LOCALadk Magazine

Flying Science By Ed McNeil "It's a daunting task," said Charlie. "How can we manage to take water samples from 520 lakes, over the period of two summers, during the short time period after spring runoff and before the fall rains?" That's when I revealed I was building the perfect airplane for the task. I'd have to make some changes to the initial design, as it was originally intended to land on wheels, but Charlie and I needed it to land on floats! We had to have quick, safe, quiet access to the massive number of lakes that cover the landscape of the Adirondacks, and we had to land on water to get the job done. And so began the building of what's called the AirCam. Four years later, Dr. Charles Canham and I started living in borrowed bedrooms and running our flight operations out of a remote hangar at Blue Mountain Center, situated on a lake just south of Blue Mountain Lake. We'd be up at 5:00 a.m. every morning before the wind picked up, to begin our three-hour mission collecting water samples from remote lakes. We often had the privilege of departing in morning fog, experiencing the Adirondacks at their very best. The early morning hour, just after sunrise, is often referred to as the "golden hour." It's when the sunlight, still at a very low angle in the sky, offers the most breathtaking views of the Adirondack Mountain landscape. Everyday in the afternoon, after our mission was completed, Charlie would do lab work: sorting and labeling samples, testing for algae and looking at tannins before shipping smaller sample bottles back to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies for analysis. The logistics and complications of building a highly specialized aircraft containing more than 14,000 rivets, by itself, is a monumental undertaking, and redesigning it to accommodate amphibious floats proved to be a genuine challenge and adventure in aeronautical engineering! But in the end, we accomplished our goal. We built an incredible airplane, able to land and take off from lakes in as little distance as 300 feet. If need be, we can extend wheels from the bottom of the floats and land on most any hard surface. For all of the aviation buffs out there, we also added reversing props and turbo charged engines to the design. The AirCam's improved design is so advanced and maneuverable that if we can land and stop on the water before reaching the far shore, we can easily take off. And, with the reversing props, the AirCam can actually back up when it's in the water, just like a car put into reverse. 52 LOCALadk Magazine Fall into Winter 2013 The plane became our magic carpet ride, and in three summers Charlie, who is a forest ecologist, has seen and sampled almost all of the Adirondack forests, bogs, wetlands, lakes and ponds. All of this collected knowledge is being cataloged and studied and is leading to some very good science in support of local conservation efforts. Charlie's research has been peer reviewed, published and may be partly responsible for the EPA's issuing regulations limiting the emissions of nitrogen oxides from coal-burning power plants in the future! The AirCam has also grown and evolved since our flight missions to collect water samples from Adirondack lakes. With new design features and specially made camera mounts, the AirCam has become a highly specialized, purposebuilt aerial photography and motion picture platform. The AirCam is such a stable and rock solid plane that the photos taken from it are second to none in quality, and we've begun work on a few exciting, new environmental projects in the Adirondacks. For now, the AirCam is sleeping soundly for winter, hibernating until spring in its hanger. Once the snow melts, we'll be back at work, flying and hoping to tell you more about our adventures in the skies over these beautiful mountains.

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