Flying with otter twins in a twin otter

Hi all

A nice spring day and I am excited to be going up in NOAA’s Twin Otter Airplane! I have only been up in an airliner before and you kind of forget you are up in the air. The twin otter airplane is smaller and more manourverable - I hope I won't get travel sick.

The airplane is used by researchers and by law enforcement to look at what is happening in the Sanctuary. Sanctuary partners can also do surveys of their properties. Today’s mission was to work with California State Park Rangers down in San Simeon, California. You can just see my green shirt among the group flying today

Our NOAA Corp pilots Brad and Ron have special training to fly airplanes for NOAA as well as helping on NOAA’s fleet of ships. What an exciting job!

Imagine my surprise when I met the Twin Otter’s mascots…a pair of twin otters!

They stay with the plane and the pilots, they have a lot of flying time over the sanctuaries here in the west coast of the US. They gave me a tour of the cockpit and shared some of their adventures.

It was a fun day and I’m really excited to have been able to fly. Everything looked so much smaller from up in the air. I only get to do it once as a visitor, or I would have to take special “dunk” training in a giant pool!
Thank's Brad and Ron and take care of those otters, they are such fun guys.

Bye for now, Ed