LightHawk

LIGHTHAWK • PROFILE

‘10m people are looking out my airplane’s door’

Red wolves, bobwhite quail and black-footed ferrets are just some of the endangered species that benefit from flights in general and business aircraft organised by conservation charity LightHawk. Words: Mike Stones

Pilatus people: A volunteer team pauses for the camera after unloading bobwhite quail from a Pilatus PC-12. (Photocredit: Brian Gibbons).

‘10m people are looking out my airplane’s door’

Red wolves, bobwhite quail and black-footed ferrets are just some of the endangered species that benefit from flights in general and business aircraft organised by conservation charity LightHawk. Words: Mike Stones

Pilatus people: A volunteer team pauses for the camera after unloading bobwhite quail from a Pilatus PC-12. (Photocredit: Brian Gibbons).

PROFILE

“Geronimo has gone and Sam Bass has gone and the red wolf has gone.” Not entirely true. Cowboy crooner Don Edwards was only partly right in his guitar ballad Coyotes. While the nineteenth century Apache leader and the outlaw are certainly beyond the benefit of human intervention – not so, Canis rufus, the red wolf. American charity LightHawk is on a mission to help reintroduce them and other endangered species to their happy hunting grounds – using business aircraft.

Founded 45 years ago, the charity recruits pilots from general and business aviation with their aircraft to fly transport and recon missions in support of native and non-native mammals and birds across the US, Canada and Mexico.

Red wolves and grey wolves are particular favourites of veteran Vietnam C-130 Hercules pilot Jim Becker, CEO of LightHawk. “Wolves were hunted almost to extinction. So, in January I was delighted to fly right seat in a Pilatus PC-12 as we moved 15 grey wolves from northern British Columbia down to Colorado to support the re-introduction of wolves there,” he tells CJI.

Three PC-12 flights each transported five wolves to Aspen, Colorado and then on to Grand Junction. (The precise release sites are kept confidential to safeguard the animals). “They were interesting flights – each transporting five 80 to 100lbs [35 to 45kg] wolves,” he says. The PC-12 volunteer pilot devoted more than 30 hours to transport the animals.

But wouldn’t a road journey have proved just as good – if a little longer, although certainly cheaper? Not according to Becker. The road journey would have taken several days, which would have proved impossible for a wild wolf in a crate. Aircraft are the most effective and humane way to transport these wildest of wild animals and other species.

Call of the wild: A grey wolf scents freedom before flying to Colorado.

Jim Becker, CEO of LightHawk has piloted flights in a rented Cessna 172.

“This collaborative effort reflects the invaluable role aviation can play in conservation. By minimising stress and facilitating efficient transport, we support critical conservation efforts for the recovery and long-term survival of these and other endangered species,” he tells us.

For example, transporting the critically endangered bobwhite quail from their captive breeding sites in Georgia and Florida for release in their former habitat in Pennsylvania can come at a terrible cost. “Transporting these birds by road risks losing between 10-15% of the population,” says Becker. “Flying them cuts losses to zero.”

But not just any flying – it has to be transportation by general and business aircraft. That’s because flight schedules can be timed precisely to minimise stress on their animal passengers. Also, most destinations are out-of-the-way places at small airports that cannot accommodate big commercial cargo jets. Plus, private aircraft enable handlers to accompany the wild animals, which also helps to destress them.

Becker has never forgotten witnessing the sad spectacle of a crated grey wolf marooned at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport awaiting transport by a commercial carrier. “The poor critter had sat on the ramp for a day,” he says. “You can imagine a wild animal in that kind of environment; the stress that it must have suffered.”

So far, the charity has not had access to the large aircraft needed to transport bigger species such as moose or elk. But the charity hopes that as its work becomes more widely known, transporting ungulates may become possible.

Last year the charity completed 234 flights and recruited 24 new pilots. It has more than 200 pilots on its roster and about 120 fly each year.

It’s not just turboprops like the PC-12s and Beechcraft King Air aircraft that fly conservation missions. On the charity’s books are several Cessna Citation jets, a PC-24 and even an Eclipse jet. The charity also welcomes piston engine pilots and their aircraft. Cessna 182s are one of the most common aircraft to fly LightHawk missions. Super Cubs and other taildraggers are active in the fleet too.

The single-engine, one-to-four seaters fly a range of missions from aerial photography – to raise public awareness of conservation topics – to survey flights to monitor threatened and endangered species, documenting natural and human impacts in ecosystems.

Carrying condors: Volunteers unload the raptor at Camarillo Airport, CA.

JOANNA WEITZEL SAYS: Can you help?

LightHawk’s chief advancement officer Joanna Weitzel says the charity is looking for pilots and aircraft – either private or corporate – to help it fly its vital missions. If you would like to make a donation or know of a pilot and aircraft who could help, please email [email protected] or phone (001) 970-797-935.

“We only fulfilled 40% of the requests to fly conservation missions because we don’t have enough pilots to fly them.”

