Puppies make the final pit stop before wheels up at OXB!
Story from Chris Galuardi
No matter where I travel or live, I will always consider Ocean City Municipal Airport (KOXB) as my home airport and the other pilots and employees as my second family. Myself and my three children did all or part of their pilot training there.
It is there that I chanced upon a way to combine my love of flying with a lifelong love for animals. While chatting over a cup of coffee with a pilot from New York back in 2011, I was introduced to Pilots N Paws. He explained that he was there to pick up dogs from another pilot. A network of people work to save animals that are normally euthanized. It starts with the Fosters that get animals out of county animal control facilities before they are put down. They get them veterinary care and health certificates to move out of state. The Fosters also have networks of no-kill animal rescue groups to place the animals in permanent homes. Pilots N Paws is a nonprofit volunteer organization that operates a website to post notices for animals that need a ride. Pilots scan the ride board for flights they can do and post messages to other pilots that can help relay the animals to their destination. Most missions are a two pilot relay meeting at an intermediate airport.
My favorite trip is to pick up in Fayettville or Raleigh, North Carolina and return to KOXB to do the handoff to a plane going to New Jersey, New York or Connecticut. I usually fly on Saturday or Sunday and return to Ocean City in time to have breakfast before they stop making it at 1 PM. I can frequently be seen in front of the glass doors at the airport moving dogs from my transfer cages to the relay aircraft.
I signed up in March 2013 and since that time have moved 101 dogs and puppies, 4 kittens and 2 rabbits. I had to turn down flying Sea Turtles from Massachusetts to Georgia due to bad weather.
A side benefit of this volunteer activity is frequent IFR flying. I fly many approaches to minimums and usually get in 6 approaches in 6 months and do not have to put on the hood to stay current. I feel this has made me a safer pilot because I am never rusty at doing IFR approaches.
Many of the volunteers are VFR only and this is fine, they just have to be more flexible with scheduling and waiting for good weather.
Pilots N Paws is a registered nonprofit organization and they have forms on their website to document flight costs as a charitable contribution for tax purposes. They also have an annual fly-out in September or October. I have gone to 2 events, one in Georgia and one in South Carolina. These are usually held on Friday and Saturday and involve 50 to 80 planes moving 500 plus animals in one day. Subaru and Petmate are sponsors and provide catering and hotel rooms. There are presentations and plenty of comraderie. Some of the aircraft relayed all the way to Chicago but more typically to Virginia or New Jersey.
Many people ask what the dogs do in flight and usually they settle down and lay still as soon as the engine starts. I do have to carry Kleenex when the Fosters drop off the dogs because when I close the cargo door there are lots of tears! They will never see the dogs again but at least they have been rescued from death and are off to a better life!