Airspace Shutdown

a reply to: Crosswinds

Some areas are seeing more private flights. A few sending messages have been seen on FR24. But it's almost scary how badly the industry has been gutted so far. And it's only going to get worse.

a reply to: 38181

Haha yeah he's my favorite angry cursed cat meme.
I fly a Luscombe 8A.
Cubs are awesome. Got my tailwheel in a J-3.
A lot of my GA pilot friends are calling their flights "social distancing" because up there, you're an awful lot more than 6' away.
They should keep the airspace open for us go-nowhere-fast GA VFR folk. Can't spread COVID-19 from a J-3 or a Luscombe.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I think I saw one. The "wear a mask" guy made his way to ATC memes. Pretty cool.

I'm really worried about the industry and how it's going to bounce back after this. Remember when the gubment shut down those contract towers in 2013? I fear that could happen again. What do you think?

a reply to: Crosswinds

There was him, and the other day "Stay Home".

It's going to be years before they recover. The LCC days are done. They'll keep some relatively low cost fares, to keep the government off their back, but I and a couple other people who I respect think that we're heading back to the days of regulation, without the actual regulation.

We've gone through most of the Round of Groundings, although Germanwings was grounded today. We'll see a few more, but we're getting into accelerated retirements and order cancellations now. Now we're getting into the real bloodbath.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Nice. Stay home.

Well that is really unfortunate. I'm guessing charter aviation is going to take a hit as well.
With this in mind, sounds like everything will.

Aviation is probably also going to see some developmental setbacks too I'd guess, such as electric planes, avionics developments, etc for a while while the economy struggles.

All around bad stuff.
No bueno.

a reply to: Crosswinds

The only portion that's going to come through even remotely close to the same is cargo. Multiple majors have said they're going smaller after they can start operating even remotely close to normally again.

I've been tracking some of the developments in a thread here, but it's been going so fast it's hard to keep track.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Seems like I read somewhere, maybe here, that airlines have to run certain flights in order to keep their "standing" at certain airports. I guess referring to whatever terminal they have and priority? Any truth to that that you know of?

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Originally they had to fly 80% of flights from any airport they had gates at to keep their gates. That rule was suspended by the FAA, EASA, and Australian regulators. Under CARES they have to operate a minimum number of flights to geographic regions they currently operate to. That means a minimum of one flight every day they operated to that region, even if they flew multiple flights a day on multiple days a week.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: rickymouse

I don't think many aircraft use magnetic compasses to navigate.

We don't. Everyone has GPS. By regulation, every U.S. aircraft must have a magnetic compass but the only time it is used is in training where you learn to fly with a "partial panel" if your other instruments fail. Most runways that need it were changed very recently to reflect changes in magnetic "variation" caused by movement of the magnetic North Pole. As an example, yesterday I flew from Jakarta to Detroit without even once using the magnetic compass. It was all Inertial navigation, backe up with GPS and a little bit of VHF as a backup on approaches.

a reply to: RazorV66

Big E.M.P. coming perhaps?

Starlink is a weapon perhaps? Cruising around ready and waiting in orbit.

"Clear the god damn stage and prepare to fire!"

Thing is, are WE the enemy, locked down unwittingly cowering in fear of a pandemic or is the enemy on IT'S way and our leaders want to help us prepare by stockpiling and securing ourselves?

originally posted by: Crosswinds
a reply to: rickymouse

Source: am pilot

ATC system is a mixture of on airport (terminal/tower/sometimes TRACON approach and departure) and off airport facilities (ARTCC) that use navaids (VORs, GPS, ADS-B) to facilitate and separate air traffic, keeping them on route and on course and obviously from running into each other.
ATC relies on radio communications and radar for a lot of tasks.
The main switch going on now is the migration from ground based radar to satellite based.
This change focuses on ADS-B which stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast. It utilizes satellites and some ground stations to get a good idea of the whereabouts an airplane is in the sky.
ADS-B was mandated for all aircraft (even the little guys) on January 1st, 2020. Exceptions are aircraft built and maintained without an electrical system (cubs etc) and pilots NOT operating within class B airspace or its 30NM veil (big jet airport airspace). So Bubba and Marge in their Cub don't need it.

Pilots still use magnetic headings for VFR (visual, referencing the horizon outside) flight planning, backup, and reference.

To stay on topic,

Yes. I'm seeing a huge decline in air traffic of all sizes and purposes in my area. I haven't been able to get to the airport to get some maintenance done in my old bird, either. A lot of us small pilots are grounded due to Covid-19 so an airspace shutdown wouldn't affect us much. We're already on the ground for the most part.

Flight schools also shut down ops.

