Flight Training - November/December 2020 - 34

or millions of college students around the
country this fall, the excitement about new
friends, new classes, and new opportunities
was tempered by one very large unknown: the
novel coronavirus.
The uncertainty loomed larger for the
students in the more than 200 college aviation
programs across the United States. Unlike
traditional classes that can be socially distanced or taught
online, ﬂight training is an intimate affair; social distancing is
impossible. To progress in a course, the student and instructor
must spend extended time together distanced only by inches.
That has brought a nearly impossible challenge to public and
private institutions, which promote learning and safety in
nearly equal terms-attributes that, thanks to the pandemic,
now are at complete odds.
TAKING A PAUSE

In a bit of fortuitous luck, the initial wave of coronavirus
infections and subsequent health control measures began
in mid-March, just as many colleges and universities were
headed to spring break. As a result, these schools were able to
tell students simply not to come back. It gave schools a chance
to examine their training operations and develop creative
solutions to progress toward what officials hoped would be
a quick restart.
The University of North Dakota was one of many institutions that shut down at spring break. The school was able to
resume training on May 26, earlier than some others. "During
the shut-down, we spent a lot of time on mitigation and
protocols," said Dick Schultz, the director of ﬂight operations.
Those protocols had to be approved through the university
hierarchy. At Auburn University in Alabama, the plans even
had to be approved by the governor, according to Wayne
Ceynowa, the director of operations and chief instructor.
This represents both a challenge and an opportunity for
college and university programs. It means staff and faculty
must work harder to overcome political inﬂuence both within
the school and in state governments, which can slow progress
and stand in the way of quick and efficient decisions. But it also represents
an opportunity to use resources not available to the general community, as
was the case with Auburn's reopening plan.
Like all schools, Auburn's ﬂight department used the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the starting point for
its range of health measures, but the staff also relied heavily on the recommendations and guidance of the school's health center. "With the center's
help we formulated our own protocols on how to proceed while still in
lockdown," Ceynowa said. Auburn was able to resume ﬂights on June 1 after
getting all the approvals and putting the protocols into place.
Although new studies are released almost daily about broader coronavirus mitigation tactics, there's been little research up to this point speciﬁc to
34

FLIGHT TRAINING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

ﬂight training. A notable exception is a group from
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona
Beach, Florida, that examined fatigue, blood oxygen
levels, and other parameters while wearing masks
at altitude. In its study, published by the University
Aviation Association's Collegiate Aviation Review International, researchers recruited staff ﬂight instructors
to participate in exercises while wearing masks in a
hyperbaric chamber set to a pressure altitude of 5,000
feet. Unsurprisingly, the team found no decrease in
blood oxygen levels, and no increase in carbon dioxide.
In fact, it appears from the study that wearing a mask

Flight Training - November/December 2020

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