Waypoints: Missing the handshake

Many of us in the room knew each other. You’d expect the morning would have kicked off with a lot of backslapping and boisterous tales of our flights into Pennsylvania’s Reading Regional Airport, where the BPPP Live course was being held. Instead it felt subdued and quieter than you’d expect as the individuals sat—without prompting—one chair apart from each other. Maybe it was the lack of handshakes that made me feel as if we hadn’t really greeted each other. But on this mid-March Saturday, handshakes were being avoided. Even the replacement elbow bump had come under question as the nation grappled with the reality of the global coronavirus pandemic.

I had hoped the Saturday BPPP safety seminars might lead to a feeling of normalcy in what had been a tumultuous week. Throughout the preceding days we were constantly assessing the latest news on the spread of the virus and considering the impact on spring aviation events. One by one the events began dropping off the calendar. Aero, Europe’s largest general aviation show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, postponed its event, scheduled to occur the same week in April as Sun ’n Fun. The National Business Aviation Association shortened a couple of events already underway. We made the difficult decision to postpone the presentation of the Bob Hoover Trophy, scheduled for March 18, moving it to the fall. The Experimental Aircraft Association canceled Hops & Props. The Aircraft Electronics Association canceled its Nashville convention, scheduled for the following week. And finally, late in the week, Sun ’n Fun leadership reluctantly postponed that longstanding spring break for pilots, which will create financial havoc for the organization and the Aerospace Center for Excellence, which provides support for numerous aviation programs.

Sun ’n Fun management tentatively moved the event to May 5 through 10 and was planning to reevaluate that on April 17, most likely canceling it for the year if the virus was still out of control.

The weekend brought no reprieve, as discussions continued about other upcoming events. Recommendations from various federal and state agencies and governments were often conflicting, especially in regard to likely timing of the end of the outbreak and the number of people that it might be safe to associate with.

Sunday evening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued recommendations that people gather in groups of no larger than 50 for the next eight weeks, well beyond the new proposed Sun ’n Fun dates and just shy of the AOPA Fly-In to San Marcos, Texas, at the end of May.

By the next morning the stock market crashed and state governments began mandating the closure of restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, and other public gathering places. President Trump floated the idea of a possible ban on domestic travel. He also suggested that the pandemic might continue for several months, all the way into mid- to late summer.

With that we were forced to consider canceling or postponing the San Marcos event. I likened the experience to trying to decide whether to make a challenging instrument flight. Study the weather, analyze a dozen different forecast products, consider alternate routes, agonize over whether to go. Should we? Shouldn’t we? After great consideration and discussions with many stakeholders, we elected to postpone the event until at least the fall and possibly into 2021. Stay tuned for more details and check our various media channels for updates.

To continue the flight analogy, we elected to drive, knowing we would rather be on the ground wishing we were flying than in the air wishing we were on the ground. For the sake of all, I would be happy to have May 29 and 30 roll around and we all look at each other and say, “Dang, we should not have canceled. All is good.”

Fly safe. Wash your hands. Look out for one another. We will see you at the next aviation event, and we will be especially appreciative for the opportunity to be there and to shake hands again.

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