Operation Migration 2013 (1 Viewer)

Yesterday’s Lead Pilot Repot

Believe it or not, it was neither a dark nor a stormy morning, but it was a darn cold one….

I gave the thumbs up for the release, but one bird escaped early. This left me unable to take off as all the birds came out ahead of me. Once the birds were far enough away, the trike and I took to the air. I turned to catch seven of the birds, but one bird was behind trying to catch up.

We circled around to give the bird time to catch up and he came on the wing in one of the lead positions. Soon I was on course with all eight birds on the wing.
http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/11/13/lead-pilot-report-6/

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Lead Pilot Report for Monday, November 18th

…Sunday, we watched Mother Nature romp and stomp through the state with the fury of a woman scorned, proving that God may have rested on the seventh day but Mother Nature did not….

….Finally, at around 1400 feet, chaos surrendered to smooth benevolence…. with a tailwind. You read it right. A tailwind! And I thought I had a better chance of having a beer with Bigfoot than experiencing a tailwind! Our speed at times exceeded 50 miles per hour and glad I was that I had the wishful foresight to glue two ultralight airspeed indicators together so as to register such amazing speed….

…About 15 miles from our destination we decided to “skip” our intended stop and keep flying on to our next one. Conditions were just too good to pass up the opportunity. But the doing is always bittersweet. I looked down through the 3000 feet separating us from our so familiar next stop; the home of dear friends and warm memories of past stops as I experienced what to me is one of the hardest parts of this job. Our stopover hosts become, over the years, like family and “skipping” is like driving by your family reunion and not stopping. They always understand and wish us a cheerful Godspeed with hopes of seeing us next year. Still, there is the ache of disappointment all around….
Permalink: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/11/19/lead-pilot-report-roast-duck/

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Lead Pilot Report for Tuesday, November 19th

After the dark and stormy days of the weekend things seem to have switched around. With two flying days in a row and both times we skipped a stop….

…Obviously we would skip and continue on for Carroll County. As we flew on the birds began to aggressively take over the lead so I leveled off, pulling the bar in. The resulting increase in air speed seemed to help them and we were soon doing 70 mph ground speed….

…The descent was rapid and magical as the trike tried to stay ahead of and away from the birds in order to avoid hitting the now fast gliding birds whose flying abilities have been perfected since that first flight from White River Marsh….
Permalink: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/11/19/lead-pilot-report-7/

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Leaves in the Wind

When we first hit camp in Berlin, Wisconsin, the deciduous trees were mostly green. Each day as we traveled the back roads in and around Green Lake County, we saw prettier and prettier foliage as autumn colors blossomed. By the time we left Berlin, most of the leaves had been blown off their perches. Stop after stop, we arrive for a new set of “colorama”, as Linda, a fellow crew member calls it, and as we sit out the wind waiting for our next fly day, we see the colors fade and the leaves blow down….

…So here we are in Carroll County, TN, blown in like leaves in the wind. And the foliage is, once again, beautiful!
Permalink: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/11/21/leaves-in-the-wind/

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Keeping Warm by Joe Duff

Flying an ultralight aircraft is a lot like riding a motorcycle except you have to think in three dimensions instead of two, and it’s a lot more fun. The other similarity is that the number of flyers, like the number of riders, drops proportionately with the temperature. For bikers to brave temperatures in the forties they must have a passion for the open road, be desperate to get somewhere – or crazy. The latter mostly applies to us because we often fly in temperatures much lower than the forties, in fact the teen are not uncommon.

One of the most often asked questions is how do we stay warm at 3000 feet and 18 degrees and each of the three pilots has his own answer. Mine is to layers my clothing starting with long johns and lined pants covered by a flight suit. I wear heavy socks and normal shoes with heat packets under my toes. Then I pull on gum boots that come up over my calves. I have a pair of down filled mittens in which I place two hot packs plus one in each thumb. I cut holes in a balaclava so my headset fits securely over my ears. Finally the entire outfit is covered by the costume which adds bulk, but not much heat.

The hard part is that once you are airborne it’s too late to fix a cold spot so you must make sure it’s all correct before you leave the ground. The other trick is not to expend too much energy pushing out the aircraft or pull starting the engine. Even a little sweat next to the skin turns frigid once you are sitting and no longer exercising. The cold spot for me is right down the zipper line of my coat where there is no insulation. The zippers of all the layers line up and the 40 mile per hour cold air gets right to your core.

