| March 2007, Issue 3 |
| LightHawk's new monthly update, WayPoint, was created to share some of the good news we on staff learn about daily. Each month, you will receive a LightHawk success story that illustrates the critical role we play in conservation efforts throughout North and Central America through the unique perspective of flight. We hope you enjoy WayPoint and will share with others our success stories from above. |
Donated Airplane Supports Environmental ProgramsOn February 26, 2007, at a small ceremony at the Palo Alto, Calif. airport, Jane and Peter Carpenter, of Atherton, Calif., donated their Cessna A185F to LightHawk. The Carpenters, long-time conservation supporters, had owned and flown the airplane for 17 years. In early 2007, the Carpenters made the decision to donate their airplane to a public benefit organization that would be able to take advantage of its very special attributes and modifications. The A185F is turbonormalized, a modification that allows the engine to put out its sea level horsepower up to more than 20,000 feet, greatly improving performance in mountainous areas and adding to safety on operation in and out of high altitude airports. The airplane was ordered from Cessna with a number of photographic options as well, including bulged windows on both doors, allowing for observation straight below the airplane, and large plexiglass inserts on the lower half of the doors. Additional modifications to reduce the stall speed allow the airplane to be safely operated into very short runways. As Peter Carpenter put it at the donation ceremony, “If one were to purposefully configure an airplane for the LightHawk mission of providing flights for conservation and environmental support, it couldn’t be better than this Cessna 185 for the combination of performance, observation capabilities, range, safety, handling and the ability to use remote strips.”
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LightHawk Executive Director, Rick Durden, noted, “This is a generous gift by any standards and, thanks to LightHawk’s tremendous volunteer pilots corps, this aircraft will provide an immediate and direct benefit to many critical conservation issues. We are extremely excited about what this airplane means to our ability to support our environmental programs.” Rick Durden also extended his thanks to LightHawk supporter and long-time pilot, Martin Litton, who hangars his airplane near the Carpenters and was the one who initially encouraged Peter Carpenter to consider donating the airplane to LightHawk. Durden pointed out, “Without Martin’s enthusiastic description of LightHawk when he spoke with Peter, this wonderful donation would never have happened.” The airplane is being put to immediate work. Volunteer Pilot, Steven Garman, has donated his time to manage the airplane and keep it in a hangar in Sun Valley, Idaho, where it will initially be based. The plane already has started flying missions with conservation partners working to document illegal snowmobile use in designated wilderness areas on the Idaho/Montana border. |
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About LightHawk
Founded in 1979, LightHawk is a nonprofit, volunteer pilot-based organization that flies environmental missions in collaboration with a network of more than 120 pilots and hundreds of partner organizations throughout Central and North America. LightHawk flights provide a powerful and effective platform for research, groundtruthing, environmental awareness and education.
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