LightHawk CEO Jim Becker helps Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff unload a wolf crate during operations to transport endangered gray wolves to Colorado for release. Photo by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
A Wolf Transport Mission – The Pilot’s Perspective
Mission Planning
The mission was to transport 15 gray wolves from British Columbia, Canada to Colorado to assist Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) in fulfilling their mandate to bring 30 to 50 wolves into Colorado to reestablish a wolf presence in the State. British Columbia has more than 10,000 wolves so they were happy to cooperate.
Brooke George, LightHawk Wildlife Program Manager, ran the operation for LightHawk and recruited longtime Volunteer Pilot, Jack, to provide the airlift capability with his Pilatus PC12 operating out of Prince George, British Columbia (YXS). The wolf capture teams operated out of Mackenzie Airport (YZY) a single runway airport about 55.30N. They chased each wolf from a helicopter, dropped a net over it and then landed and tranquilized the wolf. The original plan was to have the PC12 fly from Prince George to Mackenzie to pick up the wolves and then head south to Colorado. It was quickly realized that that short pick-up flight added considerable risk to the mission. Approach minimums at YZY were 600’ and it sits on a large river that generates a lot of morning fog. That idea was dropped and the five wolves in their crates were driven the 90 miles from Mackenzie to Prince George the morning of the transport flights.
Jack has flown his PC12 all around the world, literally, and came prepared for a serious cold weather scenario as the temperature at YXS had dropped to -40 degrees F the previous January. There was no hanger space available, so Jack brought low wattage heaters, wing covers, an engine blanket and a small deice kit. He also consulted with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pilots who fly PC12s out of Prince George. The FBO, Bid Air, had start carts and could arrange for the de-ice boom truck. After all that, except for the first day, the temperature was above freezing the whole time.
Bringing the wolves into the U.S. requires clearing both U.S. Customs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Initially Eagle County (KEGE) was chosen as both those functions were available and Eagle was convenient to where CPW wished to release the wolves. KEGE is more than a 1,000 NM from YXS so even at the roughly 250kts cruise of the PC12 the flight legs were 4+ hours headed southbound and five hours headed north, into the winds. With the short days, only one flight per day was practical and with five wolves per trip, this mission would take at least six days. Jim Becker, LightHawk CEO, was enlisted as load master and copilot to fly with Jack. With all the variables; wolves, weather, aircraft, pilots, international boundaries and distance, this was one of the most complex missions LightHawk has ever undertaken.
The Flights
On Friday, Jan 10, it was a 9 hour flight to Prince George, with a stop in Ft Collins, Colorado to pick up empty crates. CPW had captured three wolves by late Friday so the first transport flight was postponed a day. Saturday CPW captured two more wolves so, on Sunday at 7 a.m., Jack and Jim started getting the PC12 ready. There had been a heavy frost that night and the temperature was still slightly below freezing. They took the wing covers off and the wings were clean but within 10 minutes the frost had reformed. Jack called for the deicing truck. At 7:45 a.m., the CPW crew arrived with the five wolves in crates and started loading. The five crates took up every inch of cabin space and the wolf handler had to crawl over the crates to get into their seat. After deicing, the flight headed south. Jack’s preflight planning said FL270 was optimal. The weather was spectacularly clear with a smooth ride to Eagle and incredible scenery over the Rockies. The approach into Eagle is quite interesting with high terrain in all quadrants, but the Eagle weather was CAVU so it was not a problem. After clearing in, the wolves were unloaded and CPW took them to their new homes. Monday, it was a five-hour flight back to YXS battling headwinds the whole way.
Tuesday morning, Jack and Jim loaded the next five wolves and departed. There was a bit of IMC on the way up to FL290 with some moderate icing but the PC12 easily handled it. The team decided not to go back to Eagle but the next closest airport that had both U.S. Customs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was Denver International (KDEN), a very busy Class B airport. With its parallel runways, east and west sides and multiple towers, it’s a busy approach. The weather was clear and with turboprop speeds the PC12 fit right in. They cleared at KDEN and then hopped over to Grand Junction, CO to offload the wolves and spend the night before another five-hour flight back to YXS on Wednesday.
For the last transport flight, Jack decided to clear Customs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife at Great Falls, MT due to their availability at the airport and the fact that fuel was half the price it was at the busy Colorado airports. After unloading the wolves at Grand Junction and spending the night there, Jack headed home and picked up a 150kt tailwind headed south. A small reward for a mission well executed.
For LightHawk pilots looking to get involved in similar missions, Jack has simple advice, “Be flexible. Wildlife doesn’t work on a set schedule, and neither do these flights. But if you can adapt, the work you do is incredibly important.
Jack’s new nickname, “Wolf Man Jack” is firmly recorded in LightHawk’s records.
Five crates with endangered gray wolves are loaded into the aircraft for transport. The flights were conducted with passenger seats removed in order to make room for the crates. Photo by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The paws of one of the wolves during pre-flight health checks. Photo by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
One of the wolves looks back after being released into the wild. Photo by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The plane stands ready for the next round of transports. Photo by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.