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From: mpucket@jacobs.cs.orst.edu (Margaret Puckette)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Flying for the Environment
Message-ID: <1991Apr03.174832.20048@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 91 09:48:32 PST
Sender: Margaret Puckette
Followup-To: mpucket@jacobs.cs.orst.edu
Organization: Oregon State University, CS Dept.
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Nntp-Posting-Host: jacobs.cs.orst.edu


	Question:  What is the difference between an environmentalist and
	           a terrorist?

	Answer:    You can reason with a terrorist.

Things are getting bad out here; any overflight would reveal that, if the
visible clearcuts are replanted and logged the necessary 30 years hence,
there is not enough forest left to last the intervening 30 years.  This
is bad news for both the forest and the economy, so I've been flying for 
the environment.

It was not easy convincing a local environmental group that I, a pilot with
an airplane, would be of any use to them.  Their activities had always 
involved researching EA's (Environmental Assessments), doing "visuals"
(tree sitting), conference calls with attorneys and the BLM (Bureau of
Land Management), filing restraining orders, or performing "CD's" (civil
disobedience = usually tying oneself to a tree).  What good was an airplane?

An airplane reveals The Big Picture...and fast.  In less than 30 minutes,
engine start to engine stop, one could observe illegal cutting or illegal
logging roads, take revealing photographs of damage to streambeds and
waterfalls, and review the deforestation in its shocking totality and
relationship to the surrounding countryside.  And I was relatively cheap!
I could only accept monetary help with fuel or I could donate fuel costs.
At only ~$20/hour, they began to consider me seriously.

Five flights later, the group is sold on aviation.  I've taken up a local
philanthropist, several forestry people, a reporter and photographer, and
members of the group.  The spokesman for the group said, "This is an amazing
tool for our cause!".  They're now working on getting a TV crew and some
political people up.  They've got some shocking photographs.  I've gotten
some really good flying experience---seat of the pants flying.

Thank goodness for the commercial pilot maneuvers, I've used them all,
I could do them with my eyes closed :-).  Wing on a point at slow flight
speeds?  No problem.  Chandelle into rising terrain to view a hidden cove?
Hey, it works!  Since I'm carrying nonflyers, my policy is "No G forces
allowed", and since I have a low-winger, there's lots of steep turns and
side slips to view the ground-sans-trees below.  Besides an owner-assisted
annual, this is the only other way to really KNOW YOUR AIRPLANE.

Now before you urban nit-pickers start flaming me, note that I've had a
mountain checkout.  Virtually all student pilots I know have, and a long
cross country solo that involves crossing the Cascades; one can hardly
leave Corvallis without flying over rugged territory.  Emergency landing
sites, even a decently straight stretch of road, are nonexistent in most
places.  The logging operations we are observing on nearby Marys Peak are 
adjacent to two attractively flat valley floors well within gliding distance.
The site also faces the prevailing winds, and the maneuvering takes place
in upslope wind...a good thing.

You may have heard of the Wings of Conservation group called "Lighthawk".
I applied to them, but they only accept pilots with more than 1000 hours
as flyers for their lobbying efforts.  I'm not there yet.  But I have 
discovered that it is possible to fly for environmental causes if one just
asks around and makes the offer.  You can make a difference, and you can
do it by flying.  How much better could it be?

*************************************************************************
Margaret "Acting locally" Puckette
AOPA Archer N1939G - eyes in the sky