<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1756502, August 2020

Pilot reported the tower closed due to covid-19 staffing; and was not sure as to what they should be squawking.

Attributes
ACN	1756502
Time
Date	202008
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft High Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 10 Flight Crew Total 3500 Flight Crew Type 700
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

After completion of maintenance; flight check to determine if ELT would activate erroneously during flight. ZZZ tower operating under covid-19 with restricted staffing closed the tower at xa:00 and advised that airspace was reverting to class east.traditional squawk for pattern operations is XXXX without ATC approval. Very confusing as to use without tower operating. Did one circuit with squawk of XXXX and determined no ELT issues. After discussion determined that may have not followed proper guidelines that were established for covid-19 restricted operations by not contacting ATC for another squawk code after tower closure. Have reviewed and implemented process to assure compliance until normal tower operations resume.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reported the Tower closed due to COVID-19 staffing; and was not sure as to what they should be squawking.

Narrative: After completion of maintenance; flight check to determine if ELT would activate erroneously during flight. ZZZ Tower operating under COVID-19 with restricted staffing closed the Tower at XA:00 and advised that airspace was reverting to Class E.Traditional Squawk for pattern operations is XXXX without ATC approval. Very confusing as to use without tower operating. Did one circuit with Squawk of XXXX and determined no ELT issues. After discussion determined that may have not followed proper guidelines that were established for COVID-19 restricted operations by not contacting ATC for another squawk code after Tower closure. Have reviewed and implemented process to assure compliance until normal Tower operations resume.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.