okay with 2000 Americans dying every day, as happened yesterday, then I suppose it’s fine to carry on as usual and hope for a vaccine in a year or so. We certainly don’t want the pipeline of newly minted pilots to miss the back of the line already filled with thousands of pilots currently furloughed for who knows how long.
While it’s not the plague and could be worse, it’s likely the most existential threat to our planet that any of us will see in our lifetime. Believing anything else is as likely as the Easter bunny delivering a cure on Sunday.
Except it won’t be just 2,000 a day as it is now when 90% of the country is under a stay at home order. If we just everyone get back to normal and kids back in school (a huge vector pathway) we would see numbers skyrocket, the medical system overwhelmed, and death rates an order of magnitude higher than we are seeing at the moment. It’s very hard for some people to grasp since they are sitting in their rural homes surrounded by little or no evidence of infection and the tendency is to deny the reality they cannot actually see.
I could never live your fearful, chicken-little life. It has to be a horrible prison to impose on oneself.
Tell you what, I’ll tell you about a disease that one can shelter-in-place in a hermetically sealed house and it will still find them and kill them. In fact it kills 1.2 million EVERY year in the U.S. Know what it is, this killer that doesn’t require contact with anyone or anything to get? This killer that wipes out 1.2 million people every year? It is called cancer and heart disease… cancer kills approx 600,000 every year in the U.S. and heart disease another 650,000. You face this every day and every year,,,, but you go on with your life,, why? Even at 1.2 million people every year in the U.S. the odds are pretty decent – so you don’t spend your life worrying needlessly.
What has been horribly irresponsible on part of media is that while they list testing figures and deaths they don’t provide meaningful stats like what percentage of the population do those deaths represent. Of those infections tested for, how many required hospitalization as opposed to simple home care. The media use fear and anger to attract its readership… They don’t want to give the general public too much data or they will soon discover that CV19 isn’t a big bad wolf for the majority of the population. If you’re elderly or health compromised – normal cold/flu precautions will work just fine.
Hell yes! See ya later, I’m goin flyin!
This is great news!!