No Pan-European rulesetting
There is non Pan-European common approach with regards to General Aviation, it seems unfortunately not part of the EASA mandate.
Every country is putting its own set of rules in place. In Belgium, one can resume flying with a set of sanitary and security measures, but one can only fly in non-controlled areas (no CTR or TMA crossing).
Only local flights are allowed, taking off and landing at the same airfield is compulsory. Not very funny, but at least we are shortly in the air again, be it with severe restrictions.
Mooney, here we are !
I reached out to Flight Instructor Kristof Goossens, who I haven’t seen for a while. Kristof is an Air Traffic controller and flies besides on King Air and Pilatus PC-12. Kristof is a proud young father of two, virtually no time remains for giving flight instructions lessons. As he has been in confinement as well since March, I reached out to him to check whether he agreed to accompany me for my upcoming flight and check me out.
As the flight preparations tend to give as much satisfaction as the flight as such, I went quite early to the Airfield of Genk-Zwartberg. Clear blue skies, fine weather, and yet, only a couple of cars on the Parking in front of the clubhouse. I opened the hangar and found my beloved Mooney M20 there. The first thing I did is to desinfect the plane completely. Than I towed it outside and performed a thorough check.
In the meantime, I noticed Belgian Aviation Authorities sent an inspector to the airfield. The inspecting lady tells me she’s on a mission on behalf of the Covid-19 task force. She checks whether the Covid-19 procedures that the flying clubs put in place are strictly respected. They are apparently checking all airfields right now and based upon the report, it will be decided whether the rules are loosened or made more strict again.
New flying dress code
The new ruleset for flying imposes that we need to wear a mask and have gloves on when we fly. I have proper sanitary gloves with me as they are very solid.
