The Drop | Ryan Mason

THE DROP

By Ryan Mason

ryan@aerialfire.com

The Post COVID Reality

As we enter what seems like an endless loop of COVID related restrictions, trying to adjust to our “new normal” is one thing that has struck me more than anything else. Our new normal is anything but “normal.”

As I walk around supermarkets and other businesses watching mask clad people walking the aisles or look at my kids sitting in their newly built “home classroom,” I know that COVID has definitely changed the way we do even the most familiar and mundane things that we previously took for granted.

For the aviation industry, specifically aerial firefighting, the changes are thankfully minimal based on the nature of the work. However, for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the aviation coin that we like to joke about being the “bus drivers of the sky” in commercial aviation, the news has not been as fortunate.

Almost every major carrier, along with making severe changes to how they treat the air travel experience, has also had to face a drastic drop in passenger numbers. In most cases, this has decimated commercial carrier’s bottom lines. Resulting in thousands of furloughs, which have, in turn, led to mass layoffs and early retirements for many pilots who were fortunate enough to be eligible when the downturn appeared to be permanent.

I recently took a trip to Alaska for a wedding, usually no big deal for a seasoned traveler like myself. However, in the COVID concerned year of 2020, it was an entirely different ballgame.

What should have been a relatively easy 10 or so hours on a plane with a few more on a layover became 14-hours of drudgery wearing a mask. This included being woken up during my mid-air nap by a frantic flight attendant concerned that my mask had fallen below my nose as I slept.

Such is the paranoia of a global pandemic I guess that has caused such great concern among fellow citizens whereby those who choose not to wear a mask are chastised by those who do, or in my case, those who make an unconscious mistake while on a plane are looked at as someone who intentionally endangered a flight.

The one thing I became aware of during my flight outside the lower 48 was that this virus has done more than scare the average citizen, but has dragged on so long that it has caused many to remain in a hyper-aware state where those who are not following the exact directions given by government agencies are treated with fear, scorn and even life-changing consequences like a criminal conviction.

I do know that COVID-19 has changed the lives of so many for the worse. There are those like myself that are minimally affected by having a wife now out of work. However, my wife is a teacher on the flip side, so I am now fortunate enough to have an in-home teacher for my two school-age children. Some have lost it all as businesses remain in permanent lockdown, forcing them out of business and, like many larger businesses, causing widespread unemployment that may take years or even decades to recover.

As much as I have seen terrible losses caused by COVID, the one thing that makes me realize we will all be ok on the other side of it is the many signs of resilience noted as you walk by businesses or homes. Even in my neighborhood, things like drive-by birthday parades for kids on lockdown began to happen as things adjusted around restrictions. These spread from a few friends to local police and firemen showing up with their police cars and fire engines with sirens wailing, to the recipients’ delight.

I need only to walk down my street once the sun sets to see people in their driveways adjusting to their new routine with drinks in hand and spread out six feet apart to know that we will be ok and get through this.

Fly Safe,

Ryan