Podcast Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Aaron Henriques: Hello everyone. It's Aaron here. And today I'm going to speak to you about the coronavirus, what impact that's having on the aviation industry. You know, also talk about how my flying school and over ATPL students of coping with the shutdown and what's going on with the CAA and examinations, et cetera.
[00:00:20] The first of all, I want to say a thank you to all the people that have contacted me on Instagram in the last couple of weeks. Especially to you know, especially shout out to those that are from a far there's a few that I found where I can actually identify where we're from. We got Angus from Argentina, got Raheena from the Philippines.
[00:00:39] We got Christian from flag that I don't recognize, but it's definitely not European. So people that have reached out from a far thank you very much. And if you yourself want to come and, you know, say hello, ultimately questions, whatever it is you know, let me know what you're doing.
[00:00:57] Reach out to me on Instagram. It's AaronHenray, that's AaronHenray. Go and do that now. And the. I'll get right into the point of this episode here. So we all know about the coronavirus. It's impacted everyone across the world is insane. Just yesterday evening. Boris Johnson, the prime minister for the United Kingdom has imposed a, you know, a partial type of lock down on the United Kingdom.
[00:01:29] You know, he doesn't want people going out in groups of to have more than two people in not to leave the house unless it's for a central work in not to leave the house, unless it's for. I'm going to, you know, directly to go and buy food or medicines. You're only allowed to go out to exercise once per day.
[00:01:48] And of course, if you have symptoms of the virus not to go at all. So it's very, very, you know, sort of harsh measures in a way that are being imposed on the British public. And I say harsh compared to what the British public use. So, what does this mean for the aviation industry and the travel industry as a whole?
[00:02:11] Well, quite simply I think the aviation industry particularly are going to suffer big time right now. That's right down from the flying schools all the way up to the biggest airlines and everything in between all the business jets, everything like that. I think everyone's going to be suffering right now.
[00:02:29] You know, lots of countries have just blanket said you're not coming in. I was looking last week, I was looking at, you know, potential of, I know this is going to come. It's going to go to a lockdown. I was looking at places I could go where I've got friends. I've got friends from the UK who are living out in Australia, in Vietnam you know, friends in on Austria in, in United States and Canada.
[00:02:53] And I was looking at all these places to see where are those places? Could I go, should the inevitable happen? And they lock things down. But already to foreign office website was like, no, All these countries are not letting you in now, you know, you're British, you're not wanted stay away. You might have the virus.
[00:03:11] So it's something that you know, I, haven't got an option to do just like many others and it's really to prevent that spreading across the world. So I completely understand why they've done it. Lots of these airlines, wherever they want. You know, closed down themselves or whatever, they're just being completely rejected by other countries.
[00:03:32] Anyway I was looking at some new British airways prices yesterday for going to certain countries. You know normally prices might be six, 700 pounds to go to somewhere like Thailand, for example. And you know, I was looking at economy prices of over 2000 pounds. And it looks like it's probably because most of those flights are not really going to be full.
[00:03:55] This countries are only letting their own citizens back in pretty much. And yesterday the British government put out an announcement to say, all British citizens around the world come home because you know, if you're on holiday and you're currently out, I've got a feeling they're probably going to lock down the.
[00:04:15] I think Phil, that Nick probably gonna lock down our, our ports very soon. They've really put it into legislation and that's going to be coming. So what that's going to do to aviation industry, we will see, and for us as. Future pilots. You know, ATPL students, people who are just starting, you know, starting out there might be people who are much further along, down the line are being severely impacted by this.
[00:04:40] But we have to remember this. Isn't just us. This is a global thing now. And we need to all pull together and things will recover. I'm absolutely sure that things will recover. Yes. A few airlines are going to go. But that will mean other up other opportunities for other airlines, because they've routes we'll need planes to fly them eventually.
[00:05:00] So other airlines, you know, Ryanairs and, you know BA and all these other airlines will pick up the other routes that have been dropped. I'm. Sure. Now what does it mean to Verace school? So I'm at Stapleford flight centers, a lot of, you know, and. You know, how are they coping after being shut down?
[00:05:18] And they were only shut down last night, eight 30, but they had been making plans already for this. Should it. So last week the first thing came was the cap had to shut down and that their bar area that they have here had to shut down. And they were doing takeaway service only. They moved us into a another classroom, which is bigger, a bit more airy easier to sort of sanitize stuff like that.
[00:05:45] And then, you know, we continued with our lessons, but yeah. Got worse and worse and worse over time. And eventually, obviously it's been forced upon them by the prime minister that they must shut. So what they're doing which I think is a great idea, is they're going to try and keep the course running for our ATPL ground school course.
[00:06:09] And they're going to try and do that. Like a webinar type system to see, you know, but by delivering lessons live over that webinar type system to the students in the class if we can all log in, so we're all gonna give that a try. Hopefully it can work out if not worst case, you know, we can have to have a few weeks of, of a break from the course.
