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BFR during COVID

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dothetime

Well Known Member
I know it's not called BFR, but my flight review was due 12/31/2020 and I know the FAA extended it two months to 1/31/2021
I am not comfortable doing the flight review at this time.

So my choices are:

1-do the review and risk my health and the health of my 95 year old mom residing with me temporarily due to COVID
2-just keep flying without it.
3-stop flying until the threat is over. Probably 2-4 months until the vaccine is available.

What would you do, or what are you doing about yours?

Don't flame me, I'm sure I'm not the only pilot with this question.

Dave
 
rabbit hole

I know it's not called BFR, but my flight review was due 12/31/2020 and I know the FAA extended it two months to 1/31/2021
I am not comfortable doing the flight review at this time.

So my choices are:

1-do the review and risk my health and the health of my 95 year old mom residing with me temporarily due to COVID
2-just keep flying without it.
3-stop flying until the threat is over. Probably 2-4 months until the vaccine is available.

What would you do, or what are you doing about yours?

Don't flame me, I'm sure I'm not the only pilot with this question.

Dave


Realistically, you have to decide...I completely understand fear for your Mom. That kind of makes the decision for you.

Not sure any CFI here is going to tell you to just keep flying beyond the date (extension), as that would be advising you to violate the rules intentionally...the FAA takes a VERY dim view on intentional disregard of the rules.

Stop flying until the threat is over isn't really viable either. The virus is worldwide; it is not ever going to go away so it becomes how we deal with it. Vaccines are here and that is good, however, even with the vaccine, the threat may only be reduced and will never go away. Just look at all of the other viruses out there...

So it really comes right back to you, and what you are comfortable with.

I wish you luck; it is a really tough call...
 
I did my BFR last week. I put it off for a few months due to knee surgery and fell out of currency.

The instructor and I did the classroom portion over Zoom to limit contact. The flight school where I did all my training and where I rent C172s until my -10 is finished now has a nurse on site that screens everyone, including temperatures, which limits some risk.

We flew with masks on and I kept the vent open and blowing at my face, despite the low temperatures in Colorado in December.

If you can get your CFI to take a covid test, at least you know (s)he is relatively safe. And then take a bunch of precautions.

I would be loathe to overfly the BFR and ignore it. If there is an incident, you will find yourself in a world of trouble.
 
It's my understanding that extension has been extended multiple times and my guess is that it will keep getting bumped back until some semblance of "normal" returns. whatever that ends up being.

Eventually they will stop the extension and you'll have to make that decision then; IMO that will likely be after your 2-4 month timeframe for #3 though.
 
I did my BFR last year during the peak of the COVID crush. Everything was pretty much shut down, but flight instruction got labeled an "essential service", so CFI's that wanted to at the local FBO could instruct. Mine was OK with it. He wore a mask, didn't require that I do.

A few months later, I bought an airplane and did transition training with a friend who is a CFI. Covid never came up. He provided another BFR as part of the transition training.
 
I wouldn't recommend ignoring the extension date and continuing to fly. If something happens and you bend some metal, it's likely that your insurance company won't pay if you aren't a legal PIC, which you wouldn't be if you proceed beyond the BFR extension.

Another option would be to look at the FAA's Wings program. If you have a local school with a simulator, you could probably find three flight activities that you could perform in a simulator, which you could do sitting farther away from a CFI than you would in an airplane. If nothing else, you'd at least be in a room much larger than a cockpit. You have to do three knowledge activities and three flight activities to complete a Wings Phase, and when you do, it counts as a flight review.

Alternatively, you might look for a tandem airplane to fly for a flight review. That could get you farther away from the other person than a side-by-side airplane. You might even be able to fly it with the doors/windows open -- something like a Cub, Champ, Citabria, etc. However, many of these planes have conventional landing gear, so if you don't have a TW endorsement you might have a hard time finding a CFI who will sign you off for a Flight Review on your first flight in a TW, but it's theoretically possible.
 
