I guess #1 on my wish list for AirVenture 2020, and likely most everyone else's, is that it NOT get cancelled due to Covid 19? My State is pretty much on lockdown for any event of more than 250 people, the famous Chicago St Patty's Day parades and dyeing the river green are cancelled, and I just saw that the NRA Annual Convention in Nashville for mid-April is also cancelled.
The financial repercussions of this serious illness will be monumental and will likely affect us all, even if the actual virus doesn't. And it still remains a medical fact that most all who do get the virus will not suffer any more than any of the other 'traditional' seasonal viruses.
Last edited by CHICAGORANDY; 03-13-2020 at 09:32 AM.
"Don't believe everything you see or read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln
If it doesn't get cancelled due to COVID-19, what else could cancel it?? This is the proverbial ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM right now and EAA is going super dark on this and being dead silent about this grim reality.
Ya know, if they don't cancel Oshkosh, it doesn't mean you have to go. If you take your health and well being seriously and want to mitigate your risk of exposure to this pandemic at one of the largest gatherings of human beings in a single place on the planet-600,000 plus-THEN DON'T GO!!!
The watch words are Social Distancing. Be smart, use common sense and heed the pleas of medical experts. Or don't.
Certainly. The problem is, those aged 60 or older (gulp) are more at risk...and that's almost a quarter of the pilot population.
For events like AirVenture, this has even greater potential ramifications.
First, the FAA data I used is labeled "ACTIVE Civil Airman Statistics"... from which, we assume there are even more pilots who are considered "Inactive." These are likely to be older people. And not, necessarily, less interested in aviation.
Second, going to national events like AirVenture is, for most folks, an expensive proposition. That, again, is going to skew attendance towards the older set. Retirees with the time available, older folks with more disposable income.
I dislike the above two points, as they cannot be quantitized (no source to establish to what degree they're true). But it's true that the average age for pilots in the US is 44.9 years (from the same statistics file). What's more, lets look at the distribution among certificate holders:
Notice the average ages of the main EAA draw... Sport pilots, Recreational pilots, and Private pilots....are much higher. This is one item where I wish median statistics were available.
Certificate Average AgeAny 44.9Student 33.1Sport 57.9Recreational 50.0Private 49.0Commercial 46.3Airline Transport 51.0
Ron Wanttaja
Last edited by rwanttaja; 03-13-2020 at 10:46 AM.
Looks like they are going to postpone SnF until 5-10 May with a final decision on whether to proceed is targeted at April 17 per this article: https://www.lkldnow.com/coronavirus-...e-precautions/
Nothing official on the SnF web or FB pages as of yet.
Todd “I drink and know things” Stovall
PP ASEL - IA
RV-10 N728TT - Flying
EAA Lifetime Member
WAR DAMN EAGLE!
Thanks Todd, Ron W posted this SNF update on the Chapters topic site here as well.
It's official now -- SnF has updated their FB page with the announcement confirming the dates in the article.
Last edited by Auburntsts; 03-13-2020 at 11:37 AM.
Todd “I drink and know things” Stovall
PP ASEL - IA
RV-10 N728TT - Flying
EAA Lifetime Member
WAR DAMN EAGLE!
Why is there so much reaction to this virus when, the flu is so much larger and kills so many more? No mass closures for flu that I can recall. EAA should wait a while to decide for Oshkosh, to see if outbreaks decrease or spread. I have no facts as all but I don't think they are going to contiunue to spread.
Because, for the large part, there are vaccines for influenza. You can find various sources for the lethality of COVID-19, but one expert testified to Congress that it was ten times as lethal a flu.
The problem is not to prevent folks from getting infected...that's nearly impossible. What they're trying to do is FLATTEN THE CURVE. They're trying to delay people from coming down with it to avoid swamping the health care system.
This illustrates the issue. The area under both curves (e.g., the total number of people affected) is the same. But there is a limit to how many people can be treated at once.
Italy and China show what happens if the spread of the disease is not slowed. Hospitals in Italy are swamped, people on mattresses in hospital hallways, and medical personnel forced to triage new arrivals. People are dying, not because they couldn't be cured, but because there isn't the excess resources to save them. China even built new hospitals in just days; didn't help that much.
It's like having a hole in a boat that lets in 100 pounds of water a second. If you've got a pump that can dump 150 pounds a second, you're OK. But if the water starts coming in faster, something's going to have to go overboard to keep the ship afloat.
Ideally, you'd control the spread so fewer people get infected. Practically, the best you can do is to slow the rate of infection.
Ron "Damn it Jim, I'm an engineer, not a doctor" Wanttaja