The FAA recently issued a rule-making decision granting an exemption allowing Operation Migration to fly. Last year, the whooping crane migration from Wisconsin to Florida, held annually since 2001, was halted in North Alabama. The young cranes remained in Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge as the FAA issue unfolded as to whether non-commercial rated pilots could lead the cranes while flying Trikes. An action like this can take as long as three months or better, and even then, granting an exemption only happens when the agency feels the petitioner has satisfied primary criteria according to Joe Duff, from the OM main office.
OM pilots hold Light Sport Aircraft certificates and the FAA has required them to upgrade to Private licenses. Recognizing that will take time, the FAA has allowed compliance until the beginning of this year's migration to comply. They have also required that the pilots have at least 250 hours of time in a trike. The minimum needed to qualify for a commercial license, is an easy one due to all having more than a thousand hours logged with some almost up to 3000.
-Operation Migration Facebook image-
The other safety factor is the aircraft itself. There are two classes of aircraft within the Light Sport category. The type OM uses is an Experimental that is owner maintained. The other class is called Special, those aircraft used for flight instruction - one of the only types of commercial flying allowed in Sport Light Aircraft. The FAA has required that they switch to Special Light Sport Aircraft (S-LSA).
OM will have to work with a manufacturer to re-design an aircraft to be lighter and fly slower, for the birds to follow, yet still fit into the Special category. The FAA has given OM until 2013 to comply. In the meantime, they will inspect their current aircraft every 100 hours to ensure they are airworthy.
As you can imagine this exemption is a great relief as April was the deadline WCEP partners gave them to obtain a favorable ruling to be allocated birds for a 2012 ultralight-led migration. Duff added we are very grateful to everyone for all the support we received and to the FAA for understanding how important this project is to conservation of Whooping cranes - and to the thousands of people who follow it. - FMI: Joe Duff from Operation Migration Field Journal, Facebook