Individual Young Eagle Flights - Yes/No/Maybe ?

Is anyone back to flying individual (vs rally) Young Eagle Flights? If so, what criteria are you using for a go/no-go decision?

I regularly fly individual YE flights which I've put on hold for the past few months. Candidly, I can't think of a nicer distraction for a kid right now (and their parents) ... but is it too early to get into the cockpit with someone's child who you do not know? Last weekend I tried a compromise: after exchanging a few emails I offered to meet them at the field. With masks and proper distancing, we spent an hour walking around the airplanes, talked about flying and aviation, went through a pre-flight and let the kid sit in the plane. Pretty much everything short of taking a flight. This was a really motivated 12 year old who not only pointed out the Pitot tube on the 172E, but then explained to his Dad how it drove the airspeed indicator. Yikes!

I was really tempted to take him flying, not jut for the experience but so I could hand him a logbook with access to all the great YE "stuff" (including access to the Sporty videos). Instead I assured him we'd get airborne as soon as it made sense. Thoughts?

Sounds to me like you're doing the best you can to make lemonade, given the circumstances. I don't know what the situation is like in Durham, but I suppose if the kid's parent is OK with the flight, you're probably fine. Unless, of course, there's a tattle-tale hiding behind the fuel island who decides you're putting the nation at grave risk by doing something nice for a bored kid. Hard to give advice from across the country, but personally, I'd yell, "clear prop!"

We just canceled our Young Eagle flights event, not so much because of our concerns, but the parents, local school district and airport not liking the idea. CYA seems to the way these days. Understandable.

We are doing individual YE flights in our chapter (245). We have left it up to the pilot to determine his/her comfort level with it, and we ensure that the parents understand the issues involved. The standard COVID procedures are used (its sad that this is now a common phrase) and so far everyone has been really happy with the results.

We, too, had to cancel our YE rally as well as our annual fly-in breakfast, but we are managing to keep the spirit going. We have our own hangar/clubhouse that in past years has been pretty quiet. I don't know if it is something in the water or people wanting to get out of their houses but the hangar has been a beehive of activity for the last number of weeks. Being Canadians, we tend to follow the rules so everyone is good about the mask and social distancing thing. But it also might be because we are, on average, old geezers and more susceptible to infections.

We are still giving Young Eagles flights but have asked each pilot to really think about their risk factors. Some of the older members and some members taking care of elderly family decided not to. The rest are using surgical masks and keeping the air vents on full to maximize air exchange. Some pilots were complaining about glasses fogging up but switching to an N95 mask or pulling the glasses a 1/2" away from your face will solve that. Radio communication can be impaired so we did a course on standard phraseology and have tried to get everyone to speak more clearly.

There's lots more guidance from the FAA and ALPA but very little of it is relevant, AOPA has good info on aircraft cleaning before and after but the important thing seems to be to wash your hands.

My post keeps disappearing??????