Greetings,
What a difference a month makes. Nearly every facet of American life has been affected and changed due to CoVid-19. Unfortunately, it has impacted aviation. With Governor Ducey's order of Shelter-in-Place for Arizona, it has impacted us even further. As a precaution, the APA board decided to postpone our Annual Meeting. We had a great venue and guest speaker lined up, so we'll reschedule it for later this year. We've also cancelled the Grapevine camp group cookouts and the Spring events at Pleasant Valley (Young) and Double Circle Ranch, but these airfields remain open for your individual use.
While we all practice social distancing by sheltering in place, it has become more difficult to find doctors to perform medical exams, instructors to perform Flight Reviews, and Designated Pilot Examiners for checkrides. AOPA and EAA are working closely with the FAA to establish workarounds to keep pilots and instructors current. We'll continue to monitor and update our membership as new details become available that impact the aviation community. Please monitor our APA Facebook and Instagram pages for up-to-date notifications.
In the meantime, you can stay virtually current. That could mean you simply review your Pilots Operating Handbook and mentally walk through the emergency procedures. It could mean that you run through takeoff and landing distance calculations using the charts in your POH. It could be reading through NTSB accident reports to learn from others' mistakes. Honestly, these are things we could be doing all the time to keep our heads in the game.
We have yet to see the final impact this has on our pilot communities, our states, and the nation as a whole, but it will be significant. I truly look forward to returning to the air with my flying friends and enjoying everything Arizona has to offer. Stay healthy!
Blue Skies,
Brian