John Bassi

In the previous article, I drove home the chaos and stress that one faces during routine bush operations. Fortunately, not the norm, but every so often a Light Sport Aircraft goes down into the bush, into unsuitable landing sites. The fact that the crews walk away is testimony to the safe construction as well as the skill of the pilots.  

“Romeo Kilo Papa do you copy?” Lying under the sparse shade of a Shepherd tree on the top of a hill, the sudden radio call jolted us back to reality. The three of us leapt back into action.

Riaan had taken off from the small dirt strip over an hour ago, into the post-sunrise Karoo air, making the most of the calm conditions. The luxury of effortlessly flying in windless skies would not last.

My crew, made up of a veterinarian, an ecologist and a reserve bio technician, had given Riaan and his trusty observer a head start, allowing them to fly into the general work area and begin their search. We followed thirty minutes later wanting to be closer and in a position with good radio communication for a fast reaction time, should he find the desired rhino.

Rhino monitoring, management, dehorning and DNA profiling is a crucial component in our human attempt to keep the species from extinction. This is an extremely costly exercise and is reliant nowadays  on public and corporate donations, since our leaders are too busy lining their pockets to give a hoot about conservation.

African conservation is firmly in the hands of donors and there is never enough money to satisfy the demands.

Enter the invaluable Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) and skilled pilots who operate them in unforgiving conditions. This type of flying is not for the weekend pilot.

The technology available in modern LSAs has made them perfect, and yet economical observation platforms, which have become irreplaceable in wildlife monitoring. Every day somewhere in remote and usually inhospitable game reserves scattered around Africa, there will be any number of pilots flying accurate transects, or orbiting over terrain with no safe landing sites. All for the love of conservation.

The attractive cost of new aircraft, the availability of back-up and service and most importantly the safety record narrows down the most popular among the observation platforms.

All have one thing in common. Great visibility, a high wing and short field take-off and landing capability. In Zimbabwe and many parks in Africa, the Savannah is popular, the Bantam/Bathawk, the A22 Foxbat and the Bushcat/Cheetah seem to dominate these operations.

In response to the call to my JetRanger, Romeo Kilo Papa, I ran to the helicopter, turned on the Master switch and avionics and responded to Riaan’s call knowing I would have strength five communication from the aircraft quality Garmin radios.

“Standing by Riaan”

“We have Angela and her calf visual, moving slowly south. We are two kilometres west of the north eastern corner”

“Copied Riaan, we on our way, will call you inbound.”

My crew, who were well versed in these operations were already climbing into the helicopter and strapping in. The vet was busy making up his dart with the exact dose of etorphine for the two-year-old calf. Our objective was to annually, or in many cases, six monthly, find specific cow/ calf combinations.

In order to maintain an exact data base with every rhino, knowing each animal’s genetic history, parentage and DNA, we had to find and immobilise calves before they broke away from their mothers. This usually occurs around two years of age.

Meanwhile, Riaan and his observer were maintaining a tight orbit at 500 feet, not daring to take their eyes off the exact spot where they had seen the rhino. This type of flying may sound glorious, but I assure you it is not. Try sitting in a little two seat aircraft for five to six hours a day, eyes outside all the time with only an occasional, quick instrument scan. Quick because if you take your eyes away from the bush for only a moment, your focus is disturbed. For all the hard hours searching, in that one moment, you may miss the bum of a rhino as it vanishes into a bush.

After hours of flying transects, the Bathawk crew see a rhino. Now the pilot must maintain  an unbroken visual on the animal from his blind side, since he must position the animal into the perfect spot for the observer. The observer needs to be a tough flyer, withstanding hours of orbiting in heat, wind and turbulence, eyes always on the ground and very often through the lens of a camera. Orbiting, often in  turbulent air, while looking through a camera viewfinder, can make even the toughest stomachs heave.

The observers we work with are amazing. They know every single animal by name, even remembering their history. This knowledge comes from many, many hours of sitting cramped up and circling over rhino. Each animal has a unique ear notch number, also, many are predictable as to their location in the bush since they are fairly territorial.

Riaan maintains the orbit, positioning the rhino at the ideal angle for the observer to take multiple photographs with a digital camera. Once done, it’s up to the pilot to fly and not lose sight of the animal while the observer scrolls through the photographs to identify the adult by looking at the ear notches. These are tiny (2.5 to 3 cm) V shaped notches cut in a very specific order out of both ears. The position of the notch on the ear and the particular ear notched, provides a code number, identifying the exact animal from her profile sheet. You can imagine the fun, tension and banter between the pilot and observer, both trying to do the near impossible in turbulent conditions, hour after hour.

Inbound to the approximate location of the LSA, we are all scanning the sky. The vet sees the aircraft first, at our 2 o’clock, circling a couple of hundred feet above our level.

“Riaan, do you copy, I have you visual, we are 1 minute out” I call.

“Copied, they were relaxed but have heard you coming and the cow is starting to move slowly east, under my right wing, QNH 1020, I’m maintaining three five” he replies.

I slow-down in anticipation for finding the animal and maintain a two hundred foot separation.

“Got you visual John, they are under my right wing tip, moving east”

I descend to 250 feet and we are all scanning frantically for the rhino, not wanting to make them run longer than necessary.

“I have a visual, thanks Riaan. We going down to check them. Please keep visual in case they split up” I reply.

The LSA pilot’s job is far from over. He has to stay above us while we work, while I descend to within 15 metres of the now galloping cow, to verify she is the correct animal and to ensure the calf is not already notched. This procedure will often spook the panicking rhino and the two animals will split away from each other. It is therefore vital that the LSA maintains an orbit above us, keeping a visual on the break away rhino. On occasion we need to shoot a biopsy dart into the mother, which is a drop out dart that will capture a rod of flesh inside its needle. The dart often bounces out immediately, tumbling through the air from the impact and momentum. I need to focus on the dart and where it ends up, usually between bushes, log a GPS co-ordinate and then find a place to land as close as possible to retrieve the dart. Obviously while all this is happening, we are completely reliant on the LSA, to not lose the rhino and be able to talk me in again for the darting.

As soon as I am comfortable with the operation, have the calf visual and am happy that we can proceed with the darting without any risk to the rhino, I let the LSA pilot know that he can continue searching for the next candidate.

We have the luxury to land, shut down and spend twenty minutes on the ground while the LSA continues his search.

Once we have completed the notching and profiling, woken the calf and made certain it has fully recovered from the immobilisation, we have the luxury of landing back in a quiet spot, drinking coffee in the shade of a tree, while the LSA crew, fly and search, circle and transect, on and on, until they spot another candidate.

As if this is not stressful enough, often the LSA crew find multiple cow/calf combinations that require capture. This requires that they just keep circling and not taking their eyes off all the animals at the same time until we have completed the operation. The weather is never ideal which is okay for me in the JetRanger, but I certainly don’t envy the crew in the LSA.

Success is teamwork.