African Conservation Project to be Assisted by Cessna Skylane

On foot, J. Michael Fay crossed more than 2,000 miles to document stretches of African wilderness the world had never seen before. He helped establish 13 national parks in the Gabon region of Africa, preserving many species found nowhere else in the world.

To begin his next research and conservation endeavors, Fay will take delivery of a new Cessna Skylane 182T 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, at Cessna Aircraft Company, Wichita, Kan.

“The aircraft will range over Central Africa and enable conservationist pilots to zero in on and identify individual species and human settlements,” Fay said. “We can count roads and rivers accessible by people, electrical power infrastructure and irrigation systems. It will create access in some of the most remote – and most beautiful – areas on the planet.”

The airplane is not only needed to research the terrain, it will help conservationists track roving animals.

“All the wild dog and lion radio telemetry is done in a Cessna 182,” Fay said. “Following animals over roadless and mountainous terrain can only be done in an airplane. An airplane for conservation projects in East and Central Africa, is what a boat is to a marine program.”

The Wildlife Conservation Society chose the Cessna 182 because Cessnas can endure the stress of the African environment.

“Cessnas are durable, comparatively easy to fly, and can land on short, unpaved runways,” Fay said. “Beyond that, they are mechanically strong, and maintenance is simpler than on other makes. Bush airplanes are subject to damage from dust, rocks and animals. They are almost never hangared, so the heat is always an issue. Cessnas persevere, and are known as the workhorses of Africa. Many of the Cessnas used by conservationists have been in service for decades.”

The high-set wing configuration also makes them ideal for aerial surveys.

“Cessna employees appreciate knowing many airplanes they build help with important missions, like the conservation efforts Dr. Fay directs,” said Phil Michel, vice president of marketing.

Based on unit sales, Cessna is the world’s largest manufacturer of general aviation aircraft. In 2004, Cessna delivered more than 900 aircraft and reported revenues of about $2.5 billion. Since the company was originally established in 1927, more than 180,000 Cessna airplanes have been delivered to nearly every country in the world. The global fleet of more than 4,000 Citations is the largest fleet of business jets in the world. More information about Cessna Aircraft Company is available at www.cessna.com. Cessna Aircraft Company is a subsidiary of Textron Inc., a $10 billion, multi-industry company with 44,000 employees in 40 countries.

Biography of J. Michael Fay

J. Michael Fay, 48, is an ecologist at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society of New York and a Conservation Fellow at the National Geographic Society. He has spent his life as a naturalist — he roamed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Maine woods as a boy, traveled through wilderness in Alaska and Central America in college, and has spent the past 15 years in the central African forest.

Fay received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1978 from the University of Arizona. He then spent six years in the Peace Corps as a botanist in national parks in Tunisia, and then worked in the savannas of the Central African Republic. In 1984, he went to work at the Missouri Botanical Garden. A floristic study of a mountain range on Sudan’s western border eventually led to a Ph.D. on the western lowland gorillas. It was at this time he first entered the forests of central Africa.

Fay’s doctoral work was curtailed several times while he surveyed large forest blocks and worked to create the Dzanga-Sangha and Nouabale-Ndoki parks in the Central African Republic and Congo – parks he later managed. Fay’s published works throughout the last 20 years have covered a wide range of field research subjects, from exotic orchids to lowland gorillas to forest elephants.

In 1996, Fay flew a small airplane low over the forests of Congo and Gabon and observed a vast, intact forest corridor that spanned the two countries, from the Oubangui River to the Atlantic Ocean. From October 1999 through December 2000 he walked the entire corridor — more than 2,000 miles — systematically surveying trees, wildlife and human impacts on uninhabited forest areas.

Photographer Nick Nichol’s coverage of Fay’s walk was published in National Geographic magazine, and soon  inspired President Omar Bongo of Gabon to create 13 national parks in his country comprising some 11,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) of land.

Returning to Africa in 2004, Fay conducted his Africa MegaFlyover, assessing the impact of the human footprint on the continent through aerial surveys conducted from a Cessna he piloted.