Lighthawk’s Conservation Mission
LightHawk is an environmental non-profit deploying volunteer pilots to "accelerate conservation success through the powerful perspective of flight."
LightHawk teamed up with FracTracker Alliance’s Ted Auch and CAPE (Coastal Alliance to Protect our Environment) to arrange a flight down the Texas Gulf Coast to map the convergence of proposed industrial infrastructure with key wildlife refuges and environmental habitats. On a bright, crisp November 15, 2019, I picked up Ted in San Antonio, where he attached a GoPro to the tail of the Bonanza, and off we went.
We flew from San Antonio to Corpus’s McCampbell-Porter Field (KTFP), where we bought some gas from the awesome folks at Skye FBO. We met CAPE’s Dewey McGee and made a plan for the flight around Corpus Christi Bay and Aransas Bay.
Ted, Dewey and I about to load up for the tour of the greater Corpus Christi Bay area.
Flight track: Corpus Christi Bay
and Aransas Bay
Ted captured some amazing photos, both with his GoPro and his Nikon D5300.
Ted Auch wielding a long lens over Corpus Christi Bay.
Next we landed back at Porter-McCampbell, dropped Dewey off, and headed up the coastline for more photography.
Route from McCampbell Porter to Houston Southwest, through Houston’s VFR corridor.
Key Allegro, Rockport Texas. Photo courtesy of Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance.
We had a great adventure along the Texas gulf coast, took some great photos, and hopefully did some good.
P.S. In December 2020, Ted wrote up his thoughts about our flight, and asked me some good questions. An excerpt from Ted’s piece:
I reached out to pilot and native Houstonian Scott Humphries for his thoughts on what he expected and what he gleaned from our flight. He wrote the following:
Question #1: What about our proposed flight interested you as a Texan and/or Houstonian – or just more generally – what interested you about this mission?
I’ve always tried to be environmentally conscious, and always try to have, “think globally, act locally” rummaging around in my head, but this mission (and affiliating with LightHawk generally) presented an opportunity for me to try to (hopefully) have a little more impact than just personally recycling, outlawing Styrofoam cups at our office, etc. Separately, as a longtime Houstonian, I’ve always been proud to live and work in what many refer to as the “Energy Capital of the World.” This mission seemed a useful way to do some small part to help make sure that title continues to be held responsibly.
Question #2: After conducting the flights, or as they were happening, did you learn anything, or have any thoughts that surprised you or realizations about anything particular?
I have flown along the Gulf Coast (including to/from Houston/Corpus Christi) many, many times, and if you’d asked me before this mission, I would have said, ‘Sure, there’s a decent amount of industry along that part of the coast.’ What surprised me while we were flying was two things: (1) there’s not just a decent amount of industry along that part of the coast; rather, along that route, even flying low, you’re rarely – if ever – out of sight of a significant facility of some kind, and (2) the size of the facilities – in other circumstances I’d have been flying much higher and wouldn’t get a good sense of the size of the pads. Flying as we were at just over 1000′, it was striking how massive the various plants were, both in Corpus Christi Bay and along the coast.
You can find Ted’s full write-up for FracTracker here.
