[birdky] Pilots to guide whooping cranes again! Whoopee for the Whoopers!

From: Ce Ci <thefarsidefarm@xxxxxxxxx>
To: BirdKY <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:33:22 -0800 (PST)

FYI -
FAA says pilots can guide whooping cranes
By JOAN LOWY â?? Associated Press
Posted: 4:41pm on Jan 9, 2012; Modified: 6:00pm on Jan 9, 2012
2012-01-09T23:00:06Z
By JOAN LOWY
Related Links
Linkhttp://www.operationmigration.org/index.html
Linkhttp://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy
Story Photos
Â WASHINGTON â?? The pilots of the bird-like aircraft that has been leading
nine young whooping cranes to their winter home in Florida have been granted a
special exemption by federal regulators to continue their journey.
The Federal Aviation Administration has provided a one-time waiver to Operation
Migration, a conservation organization trying to re-establish an Eastern flyway
for whooping cranes by teaching young birds how to make the flight.
Operation Migration ran into trouble with the FAA because it pays salaries to
pilots. FAA regulations say sport planes - a category that sometimes includes
aircraft of exotic design - can only be flown for personal use.
"Because the operation is in 'mid-migration,' the FAA is granting a one-time
exemption so the migration can be completed," the agency said in a statement.
"The FAA will work with Operation Migration to develop a more comprehensive,
long-term solution."
FAA officials notified the conservation group's pilots in late November that
the agency had opened an investigation. Just before Christmas, Operation
Migration voluntarily grounded the plane and the birds in northwestern Alabama
- more than half way to their destination.
Joe Duff, an Operation Migration co-founder and one of the organization's
pilots, said more than 1,400 people have signed an online petition asking that
the flight be allowed to continue.
"We're very pleased. This is probably a record for turning around a waiver,"
Duff said.
He said he has sympathy for FAA officials, who don't want to "open the
floodgates" to potentially risky uses of ultralight aircraft.
"There are all kinds of things people would like to do in sports aircraft that
they aren't designed to do," Duff said.
Operation Migration is part of a U.S.-Canadian partnership of government and
private organizations trying to re-establish migrating flocks of whooping
cranes. The cranes nearly became extinct, dwindling to only 15 birds in 1941.
One flyway has already been re-established, but that flock of more than 100
birds is vulnerable to extinction should a disaster strike, Duff said.
Another Eastern flyway disappeared in the late 1800s when the last whooping
cranes flying that route died off, he said. Since there were no birds still
flying the route, conservationists have been showing young cranes how to make
the journey.
There were 10 cranes when the flock left Wisconsin this fall. But one young
bird took a detour and was later found hanging out with a flock of migrating
sandhill cranes. That youngster has already arrived in Florida.
---
Online:
Operation Migration http://www.operationmigration.org/index.html
Follow Joan Lowy at http://www.twitter.com/AP-Joan-Lowy
Read more here:
http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/09/2022137/faa-says-pilots-can-guide-whooping.html#storylink=cpy
Â
Posted to BirdKY by:
Cecilia Mitchell
The Far Side Farm
Franklin County KY
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[birdky] Pilots to guide whooping cranes again! Whoopee for the Whoopers!

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