Conservation Group Will Fly Plane To Help The Environment

Aero-News has learned that in a ceremony Monday, LightHawk Executive Director Rick Durden accepted the title to a Cessna A185F, from donors Jane and Peter Carpenter of Atherton, CA. The turbo-normalized plane will be deployed during 2007, initially in the northern US Rockies to help fulfill LightHawk’s mission to protect the environment through the unique perspective of flight.

"This is a generous gift by any standards but, thanks to LightHawk’s tremendous volunteer pilot corps, this aircraft will provide an immediate and direct benefit to many critical conservation issues," noted Durden.

Representatives with Lighthawk tell ANN the Carpenters, long time supporters of conservation issues, had owned the airplane for over 17 years and flown it in the continental US, Canada and Alaska.

Peter Carpenter pointed out that 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 airstrips.

The plane -- which sports almost every available option offered by the Cessna Aircraft Company, including Plexiglas door panels for observation,  as well as modifications such as a STOL kit -- will initially be based in Sun Valley, ID and flown by qualified volunteer pilots.

LightHawk is a public benefit flying organization, whose volunteer pilots donate their time and aircraft for flights that provide an aerial perspective of land and water ecosystems at risk.

FMI: www.lighthawk.org