General Aviation pilots aren’t allowed to fly, in the main, but that hasn’t stopped the industry doing what it can to help the world effort in a bid to cope with COVID-19. From private pilots making emergency deliveries to manufacturers switching to produce PPE…
11 May 2020
When pilot David Whitcombe took a call from Neil Boyles, operational manager at Horizon Aircraft Services at St Athan, asking whether he was up for making an emergency delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Belfast, he didn’t hesitate.
Neither did Neil, Jason Davidson, Arron Jones and Nathan Mahoney. The pilots convened at St Athan, where David keeps his Piper Seneca 3 twin, and the five pilots loaded their aircraft with PPE that had come from a local NHS warehouse.
First though they removed all the seats bar the pilot’s – of course, they all flew alone – and carefully loaded to keep the weight & balance within limits. Horizon, as well as being a flying club is also an EASA-approved maintenance organisation so they checked over the aircraft thoroughly. Neil also checked with the CAA and secured approval for a one-off flight.
“The flight was very quiet – no traffic at all,” said David. “Belfast stayed open until 3pm for us, three hours later than its current closing time under C-19 restrictions, and a NHS van met us to collect the PPE.”
There’s a very good reason David said ‘yes’. Earlier this year he almost died from C-19.
David, who runs a refrigeration business, said, “I was the ideal pilot for the flight. I’ve had the virus so I’m hoping I can’t catch it again. It started with flu-like symptoms, then I had no sense of taste. I’m never ill usually so I thought I’d just sail through it, but no.
“One night I could hardly breathe and I started to get chest pains. My wife calmed me down and I went to the hospital where I was given oxygen. I didn’t stay in, although I could only walk three of four paces at a time. Even in my dreams I thought I was dying… it was a nightmare. But I gradually got better and fitter.”
David has 4,000 hours flying, holds an Instrument Rating and is a member of PPL/IR and AOPA. He admits to being a super-keen pilot. “I fly all over the place, he said. “I sold my last aeroplane to a chap in Israel and flew it there for him.”
A former Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot flew an urgent mission in his Van’s RV-7 aircraft in April to support the national battle against coronavirus.
Paul Stone, 53, and now a civilian pilot, recently joined the Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol, a national charity that comprises pilots, observers and supporters who provide air support to UK agencies.
Responding to a short notice request, Paul flew his RV-7 from Blackpool Airport, close to his home in Lytham, to Oxford Airport and then on to Beverley Airfield, near Hull. The flight was to provide urgently needed parts to a ventilator manufacturer.
From phone call to delivery completion, the task was completed in 3 hours 30 minutes.
“It was an incredible piece of teamwork,” said Paul, a test pilot and former Director of Flight Operations at BAE Systems.
“Today would not have been possible without the exceptional support from Eddie Clare at High-G, Blackpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Doncaster Air Traffic Services, Oxford Airport and Colin Hazel who opened his grass runway at Beverley Airfield at short notice,” he added.
With the minimum number of people required to prepare and fly the aeroplanes, the Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol believes its fleet of aircraft is a cost-efficient and effective way of supporting the C-19 emergency effort.
Paul added, “I think this provides the government with another solution on how to transport smaller loads around the country at pace.”
Sky Watch is also helping deliver C-19 test materials around the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. They had a practice flight in late April, again with CAA permission and oversight, with a Cougar GA-7 twin flying from Stornoway to Barra and Benbecula, delivering the essential materials.
Sky Watch chief pilot Archie Liggat said, “The operation was a very straightforward flight for this aircraft. It follows a significant amount of planning in the background between Sky Watch, local resilience forums and NHS planning teams.
“It’s important to note that all Sky Watch flying activity involves a high degree of preparation and planning, with all crews and aircraft appropriately certified and insured. As a result of this, today’s operation was also specifically agreed in advance with the Civil Aviation Authority and involved additional safety measures.”
NHS Western Isles chief executive Gordon Jamieson, said, “As we face the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19, we have had to rapidly develop and implement new ways of working. Sky Watch is another fine example of one of the many organisations and individuals stepping forward to assist us.”
Many of the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) in aviation have diverted resources towards designing and producing equipment to help hospitals deal with C-19. One of the first to rise to the occasion was Piper Aircraft which is making PPE to help support its local hospital, Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital.
The manufacturing engineering team at Piper Aircraft designed a prototype face shield with off-the-shelf materials such as plastic, industrial tape, foam and elastic. With the prototype approved, the team sourced necessary materials and created a manufacturing line in the Piper factory. Piper has the ability to produce thousands of face shields daily.
