Posted on 01/12/2012 8:22:15 PM PST by milwguy
Gov. Scott Walker's office put in a call to lend a hand. So did a couple of congressmen - as did former President Jimmy Carter.
What grabbed their attention wasn't high taxes, a congressional squabble or the latest flap in the presidential race.
It was the plight of a nine endangered whooping cranes stuck in northern Alabama.
The young cranes, raised in Wisconsin, have been grounded since well before Christmas after their handlers ran afoul of Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
The snafu was settled Monday when the FAA gave the group a one-time exemption that allows pilots to continue leading the cranes from their departure point at the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area in Wisconsin to refuges in Florida. For now, they are grounded by bad weather.
The annual trip, started in 2001 and financed with private donations, costs about $650,000, and is part of a multimillion-dollar effort to reintroduce whooping cranes to the eastern United States.
There are 103 of the cranes today in the eastern U.S., and many of them spend spring and summer in Wisconsin.
What brought the birds to a halt is that pilots of the type of light planes used to lead the cranes - specifically, sport pilot aircraft - are prohibited from flying commercially. Operation Migration pilots are paid for the work they do on the ground, but not while they were flying.
The FAA investigated the situation after a former pilot filed a complaint, and in late December, the group grounded operations until its lawyer could work out an agreement with the FAA.
All parties agree that the crane group needs to find a solution by next year, and it's not clear what it will be.
In the meantime, the cranes are being housed in top-netted pens until the weather improves.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
The people don't ask for any money from the gov't for the program, they go out and privately raise the $650 k or so a year it takes to run the program.
One pilot gets pissy because he was not hired this year to fly the birds south and complains. ANOTHER branch of the gov't the FAA, gets involved and shuts the flight down halfway to Florida.
Only in ObamaWorld would this be allowed to happen. Any person with a lick of common sense at the FAA would have IMMEDIATELY granted a waiver for not just this year, but for EVERY year. The ultralights are hired NOT TO CARRY PASSENGERS, but to mimic the lead bird in the flock, with the juvenile whoopers following behind.
If ever there were an example of why the federal gov't needs to be downsized, and federal regualtions slashed, this is it.
I could think of a perfect ad showing Barry standing in front of the ultralight holding his arm out to the pilot dressed in a bird costume, and asking if he has a permit to fly the plane south.
I read the reason for being grounded, but I don’t understand it. It it because the pilots are being paid, period ?
Everybody needs this individual's personal information ~ where he lives, his name, .... all of it.
F the FFA.
FFAA.
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/media/20060505%20Oklahoma%20EA%20FONSI%20FR.pdf ~ this was published about 6 years ago. It concerns Whooping Cranes that could fly or “be” near a site where loud noises are made and rockets are launched. The mitigation measures proposed by FAA to help the Whoopers migrate included SHUTTING DOWN THE ENTIRE INSTALLATION while those birds are around. ......................................... .............................. ................ thinking maybe they should apply that very same mitigation measure to FAA headquarters AND the field offices.
Seconded.
Stinking Future Farmers - who do they think they are, anyway?
FFA = Feral Federal Administrators.
EXACTLY...The FAA has a ‘regulation’ that prevents guys who fly these ultralights from getting paid for doing it. The reason is valid, they do not want people charging others to go on joy rides on these lawnmower engine powered contraptions, they probably are not the safest in the world to fly.
The regulation was NEVER intended to address this situation, where ONLY THE PILOT is on the plane, and the people are paying him to lead juvenile whoopers to their winter home so the migration route is properly imprinted in their memory. In the spring, they make their own way back and hopefully lay a couple eggs that they can successfully hatch.
thanks...the article says the pilots don’t get paid while flying but do get paid while doing ground work.
seems like a reasonable loophole, wrongly interpreted.
I detest the feds...
The FAA. Were not happy until you’re not happy!
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