You could look for an fbo or other service that has an approved simulator. This won’t be cheap, but the device should be cleanable, and the cfi can maintain social distance.
This is a tough, personal choice. As a cfi I have given several reviews, and received one myself, with everyone wearing a mask. It is definitely not ideal, and I would advise against it for anyone with any underlying health issues.
 
It's my understanding that extension has been extended multiple times and my guess is that it will keep getting bumped back until some semblance of "normal" returns. whatever that ends up being.

Eventually they will stop the extension and you'll have to make that decision then; IMO that will likely be after your 2-4 month timeframe for #3 though.

I might be wrong, but the SFAR is for some pretty specific categories of operations, and just general flying around for fun isn't one of them:

https://www.faa.gov/coronavirus/regulatory_updates/media/SFAR-COVID-FAQs.pdf

That's what I get from it, at least...someone else may have better info.
 
You could pay for a CFI to take a rapid covid test, then fly right after they have their test results. I don't think that's unreasonable as long as you pay for it.
 
I've already had it, recently, and so I have the antibodies. I called the local instruction outfit here and talked to one of the instructors who also, coincidentally had also recently had it and recovered - and we went flying together with no mask and no worries.

Call up your local instructors and ask if anyone has had it recently (my doc says 3-6 months for the antibodies) and go fly with them. If they are carrying the antibodies, they can't give or get the decrapitation again until those anitbodies fade.
 
I've already had it, recently, and so I have the antibodies. I called the local instruction outfit here and talked to one of the instructors who also, coincidentally had also recently had it and recovered - and we went flying together with no mask and no worries.

Call up your local instructors and ask if anyone has had it recently (my doc says 3-6 months for the antibodies) and go fly with them. If they are carrying the antibodies, they can't give or get the decrapitation again until those anitbodies fade.

Here’s the rub. There is no “definitive knowledge base” on whether having the virus, and now a positive antibodies test, guarantees that one cannot get it again or still transmit the virus to another person if re-exposed.

A three to six months immunity window is still not confirmed and probably very dependent upon the individual and how serious their original Covid case was. In fact, getting the vaccine does not guarantee 100% immunity - it just improves one’s chances of either not getting the virus or having a mild case.

I had the virus last August and let me confirm it’s a tough ordeal. My youngest son is a Navy physician and we’ve had several discussions on the nature of this virus and what is known vs unknown. Bottom line: there is still a lot to learn and as the virus mutates even more unanswered questions will become relevant.

My recommendation is simple: take it seriously, wear a mask, follow good personal hygiene avoiding unnecessary exposure and close personal contact as much as possible until this virus is under control and herd immunity is achieved. If you must accomplish something that requires close contact with another person please understand there are no guarantees.

Don’t stick you head in the ground but please be careful. Herd immunity is probably over a year away but that doesn’t mean we have to completely shut down our lives. Be smart, be careful and pray that you don’t contract the virus.
 
Call up your local instructors and ask if anyone has had it recently (my doc says 3-6 months for the antibodies) and go fly with them. If they are carrying the antibodies, they can't give or get the decrapitation again until those anitbodies fade.

You beat me to it, but this was going to be my advice as well. The length of antibody based immunity is still somewhat up in the air (mostly due to lack of long term data) but it seems to be getting longer as time goes on and we know more about it. Besides, if we needed a 100% guarantee of safety in our lives, we probably wouldn't be flying around in homebuilt airplanes :)

I'm a fair ways from the OP but I had a moderate COVID case back in October so I'm still within even the conservative 3-6 month window. If anyone in the midwest is looking for a confirmed antibody-carrying RV CFI, I'm available.

If there is enough interest, perhaps a sticky thread with names of COVID-safe CFIs around the country might be in order?
 
I might be wrong, but the SFAR is for some pretty specific categories of operations, and just general flying around for fun isn't one of them:

https://www.faa.gov/coronavirus/regulatory_updates/media/SFAR-COVID-FAQs.pdf

That's what I get from it, at least...someone else may have better info.

Yes, this seems to be correct. Folks, the extension is not granted for just general flying privileges. It applies only to some very specific flight operations. Read SFAR-118-2 before you rely on any extension.
 
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