“This is a critical time for our community, our country and the world,” said James Funk, Piper’s chief operations officer. “It is a time for action, co-operation and collaboration.
“As a team, we can make a difference for people in need and directly support those fighting the battle on the front lines of this unprecedented crisis. This is just one small way that we are trying to help.”
In addition, Piper is donating a further 1,300 approved masks to the hospital.
Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam has also designed a face shield for Italy’s Phase 2 of the lockdown, where certain activities are permitted only when using adequate protective devices.
The Tecnam Research and Development team created an innovative face shield (the Tecnam Face Shield, TFS) with a multipurpose solution to protect the eyes and airways against droplets and sprays of fluids containing biological agents, while also protecting the nose and mouth from direct inhalation of biological matter that may contain the coronavirus.
Tecnam is also developing a range of variants to provide protection for the company’s pilots, passengers, flight instructors and flight school.
The main features of the TFS are:
Tecnam’s managing director Giovanni Pascale said, “In difficult times like these, companies such as Tecnam need to do their part. Protecting our first responders and healthcare workers has never been more important.
“We are also pleased to provide a transparent device able to let everyone’s smile be visible
once again!
“Last but not least, we hope this will contribute to a quick return to flight activities for our pilots, passengers and flight-training organisations.”
Cirrus started with donations of PPE to its local hospitals while it was developing not only an easily-assembled face shield but also an air purifier, working with a local manufacturer, Frost River Trading.
“Over the last few days, our experimental team has assembled 31,500 face shields for the local medical community,” said a company spokesperson.
“These face shields were made possible from materials provided by Frost River Trading and our team’s steady work. As a disposable shield, they are a critical need and a simple and effective tool to protect healthcare workers.”
“Of even greater need are Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPR) – battery-powered blowers that provide positive airflow through a filter to a hood that protects healthcare workers from contaminated air.
“At the moment, these units are in extremely high demand with traditional medical supply options limited. Our team, along with Frost River Trading, quickly got to work prototyping equipment to meet this need, with 850 hood and coupler assemblies to be created in the next week.
“At the heart of creating full PAPR units, is a project to recreate the blower units available at area hospitals, which are in short supply. Our engineers have designed, prototyped and tested a replacement assembly using computer aided design (CAD) software as well as
3D printing.
“The design our team came up with costs a fraction of the typical unit supplied to hospitals. The newly prototyped design will be tested in the coming weeks. If approved, Cirrus Aircraft is set to provide nearly 200 blower assemblies.”
Many other aviation companies have also pitched in, including:
Loganair: Working with the Scottish ambulance service, they converted a Twin Otter into an air ambulance with Epishuttle isolation pods for the safe carriage of C-19 patients by air. It will be used to service remote islands such as Barra.
Capital Air Ambulance: The Exeter based specialist now has a Portable Isolation Unit (PIU) fully operational. The PIU is a self-contained negative pressure device for safe transfer of patients with contagious, infective diseases, such as C-19.
Textron: Face masks.
Honeywell: N95 face masks.
Airbus Helicopters: Working with other companies including Rolls-Royce, Ford, BAE Systems and GKN to produce 10,000 medical ventilators for the NHS.
Ministry of Defence: The Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) has established an Aviation Task Force which is on standby to provide aviation support to civil authorities. Royal Navy Merlins, Army Air Corps Wildcats and RAF Pumas and Chinooks will provide medical evacuation as well as deliver essential equipment and personnel across the UK.
Clearly, social distancing in the cockpit of a light aircraft between a student pilot and instructor simply isn’t possible – and anyway, current government restrictions on General Aviation prohibit non-essential flights.
That hasn’t stopped flight schools coming up with innovative ways to continue to train pilots, albeit not in the air but the ‘virtual classroom’ or via distance learning.
Among the GA manufacturers, Pipistrel has made all of its computer-based training courses free of charge and online for anyone to use for three months.
“We hope this will motivate non-flying pilots as well as student pilots and flight instructors to stay connected to their passion and learn more every day,” said the Slovenian company.
“Anybody, whether student pilot, pilot, flight instructor or aviation enthusiast, flying clubs or flight schools can apply and join the online course free-of-charge for a period of three months, from April 2020 until end of June 2020.
“This unique offer is available worldwide to all, including to non-pilots who are interested in aviation.”
The online courses will help to refresh and revise the theoretical knowledge required to fly and learn the specifics about modern the Pipistrel aircraft series, including the Alpha Electro electric aircraft.
