Covid-19 shelter-in-place rules and GA

[joycem137]

The shelter-in-place order for California disallows all "non-essential travel" and asks folks to stay inside their homes except when necessary to go outside. We are permitted to go outside for "outdoor activities" such as walking around the neighborhood and such, so long as we observe the 6 foot "physical distancing" rules. I know at least one person got fined $400 for not observing that last bit.

So in that mess... Do you think flying GA recreationally is permitted? If I go to the airport and go flying by myself in my own plane, I don't need to interact with anyone and I'll definitely be at least 6 feet away from folks at all times. The closest I'll get is the fueler, but I can ask them to refuel the day before I'm even considering flying.

I'd especially love if anyone has a more precise legal understanding of this. My insurance company just sent out an email to its customers arguing that flight schools should be permitted to stay open as critical infrastructure as defined under the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency definitions of critical infrastructure.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

So you're saying it safer to spend even more time in the place where 3x as many accidents happen vs spending some time driving on roads which have no traffic or significantly less traffic than normal. I'm going to have to disagree there.

I am expecting that when this is all over, there will be lots of reports with charts and graphs showing huge dips and/or spikes for all sorts of things during the time we're locked down. Pregnancies, divorces, domestic abuse, etc. I fully expect that fatal vehicle accidents and drunk driving will show up clearly as well defined dips on those charts.

There is already some evidence in Europe that overall mortality is actually down. There has been no observed excess mortality from Covid-19, except in Italy. That was from last week’s report there. We’ll see if it continues.