[00:06:30] Start the course up again in a few weeks time. You know, that's the alternative, if this webinar system sort of doesn't really work out, if people are not being able to really learn from it in that, in that sort of way. So we're going to give it a go. I'll be interested to see the sort of results on that, how effective that system is particularly with, you know, potentially having other distractions around around you.
[00:06:54] You know, if you sat in your room with your laptop, watching a web. There's other things going on camp really got that teacher in front of you, but I'll let you know how that goes on. If the school keep the, if the school keep doing it, or if we do just, you know, call it a day for a few weeks and then continue, but what I did manage to do, and I'm so glad, I'm so glad for me personally is how, what day is it?
[00:07:21] Say Tuesday, the 24th of March, 2020. And. In what is it? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 days, time British summertime begins. And that is the end of night flying season at this flight center. There are still places around the country that will do it. So it's such a south end, but then a tutorial really expensive, you know, 30 pounds for a touch and go, you know, it's insane.
[00:07:49] So. I'm so glad I managed to get it done last week, Friday, extremely happy. They, the school went above and beyond. They kept the school open till nine o'clock at night or just beyond nine o'clock at night so that I could get my last two and a half hours done. I hadn't flown, you know, I did my whole day in class.
[00:08:09] Then I went up for an hour immediately after class. That wasn't the night rating that was just to try and get my SEP back best of a single engine piston rating. If the SEP and. I then had like a half hour break, had to go and plant a night now and then went out for another two and a half hours.
[00:08:28] And I was absolutely exhausted at the end of it, but it was worth it. I got their signature on that bit of paper. Now I can send my checker for 120 pounds of, to the CAA and they will then add that night rating onto my license, which I'm not going to be able to use anyway until October time when. The night rating sort of season starts again yeah, 25th of October this year.
[00:08:52] So yeah, that, that, that's something really great that I've managed to get done. Now, there are a number of people. On my course, a few of us who have businesses outside of the aviation world and actually on my Instagram as well. I'm going to start sharing more about my business side because I sort of noticed all I'm doing is I'm sharing loads about aviation, but there's a whole other half of my.
[00:09:20] The do, which I really enjoy as well, which is business. And it's something I hadn't been sharing much of. So I'm going to start actually sharing a bit more about that. But business has been hit really, really hard. It's not just the aviation industry over the course of free days. I lost what third, just over a third of my.
[00:09:40] In three days. And I also fall into one of those businesses that the moment we wouldn't be covered by any of the government grants that have been put out there, although apparently there are some announcements today to sort of provide some support for the businesses like mine, like a couple of the other students on this course who run their own businesses, who otherwise wouldn't be covered by the current financial support available.
[00:10:06] But. Yeah, losing a third of my clients, you know, literally in a couple of days it takes ages to build them up and we lost them just like that. And that's because, you know, people, they, they, they, they, they don't want unnecessary contact. You know, we've got lots of elderly people who we work for. So one of my businesses by the way, is a.
[00:10:28] Domestic cleaning company. The other one is a digital marketing company. It's the domestic cleaning company, which has been hit at the minute because people don't, you know, cleaners in the house had lots of people thinking, well, surely they'd want the cleaners coming around. Yes. They want the house clean.
[00:10:46] But the risk of someone else bringing in the Corona virus into their house is too high for a lot of people. And so. That's why they shut down and we've had to take measures to try and protect ourselves and stop the business from going under luckily you know, I've got, I have got the finances there to be able to keep things afloat you know, for a good few months and keep things going and support the business and the workers within the business to be able to keep going.
[00:11:15] But hopefully there will be some extra support to give me a bit more You know of a cushion to be able to keep running. And there's other guys hair as well. You know, people who own houses that they rent them out, where obviously they're in the tenants have potentially lost their jobs or are not going to be getting paid depending on type of work.
[00:11:35] They do. Who are now not going to have to pay their rent. They're having to pay mortgages, et cetera. You know, one of the guys has been on the phone for God, knows how long this morning, trying to get through to the mortgage company, to reduce his outgoings on that. And all of these things are having a massive impact.
[00:11:52] And although, yes, we need to continue with the studying. It is something that it's going to be stress or is something that's going to be on your mind. I know it's been on my mind for the last couple of days when I started seeing cancellation of the cancellation after cancellation coming through you know, just thinking, well, these cancellations directly affect me because that's how I fund my life.
[00:12:16] I don't have a job. I have my businesses and that's how I pay for everything. You know, there's also what faulty or people within my business that, that rely on my business functioning for them. Put food on their table for their families to eat, you know, so it it's something that we're going to manage.
[00:12:36] And the government has provided so much support, really grateful to them. They've done a fantastic job so far in sort of helping out lots and lots of types of businesses in a very, very short space of time. Yeah. So the other thing that sort of, I guess, bug me a bit is. We are the generation who doesn't understand the word.