Normally the online course fee is €147.30 for 14 days or €247.30 for a permanent subscription. Courses can be accessed from anywhere in the world by laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
You can register for an online course here and create a new account: www.pipistrel-online.com
As an incentive, anyone who successfully finishes an online training course will receive a voucher for a free demo flight in a Pipistrel aircraft.
Cirrus Aircraft has its own online training portal called Cirrus Approach where it offers courses on all its aircraft and their systems, as well as pilot training. As you’d expect with Cirrus, it’s highly professional, slick, fun and well illustrated with stills, video, animations and technical images. They’re also running a series of webinars and ‘bite-sized flight training shows’ called ‘Flight Fix’ which are free here:
www.cirrusapproach.com/flight-fix/
For Approved Training Organisations running training courses for would-be professional pilots, it’s an especially difficult time.
They have students part-way through both integrated (full-time) and modular (part-time) courses, students about to graduate, students taking their first steps and, of course, students who have just shelled out a huge sum of money, many taking out loans along the way, now facing a difficult job future.
For many, the answer is to offer distance learning using materials such as the courses offered by Padpilot and Bristol Ground School, while others, such as Leading Edge Aviation and Cat3C, are offering online classroom instruction using video-conferencing such as Zoom. The benefit is that students can ask questions of the instructor during the lesson and thus avoid getting stuck on a particular point. CATS Aviation Training has launched its own TV station using YouTube which works with its existing web-based training.
Skyborne Airline Academy, which has just reached its first year of operation, is launching a Skills Continuation Training programme to support graduates should they experience delays in securing an airline job.
The refresher training provides continuous support and mentoring by an experienced flight instructor and two hours of instructor-led training in Skyborne’s Diamond DA42 simulator every three months. Skyborne will also cover the cost of its graduates’ first Instrument Rating (IR) revalidation (required one year after completing original IR).
Lee Woodward, CEO of Skyborne, said, “We want to ensure Skyborne is doing everything it can to help the aviation industry in this current uncertain phase.
“Our Skills Continuation Training policy is designed to support graduates by helping them to maintain their skills and keep them fully prepared for airline selection, which will resume. Trainees entering our Integrated ATPL course today will be supported until the end of 2022.”
Cambridge-based VA Airline Training (VA) has also announced a series of measures to support its trainee pilots which include competency refresher training free of charge, a number of bursaries and flexible start dates. Anthony Petteford, MD of VA Airline Training, said, “The current situation is difficult for everyone. We empathise with those pilots who are nearing the final phases of their training but facing flight training delays and additional financial challenges. We will do what we can to support and help them achieve their APS MCC certificate so that they are genuinely airline ready when the recovery does come.”
The 30-minute maintenance flight that’s now allowed (see news p8) comes with a set of rules and conditions. However, there have been a couple of instances reported where pilots have, er, stretched the letter of the law. Going off for an hour to write ‘NHS’ on FlightRadar24 might seem like a good thing to do but you can expect to hear from the CAA afterwards.
No such digression from Dom Wilkinson of Swindon, who took out his absolutely stunning 1962 Beagle Auster Terrier for an essential maintenance flight from Oaksey Park Airfield where it’s based. The Terrier is fitted with a 145hp de Havilland Gipsy Major 10 engine which, for obvious reasons, Dom is keen to keep in prime condition.
“G-ASCH had not been flown for six months, but it had a six-monthly service in March, so it was essential that it had an engine run and 30-minute maintenance flight,” said Dom.
“The flight was carried out in line with the CAA directive for GA maintenance flights, which means I stayed within 10nm of Oaksey Park Airfield and the flight only lasted 30 minutes.
“I had a fantastic time, so great to finally get flying,
if only for 30 minutes. We need to be grateful for little things these days. Can’t wait for things to get back
to normal.”
The maintenance check flight is just one of a number of regulatory issues that have been prompted by C-19, with behind-the-scenes work by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to make it happen. There have also been extensions to licences and ratings which are quite confusing to understand given the official language they are written in.
So AOPA has come up with a couple of useful online aids. The first is the Online Simplified Guide Tool.
“These documents are not easy to follow for the typical pilot, and even test the professionals at times,” said Martin Robinson of AOPA. “To assist your understanding we have created this simplified guide tool on the AOPA website: https://bit.ly/AOPAtool
“Some extensions require you to have a briefing with an instructor or examiner, qualified to give the briefing, which can be carried out remotely. We can offer this service if you have no other options. Other than asking for a charitable donation to the good causes mentioned in the guidance notes it is free.” Here’s the webpage: https://bit.ly/AOPAbriefing
