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Bees on airfields

My partner is just getting started with bee keeping, so I will let her know. We will have some at home, and I don’t doubt there could be some hosted at EGTN too.

EGLM & EGTN

Dear all,

The “bees on airfields” project is still alive even though the confinement is impacting the operations quite a bit. So far 5 airfields have joined and there are a couple more who were initially interested but haven’t moved forward yet.

We set up some of the hives already and LFCQ is temporarily hosting 16 swarms until we can resume the flights.

The only problem so far are the 30 swarms that we planned to pick up at LJBL and bring to the Toulouse area (either LFCQ or LFCL) before dispatching them. The trusty Aztec is hangared at LFBR and the airfield is NOTAM’d closed to non-sanitary or state flights. We applied for an authorization and it was denied. Taxiing on the public road to a nearby, still-opened airport is not an option :-)

Before I jump in the truck and drive 14 hours to LJBL – is there a crazy member here interested in flying the bees out of LJBL ? They are in properly enclosed boxes, no problem there.

Not sure you can drive there either, you would be stopped by French police for not having a good reason to move around.

Good luck finding a cargo pilot

LFOU, France

Well on one hand the government is limiting the movements, on the other hand they push companies that can operate “safely” to do so. I’m sure that “transporting livestock” can fall within the set of authorized activities (and actually there is an exception for private beekeepers as well).

But yes, the probability of a member owning a private Beluga and stepping up is quite low, I know :)

Hi,

Will it fit onto a PC-12 ?

Romain

LFPT Pontoise, LFPB

Hi Romain,

Yes, it’s a little more than 4m3 of cargo. It actually would have fit in the aztec (I have the rear bench removed to load from the baggage door). Weight-wise these are polystyrene & cardboard boxes, not wooden boxes. You know an outfit with a PC-12 in cargo configuration? That would be awesome!

Usually, as on the ones I flew, the last row have quick remove seat literally take 20 seconds to remove.
Row 1,2 and 3 are more difficult but can be done in 30-40 minutes.
It won’t be a cheap option might be better to wait your airfield to be reopen…

LFPT Pontoise, LFPB

Thanks Romain. Yes let’s try to not break the bank too much on this project, I’m a bit ahead of myself already and I just lost all my contracts due to my inability to travel.

So the decision was made this morning to keep the swarms in Lesce, to split them onsite and to wait until June to move them to the participating airfields. On the plus side, there will be 60 colonies instead of 30. Lots of beekeeping fun ahead :-)

Last Edited by wleferrand at 21 Apr 11:21

There is a lot of PC12 traffic over France, I think. Same as the UK actually.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I’m sure but when you take a hard look at it, that trip to get the bees is non-essential. In the worst-case scenario they swarm and I loose a few grands. From a biodiversity perspective, I’m not even sure that it would be a bad thing. So taking the chance of upsetting half of the DGAC personnel to get a flight permit or moving the virus around is not really worth it.

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