Of course the other problem is when we land and the mid-morning temperature is a lot warmer than it was when we started. We walk the birds to a hiding spot and wait for the ground crew to arrive and set up the pen. Unless you can sneak away from the birds to shed some layers, you are in for a hot hour and a half.

In truth it is not that bad. Two hours of cold and one of hot and we are one leg closer to getting home for Christmas. It’s a small price to pay.
Permalink: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/11/25/keeping-warm/

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Lead Pilot Report from November 29th (Distance Traveled: Sixty-seven Miles)

…I decided to do an air pick up. Rather than land and launch with the birds, we do a low and slow pass and try to anticipate how long it will take Geoff and Colleen to swing open the gates and for the cranes to come charging out. If your guess is on the mark, the birds take off just as you are passing and your takeoff turns into a thing of beauty.

That was not the case this morning….

…For the first ten minutes of the flight we passed over the pen several times. Eventually I collected 6 birds and Richard picked up the two stragglers. A few miles south of the pen we passed over an industrial area with lots of smoke stacks, power lines and a busy highway. As luck would have it, two large trucks passed underneath us just as we were crossing. That was too much for the lead bird that turned 180 degrees and headed back. Oddly enough, the others did not follow him but rejoined my wingtip. I radioed Richard who saw the bird and managed to pick it up making the count, Joe 5 and Richard 3….

…Number 3 has been a problem bird from the beginning but we thought we had him cured. He was the one that landed out on our fourth migration leg, while we were still in Wisconsin and took refuge in the forest where he played hide and seek with Richard, Jo-Anne and me….

…Several times while were cruising at 2000 feet, number 3-13 dropped down and I would have to lose precious altitude to get him back in line. Then, twenty-five miles from the destination, he set his wings and began a descent all the way down to treetop level. I knew as soon as he did it, there was no point chasing him….

…The stream was about a foot deep and the birds had an opportunity to bath. We spent two hours together and it was fun to watch them enjoy the water. The only problem was that I had dressed for 19 degrees and it was now 60. I sat on a log with heat packs in my boots and four layers of clothing. You can pull your arms inside the costume and struggle to undo zippers and straps but I use a one piece flying suit. When Colleen came to get the birds and me, I gathered all the loose stuff under my costume and tried to lead the birds out of the water. Colleen must have thought I was spastic and I now have some idea of how the teenage boys feel when they try to walk with their pants down to their thighs and the crotch between their knees.
Permalink: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/11/29/lead-pilot-report-at-least-it-wasnt-cold/

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A Visit with the Whooping Cranes
(abstracts from guest author Linda Boyd)

…My husband has earned his crane costume, but I have always been involved in non-crane migration activities involving people, vehicles, and just about anything else that doesn’t directly involve the cranes. It seemed that after all this time, I should find out what all the migration fuss was about–you know, the reason we are doing this….

…As Brooke and I went down the hill, around the bend, and over the covered bridge, (really, I’m not making up the covered bridge part), a broad flat valley flanked by steep walls came into view—all of it pure white. Not snow, but last night’s heavy frost had turned Tennessee into a winter wonderland. Everything was white, including Brooke and me. It seemed an appropriate setting for a journey to visit these birds who are rapidly losing their brown coloring and taking on the pure white plumage of adult Whoopers….

…I discovered that if I looked through the breathing mesh under the mylar panel, I could see pretty well and what I saw were two startling eyes staring at mine with a serious eight or nine inch beak in between us. I snapped the mylar screen down over my eyes just before that beak delivered the first of several blows….

…By this time #5 was getting in his welcome pokes too. Meanwhile a gentler hello was being delivered by a crane who was playing woodpecker, bent on discovering insect nests in my boot toes. Others also came over to greet me by tugging at my costume, poking at my costume, and exploring the possibilities of taking me out from behind. Brooke, in the meantime, was in caretaker mode, checking out the birds, especially #3–the bad boy dropout of the flight here….

…All this time these big birds, (they are, after all, tall enough to look at me eyeball to eyeball), are chattering away with their tiny peeping voices which seem more appropriate for baby chickens….

…I have always been proud to be a part of Operation Migration and I have always known that it may be one of the most significant things I do on this earth, but now….
Permalink: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2013/12/02/a-visit-with-the-whooping-cranes/

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