Volunteer Pilot Flies for Eco Missions with SouthWings

From the flight levels to low-level missions, SouthWings pairs pilots with projects to help the environment.

Tuesday, March 08, 2022 at 12:22 PM ET

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Retired airline pilot Les Abend flew the SouthWings mission with SouthWings passengers Virginia Richard and chef Dana Honn in his Piper Arrow. [Courtesy: Les Abend]

Key Takeaways:

A retired airline pilot volunteers his aircraft and expertise for SouthWings, an advocacy group focused on environmental monitoring.
SouthWings utilizes qualified pilot volunteers to provide aerial views of industry and land development effects on the environment, primarily over bodies of water, for experts, government leaders, and media.
The author, motivated by a desire to "pay it forward" after his career, found SouthWings to be an ideal fit due to its impactful missions and the organization's strong respect for pilot discretion and safety.

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A glance at the Garmin GNS 430 display indicated that a westerly course change was about to be directed via GPSS to the S-Tec autopilot. I sat with arms folded in the left seat of my Piper Arrow, a content grin on my face even at our altitude of 1,500 feet. I continued my vigilance—or maybe paranoia—in scanning the earth below, considering potential emergency landing spots. A water landing was always a possibility; fortunately, it was relatively shallow here.

We were just underneath a broken stratus layer, dancing along a small section of the Louisiana coastline at the fringes of the Gulf of Mexico. How many times had I flown over this area in transit to Florida at FL 390 with nary a second thought about its significance?