There is something mesmerizing about the sapphire blue eyes of a Siberian Husky, and these 3 pups I flew to safety on June 4th are a reminder animal overpopulation means any dog can end up in a kill shelter, regardless of breed. These beautiful puppies were saved by the Husky Rescue Network and needed to be moved from South Carolina to New Jersey where they’ll have a better chance of being adopted. Their Mum was supposed to come along for the ride but got skittish at the shelter … so the decision was made to leave her in the good hands of a foster and place her on ground transport the following week.

South Carolina to New Jersey is a long distance in our small planes so we often split a transport like this into multiple legs which I fondly call … the gravy train. The first pilot picked up the dogs in SC and met me in NC. Co-pilot Andy Cotten and I flew from NC to MD where later that day the dogs were transferred to a third pilot who flew to NJ. These relays take as much coordination between pilots as the rescue groups! We had to scrub weekend plans due to weather, but thanks to Oracle + NetSuite’s Volunteer Day Off (VDO) program, I was able to help on Monday to complete the trip.

The transport also provided some new flight experiences. Our destination was Waldorf, MD inside the SFRA (Special Flight Rules Area), a ring of airspace extending 60 miles out from Washington, DC. Waldorf is just 17 miles from the Capital, and in order to access the airport one must file a special VFR SFRA Flight Plan and cross through “virtual gates in the sky” located 30 miles out. Based on our routing, our flight had us cross through the “Gruby Gate.” Ten miles from Gruby Air Traffic Control advised us to contact Quantico Arrival who assigned us a special transponder squawk code which allowed them to uniquely identify our aircraft on radar. One cannot cross the gate until you hear the phrase “transponder observed” … which is an acknowledgement ATC knows who you are, what you are, and where you are going. The same routine takes place when departing.

-Rick Gutlon, PNP Pilot