LightHawk volunteer pilots provide the powerful perspective of flight to help conservation experts make better decisions.
June 2015-
This month we’re diverting from our regular destination feature. Instead of focusing on one small area of our marvelous planet, we’d like to draw attention to the wild locations found in between the airports, bed-and-breakfast inns and hundred-dollar-hamburger spots. Dan Pimentel has put the spotlight on some pilots who volunteer to do a different kind of daytripping in this month’s story, which we’ve titled, “Destination: Downstream.” We hope you enjoy the tour. —Ed.
While there is disagreement about the existence of a changing climate, there is one particular part of that debate to which all parties, regardless of politics, can agree: we all live on this one planet called Earth. And that’s not about to change in our lifetimes.
Every day, people discuss what we should be doing to protect our planet, and whether it needs protecting at all. But if you’re a volunteer pilot for LightHawk—a nonprofit organization that began in 1979 with one man and a borrowed plane—your mission isn’t to support a particular side of the argument. Your mission is to provide support for those working to solve the complex environmental issues that ultimately affect every person, plant and living thing.
Conservation support
LightHawk’s 212 volunteer pilots fly to protect land, water and wildlife in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America. According to Bev Gabe, LightHawk’s communications manager, the organization’s role is to “help accelerate successful conservation outcomes for our partners through the powerful perspective of flight.”
“By making flights available to those working to protect our natural world,” Gabe continued, “we enable our partners in conservation to quickly and efficiently understand environmental issues and determine the factors needed to promote effective solutions.”
The kind of conservation support that LightHawk pilots perform can be broken down into three areas, said Greg Bedinger, Pilot Outreach Manager for LightHawk. A third-generation ATP pilot and flight instructor based at Ryan Field (KRYN) in Tucson, Bedinger defines these three areas as survey and monitoring flights; flights of discovery; and media flights.
“We provide access to areas that are remote or difficult to reach, or too large to be covered efficiently by road or foot,” Bedinger said. “These flights are used to gather data for scientific or conservation management purposes.
“We also fly donors, scientists, decision makers community leaders to give them the opportunity to be inspired by the aerial perspective to lead positive change for natural resource awareness and protection.
“And for the photographers, videographers, writers and journalists that we take up, these flights offer the opportunity to capture the story of an environmental issue and disseminate it to a broad audience.”
The ideal LightHawk pilot, says Bedinger, is one who “has witnessed incredible landscapes from the air and been moved to share in the responsibility we as humans have to ensure these landscapes are treated with the respect they deserve—whether that be through protection and preservation or careful and thoughtful resource management.”
Jane Nicolai
Jane Nicolai is in her 21st year flying as a volunteer pilot for LightHawk and is a 3,000-hour, instrument-rated fixed wing and helicopter pilot based at Pearson Field (KVUO) in Vancouver, Wash. Nicolai flies a 1977 Cessna Cardinal RG and a Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser. She’s flown about 400 hours on over 100 volunteer missions for LightHawk.
“From the air, as we are able to see watersheds, river systems, forests and communities, it’s easier to see and understand that we all live downstream. Crappy water for fish means crappy water for drinking. Toxic fumes that kill forests bring sickness and disease to communities nearby,” Nicolai said.
“Our Piper Super Cruiser is a great vehicle for low and slow flying,” continued Nicolai. “My husband Bill (also a LightHawk pilot) has flown above rivers and streams with a biologist in the backseat utilizing radio telemetry to track wild Steelhead.
“This method enabled the biologist to track the location of specific fish that have individually-coded transmitters. The project, covering several hundred square miles of the Yakima Reservation in Washington State, has provided key data for conserving this important wild fish species.”
Mike Jesch
LightHawk volunteer pilot Mike Jesch, a 20,000-plus hour and Boeing 737-800 captain who flies his personal aircraft out of Fullerton, Calif. (KFUL) says, “I don’t have the capacity personally to directly affect change… but by utilizing my capability to fly a small airplane, I can provide those who do have that capacity to fully study, analyze and illustrate whatever issue it is they’re working on.”
“I do a lot of different kinds of flying,” Jesch said. “I really enjoy flying for LightHawk, because it’s always educational. I have a tremendous opportunity to carry along specialists who spend their lives studying some portion of our ecosystem.
“I enjoy talking with them as we fly about what is going on in the system, and hearing their opinions on what the various stakeholders are trying to accomplish. They’ve always been very open and honest about what the various players are trying to achieve—whether they agree with them, or are challenging them. It makes me appreciate the importance of hearing all sides of an issue.”
Jesch explained that while the LightHawk flights are rewarding, they are not without challenges. “The flying we do includes ground reference maneuvers, sometimes at low altitude and lower airspeeds. We have several people on board the airplane, so we’re heavier than usual much of the time.
“A high comfort level with your machine in the low altitude, low speed flight regime is essential. The division of attention between keeping the airplane safe, the needs of your passengers, and the objective on the ground only adds to the intensity of the flight. Yes, it’s challenging flying, but it’s a ton of fun!”