Much head counting goes on from low and slow aircraft. LightHawk’s chief advancement officer Joanna Weitzel explains: “Our light aircraft pilots and observers get a lot of practice at counting. One of our missions for our piston-driven aircraft is to help game commission researchers go out and count the herds in remote locations.” Or to fly 500ft above a shoreline counting migratory birds.

The heavier metal aircraft are used to transport wildlife and fly longer-distance missions.

To fly for LightHawk, pilots are required to have logged 1,000 hours as pilot-in-command and to pass an interview with one of the charity’s senior partners. The charity’s range of volunteer pilots is as diverse as the aircraft they fly. Typical candidates include business owners, many commercial pilots and even a couple of astronauts.

Whatever the pilots’ background, all are motivated by the desire to pay something back to society and to help safeguard North America’s wildlife. Plus, they know reintroducing apex predators benefits not just the species but a wide range of flora and fauna. This follows pioneering research on how releasing wolves into Yellowstone National Park lands has benefitted the entire ecosystem. One volunteer pilot, who flew a National Geographic photographer, said “10m people are looking out of my airplane’s door.”

The 78-year-old Becker – who has piloted missions in a rented Cessna 172 – sums up his personal motivation like this: “When we opened up the crates containing the grey wolves in Colorado, they took off for the treeline like a shot. I've been flying for more than 60 years. This is a chance to give back and use the skills and expertise that I've got to try to give back to society so that my grandkids can experience what I've experienced.”

Funding for the charity comes from personal donations and grants. Weitzel, who is in charge of donations, explains the charity is planning to launch its Wings Corporate Partner Program next year. “We attended this year’s EAA's AirVenture in Oshkosh to talk to several corporations about partnership opportunities in 2026.” But, for now, the charity is keeping the identity of potential participants confidential.

What is clear is the charity’s hunger for new pilots, partners and sponsors. “We only fulfilled 40% of the requests to fly conversation missions this year because we just don't have enough pilots,” says Becker. Turbine pilots are in particularly short supply for long range transport missions. “If you will pick up a wolf cub at 5am from upstate New York, you will need to deliver it to Colorado or Arizona by midday,” he explains.

But the charity welcomes all qualified pilots and donations to help fund its work.

A LightHawk aircraft cruises above the Colorado River Delta to survey shorebirds. (Photocredit: Jesus Salazar)

Time is running out to safeguard native American species. For example, only about 15 or so wild red wolves remain – all located in North Carolina. Even this remnant population remains endangered by gunshots, vehicle strikes, poisonings and hybridisation with coyotes.

“When a species is so critically endangered, you want to make sure that you do everything you can to minimise the stress and provide that animal with the care that it needs along the journey,” says Weitzel. “This is not something that a commercial transport would allow for. So, our private flights bring tremendous benefits.”

Take another example a two-and-a-half-year-old red wolf named Sage. Transported by LightHawk plane, Sage was flown from North Carolina to a zoo in upstate New York to meet his new mate. Together, they produced a litter of six, desperately needed, red wolf pups.

So, while Geronimo and Sam Bass will not be returning to their former haunts of the Old West, red wolves and other native mammals and birds are being restored to their former ranges throughout North America: Thanks partly to the work of LightHawk – backed by its squadron of volunteer pilots and their aircraft.

A red wolf spotted in the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge, NC.

Volunteer pilot Douglass Sisk helps a partner unload a crate containing a California condor.

Prepping bobwhite quail chicks for transport before loading them onto a LightHawk flight. (Photocredit: Don Wolfe/George M Sutton).

Why they volunteer

What volunteer pilots say about LightHawk.

Feet wet: A LightHawk plane tracks the Costa Rica coastline along the Osa Peninsular. (Photocredit: Erin Kunkel)

Chris Boyer

Volunteer Cessna 180 pilot

“I did a LightHawk flight with National Geographic's Michael Melford. And when the issue came out, the photograph from that flight was featured very prominently. I called Michael and I asked him, what is the circulation of National Geographic? And he said: ‘It’s around 10m’.

“I looked at that picture and I realised that there were 10m people looking out the door of my airplane and thinking about conservation. So, I guess that flight kind of sums up the synergy between LightHawk and important conservation efforts”

Dr Barry Baker

Senior research scientist, Conservation, Biology Institute

“One of the things that LightHawk does, by putting pilots together and photographers together with scientists, is that we can create a message that can give hope to people through these beautiful images that photographers take that can be shared. People can see that the world is not all destroyed and there really is hope out there.”

Jane Nicolai

Volunteer pilot

“This is my 20th year as a volunteer pilot. It's so rewarding. It's so amazing. Even though I donate the day and the flight and the fuel and the cost of a flight, I always come home richer from the people that I have met. And knowing that I'm engaged in something that's positive and constructive and beneficial for conservation.”

“Even though I donate the day and the flight and the fuel and the cost of a flight, I always come home richer from the people that I have met.”