I took flight school back in the eighties and flew with the instructor for about nine hours. I came in for a landing one day, forty mile an hour head wind, and it died. I did not know what to do so told the instructor it was all his as we were floating down to the ground. He hit the throttle, aimed it down towards the runway, gained speed and then said go around. he told me to try landing it at that speed, it would not go onto the ground, he explained we were going to fast to land...which was really educational. I made another loop, and my heart was beating over two hundred for hours, kind of normal for me for that to happen when I am working hard so not much of a problem. I quit, I figured with my tachychardia I should not be flying and because it was on my medical records, I would never be able to get a license anyway. But I did get to fly the plane. He wanted me to solo the next time, I must have scared him pretty bad, he told me I was doing great, I would have no problem soloing. I quit. I got to fly an airplane and I only spent about six hundred bucks total to do it.

Back then, a lot of airplanes would haul us around here, no airports that had jet capability, so we had to fly out in prop planes. I figured if I knew how to fly one and something happened to the pilot I could go assist and call the airport for instructions. We did get the ability for small jets a few years later, and the airbase moved out and now we can take lots of big jets there. So, I cannot fly one of those but they have two pilots anyway.

The first time I flew in a Jet, we had a lot of turbulance and experienced a quick drop and jolt as the pilot was going around a big cell. It was not a big drop, nobody flew out of their seat but the stewardess did spill someone's drink in the aisle as she was walking.

The second time I flew the stewardess was walking by and lightning struck the right side engine, I guess there was a ring around the nose and it flew to the engine. The waitress flew straight up and landed in my lap. She had her arms around my neck. She was embarrassed, we both were looking towards the window at the time, I was grabbing something off the seat to order a drink. She brought me a drink every time she went by after that and kept apologizing, I thought it was great, probably one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me. When I landed in Vegas, there were firetrucks and vehicles where we landed far from the terminal. Once they inspected the engine, we were allowed to go to the terminal. The pilot shut down that engine when the lightning hit, it seemed to be working alright, but he said he was shutting it down about five minutes before we got to the airport. Something must have been going on with the gauges or something, The waitress did not know why when I asked. I had to drink that last drink pretty fast, I think I had like five drinks that trip.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Originally they had to fly 80% of flights from any airport they had gates at to keep their gates. That rule was suspended by the FAA, EASA, and Australian regulators. Under CARES they have to operate a minimum number of flights to geographic regions they currently operate to. That means a minimum of one flight every day they operated to that region, even if they flew multiple flights a day on multiple days a week.

What is the reason for having to do even that now? Job security for the crews?

a reply to: Vasa Croe

It ensures crew proficiency, and cargo in and out of those areas. Not all areas see cargo planes in and out, and get mail and cargo on passenger flights. Cut them off completely, and they lose that capacity too.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Makes sense. If you don't continuously train then your ramp up time would be significant once operations get back to normal.

It is a way to keep easier track of certain "unsavory people"?

This is such a weird thing. I wonder if some trapped in LA are totally freaking out around this time.

Maybe they should be.

Just a feeling...

When the sky is clear the war is over.

Sincerely NC

originally posted by: NoConspiracy
Just a feeling...

When the sky is clear the war is over.

Sincerely NC

Or about to start...

This is what I've been wondering

Reports all around the United States that hospitals aren't as busy as what's projected and some staff is being sent home indefinitely...
Also the massive amount of ventilators that are scheduled to go to the hotspots and other places as needed..
The fact that the response to the virus seems disproportionate..
The amount of field hospitals being set up...
I also read somewhere that hydroxychloroquine is used to treat radiation poisoning as well as the other issues brought up..
and the military presence just seems to be getting bigger and bigger.
I've also been reading that your run-of-the-mill daily deaths in the United States have gone down yet the covid-19 deaths take up the death counts per day as if they were absorbing the other numbers.
Now having said all that I understand it's supposedly in response to a virus , two of my sisters have that virus along with their husbands one out of those four people is actually pretty sick but not enough to be hospitalized he states that he feels like he has bronchitis.
I also have an eerie feeling there's something behind all of this and it has nothing to do with a virus just the fact that this has gotten to the level that it has is almost surreal.
If I had to put money on it I would say something is coming from space whether it be an impact situation or a CME or other.
Like they're just setting the stage for something that they will be needing to respond to under the guise of a virus and so far we're being the good sheep that we were intended to be.
Call me crazy call it woman's intuition or just common sense but something is definitely off way off!

a reply to: nerbot

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

I just looked on Flightradar24.com, there's practically nothing in the air, especially in my area where there'd be about thirty flights just for UAL alone coming into or out of Newark in the past hour. I think I counted two.

If that's a live map of aircraft there are hundreds if not thousands of planes in the air right now.

a reply to: ujustneverknow

Hydroxychloroquine is used in conjunction with radiation, not to treat radiation exposure. It's thought that the combination of radiation and hydroxychloroquine will reduce tumor size and number faster than radiation alone.