Will Worthington
Every LightHawk mission is very well planned, says Will Worthington, a member of the LightHawk Board of Directors. He is a 5,000-hour commercial instrument pilot, CFI and CFII who flies his single engine aircraft out of Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (KDVT).
Worthington describes a series of flights he flew along the Mexican border for the International League of Conservation Photographers as proof that proper flight planning is essential for success. “These flights were challenging in that the route the photographers wanted to travel was back and forth across the international border, out over the Pacific, then through U.S. Air Force restricted airspace and through an environmentally sensitive national monument—with some weather issues thrown in,” Worthington explained.
“Each flight required coordination with numerous governmental agencies, including the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Customs, FAA, National Park Service, Department of the Interior and even Department of Homeland Security, plus all of their counterparts in Mexico.”
Worthington and others explained that many conservation issues transcend international boundaries to the South, and LightHawk maintains careful coordination with U.S. and Mexican officials, so the barrier of complicated border crossings has been for the most part eliminated.
“We are able to work with the Mexican government in support of the conservation organizations engaged in the preservation of endangered species in the Sea of Cortez,” Worthington said. “Our flights can originate in the U.S., cross the border and fly through Mexican airspace for four hours or more, and return to the U.S. without the time-consuming process of U.S. and Mexican customs. I am unaware of any organization that could provide that kind of support as efficiently as LightHawk.”
Worthington’s plane will carry the pilot plus three passengers with full fuel and baggage, cruising at 150 knots for up to six hours with reserve fuel. That kind of range fits well into LightHawk’s missions into Mexico, where fuel availability is an issue.
“I departed southern Arizona and flew over the Sea of Cortez (in Mexico) for 560 nm with three passengers, returning to the U.S. with comfortable fuel reserves. That’s a tough flight profile. My airplane, with a Garmin 430 coupled to an S-TEC 50 GPSS-capable autopilot, makes this flight pleasurable and relaxing as it will fly the whole route without a stop for fuel.”
No such thing as too much information
If there is a big takeaway in this story, says Jesch, it’s that LightHawk’s volunteer pilots do important work. “No matter what your feeling any issue that a partner is trying to research,” he said, “we should all be able to agree that more information and a viewpoint from a different perspective is always a good thing. There is no such thing as too much information.”
It’s information, Gabe says, that is really what the organization is all about. “One of LightHawk’s focal projects for about six years has been the restoration of the Colorado River Delta. Since 1960, the Colorado River has not flowed regularly to the Sea of Cortez because it is heavily diverted for agriculture, industry, and municipal uses along its course.
“As a result, the Delta has shrunk to less than 10 percent of its original size, turning what was 3,000 square miles of lush riparian habitat and thriving freshwater and tidal wetlands into a parched desert,” Gabe explained.
“The Colorado River Delta is a vast place that is largely impossible to see in its entirety from the ground,” Gabe continues. “LightHawk flights in the Delta make it possible to engage the hearts and minds of decision makers, media and community members, and have been essential in energizing the push to restore this remarkable ecosystem and publicizing the benefits of nurturing the area back to its former functional state.
“In a restoration effort that spans ecosystems and borders, the aerial perspective provided by LightHawk has provided the backbone of Sonoran Institute’s long-term restoration strategy.”
“From the air, it all starts to make sense,” says Francisco Zamora Arroyo, Director of Sonoran Institute’s Gulf Legacy Program. “Parcels of seemingly fragmented land miraculously stitch together. With the help of LightHawk, we are able to see the Colorado River Delta as a whole.
“While our projects cover many parts of this region, it is from the air that their connections are truly understood.”
In May 2014, a huge conservation landmark was achieved when the Colorado River finally met Gulf of California waters for the first time in many years. LightHawk and Sonoran Institute will continue to collaborate to monitor key restoration sites along the course of the Colorado River.
Deeply satisfying
The opinion heard most among LightHawk pilots is that the flying they do for the organization is making a difference. “Flying with LightHawk is deeply satisfying at its root,” concludes Bedinger, “because it not only challenges us to use our best flying skills and judgment, but the results of our flights are palpable and clearly valuable.
“We see it in the faces of our passengers and their comments after these flights, the ‘aha!’ moments many of them have when seeing something from the air as though for the first time, and being moved by it, whether to tears or to action—or both. In all cases, for the pilots and for our conservation partners, the result is a job well done!”
In the preceding 12 months, LightHawk’s 212 volunteer pilots had flown 340 missions in 10 countries, donating their aircraft and airmanship to 104 partners in collaborations that support conservation work. Each hour flown has generated valuable scientific data and important photographs, and allowed the people who study these complex environmental issues to see things from above.
The unique perspective of flight over a sensitive or impacted area is something that cannot be duplicated with software or created from virtual reality. When someone experiences the view looking down from inside a General Aviation aircraft flying low and slow, it’s then that they can really see what is happening on Earth.
Dan Pimentel has worked in journalism and graphic design since 1979, and is the president and creative director of Celeste/Daniels Advertising and Design (celestedaniels.com). He’s an instrument-rated private pilot and has been writing the Airplanista Aviation Blog (airplanista.com) since 2005. You can find him on Twitter as @Av8rdan. Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
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