Volunteer Pilots Protect Utah’s Iconic Landscapes with the Aerial Perspective

The Mission

LightHawk partnered with Rig to Flip, a group that produces amazing videos about Western rivers, to fly 7 people to see the potential impact from mine drilling operations next to the Green River near Moab and Arches National Park. The passengers included photographers, Trisha Hedin from the County Commission, and a social media influencer, Western Water Gal, and Rig to Flip co-founder Cody Perry.

The Pilots

Given the number of passengers involved, two Volunteer Pilots were recruited to fly this mission. John Priscu flying his Maule MT-7-235 and Lee Gerstein flying his Bonanza B36TC. John is a recently retired Professor of Ecology at Montana State University, now splitting his time between Hurricane, Utah and Bozeman, Montana. He is still active in ecology research and after this mission was headed to the high arctic to work on a NASA project. John is also a very active RAF pilot – no surprise given that he has the perfect airplane for back country flying. He flies out of IL8, General Dick Stout Field, a 3300’ GA airport in Hurricane, UT. John is very positive on his LightHawk flying describing it as “donating my time to a good cause,” and “these flights are an adventure.”

Lee Gerstein flies out of Salt Lake City, (KSLC), enjoys life in the Rocky Mountain West and loves the desert and red rocks of Utah. Lee also flies for Angel Flight, making good use of his traveling machine, a turbocharged Bonanza. He commented that flying for LightHawk is, “a great use of a small plane” and that it is, “a great excuse to fly doing something that is very worthwhile.” Lee added, “If you take up a policy maker, a journalist, a scientist… they will get a sense of the area they are interested and involved in that they will never get by driving around in a truck for six hours. It’s totally different.” A perfect description of LightHawk’s mission.

Photos by Cody Perry.

The flights

The mission launched from Canyonlands Regional Airport (KCNY). It was a 160 nm ferry flight for Lee but a 195 nm ferry for John and he ran into strong headwinds on the way up. He did however, fly over Zion National Park and some of the most spectacular scenery in the country, a small compensation for a slow groundspeed. Given the number of passengers, John and Lee decided they each would make two flights spreading the load. John would fly low, about 500’ AGL with the photographer at about 70kts while Lee would fly high cover at 1,500’ and about 120 kts. They devised a clever way to allow the passengers in both airplanes to communicate and discuss what they were seeing in real time. All the passengers had headsets and both John and Lee set their No. 2 radios on an interplane frequency and set up the audio panels so everyone could communicate. That allowed Cody Perry, who led the trip, to describe what they were seeing. Both pilots could keep an eye on the other’s location using ADS-B.

Each flight took about an hour. The weather was perfect, CAVU, with little turbulence and no other traffic in the airspace. Lee mentioned that the FBO at Canyonlands, Red Tail Jet Center, was very accommodating and a pleasure to work with. Both Lee and John felt that it was a very successful flight; supporting press coverage of industrial use of the land in and around world-renowned Utah landscapes and providing an opportunity for local elected leaders to gain a unique aerial perspective of the landscape. Surely an excellent use of a GA aircraft.

Two of the passengers also commented on the flight. Trisha Hedin, of the Grand County, County Commission, said, “This flight allowed me a large-scale overview of the landscape and those areas that might be impacted by future proposed lithium mining. It also allowed me to see the proximity of these explorations in correlation to other existing industries. The pilot and the plane were amazing!” The Western Water Gal has already posted her video on TikTok. Watch it below!

Watch the video produced by Western Water Gal!