[00:13:02] No. And it's, you know, people are being asked to do something really, really simple by the government state at. Now that, to me, it doesn't seem that difficult. You know, if you fit, if you look back over the years and you know, if you look at your great-grandparents or your grandparents, depending on how old you are, you know, the sort of things that they've been through, they were asked to enjoy for years, not just a few weeks for years, and they managed to do that.
[00:13:37] Then you managed to do that. You know, and still function. But just in the greater national interest, rather than sort of, you know, the self-centered types that we are as our generation, very self-centered we want it all. Now. We don't like being told, no, we don't like being told what to do. That's this, you know, being told what to do is a sort of thing makes people do the exact opposite.
[00:14:05] So, you know, the government have come out now saying, do not go out in public. I can guarantee you. There are going to be thousands of people across the country right now, who just because they're being told not to do it, they will do it. They will go out there. You know, there was a case of some kids that went up to an old lady and stopped coughing in half face.
[00:14:26] It's disgusting behavior. And I think for people who want to become professional pilots, particularly. You know, there's a lot of young people that try and enter this game and they've never worked in professional environment. I've never had to you know, abide by rules apart from, you know, the ones that their parents impose on them or school perhaps, or they they're very relaxed.
[00:14:52] I think it's really important that professional pilots that you, you really play, you know, pay consideration to the fact that the government aren't doing all of this. For fun. It's damaging the economy beyond belief is not fun. It's not good for anyone that they are asking people to stay in just for a short period of time.
[00:15:13] Now, as professionals you know, people wanting to end to professional job or professional work environment, there are rules that you need to follow, and there are way, you know, sometimes there are things that you need to do that you might not like. And we just need to understand that and abide by that, because right now there's too many people still who are just ignoring what the government is saying, doing their own thing.
[00:15:43] There's too many people, even in my own class ATPL class who, you know, they're more concerned about the ATPL's than their own health or the health of other people around them. It's a very self-centered attitude to have. Looking at it for the longer term. Nobody knows what this virus would do. Even if you are young and fit and it may not harm you much.
[00:16:09] You don't know what the long-term effects are. You don't know if you might be one of that small percentage of people who are healthy and fit otherwise, who then do you know, have severe implications from it. Now, what happens if you lose your class one medical and you're only 21 years. Yeah. And that makes you press, imagine that makes you permanently unfit all because you cannot be bothered or you don't wish to listen to some simple advice, just stay at home.
[00:16:37] Yep. So that would be my plea to people. I'm glad my school is now shut down. I just feel like people just need to relax a bit. The aviation industry is going to be here for a long time. You know, for probably for everyone who's listening our entire lifetime, it's probably still going to be around. So having to put things on hold for a few weeks, isn't going to kill you, but not doing that could harm you.
[00:17:05] It could harm other people. Okay. So that would be my only query for my only sort of thing I would ask you to do is to stay. Just listen to the government advice to get Facebook, forget everything else. In fact, don't even listen to me, just do what the medical professionals are asking you to do. Just do it.
[00:17:29] It's not hard. So I'll let you know what's going on, how things have planning out with the distance learning are going to try and implement. Obviously our course wasn't designed as a distance learning course, so they are trying, it's really good that. You know, trying to give it a go to help us keep on track with our studies.
[00:17:48] In terms of the CAA not much has come from them, to be honest, I think they've been really slow in sort of taking any sort of leadership to sort of show, you know, why you know, why schools should be remain open or be closed. You know, they've not really given anything about the exams or anything.
[00:18:06] And I, I find, I find that a bit odd. There doesn't seem to be much trickling out to the CAA. There should be some really bright, smart people, good leaders in there. And they haven't been showing that over the last sort of few days really well. Not that I've seen anyway. So if anyone does know what's going on with the CAA for people who have booked exams and already doing our ATPL hours, apparently they have extended it already from 18 months.
[00:18:37] To two years to 24 months, there is some confusion over whether or not you need to apply for that individually, or if it's going to be an automatic extension, I actually don't know. I can find what I would call a credible enough source to sort of be able to turn around to anyone on here and say, if it's going to be automatic or not.
[00:19:01] Okay. There is no word at the minute on whatever. The exams, you know, going further into may, June, July are going to be put back or if they're going to continue as they currently are. Apparently all the April exams are closed have been locked off and sort of canceled, but again, are they going to just move the April into the next month or they're going to reschedule them for complete new date?
[00:19:28] So watch this space, I'm sure to CAA we'll come out with something useful soon and sort of provide a bit more guidance, a bit more leadership in their area or what us ATPL pills students need to be doing and how it's going to affect us and our studies and obviously our plans going forward.
[00:19:48] So thank you very much for listening again. And of course, If you're still listening now, go follow me on Instagram. It's AaronHenray. That's AaronHenray. Send me a message. Let me know what you're doing. I'd be really interested to see what other flight schools around the world are doing and also around the UK, of course how they've sort of handled this Corona virus issue.
[00:20:14] It's literally killing thousands of people. Bailey at a minute. So let me know what's going on. Let me know where you are and your studies and you know, give me a follow and say, hello.
