Fayetteville pilot receives volunteer pilot award
Press Release – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2025
At the organization’s annual gathering this month, Fayetteville pilot Rolf Wallin was honored as the SouthWings “Rookie of the Year.”
SouthWings is a nonprofit organization that connects volunteer pilots with environmental initiatives that would benefit from a birds-eye-view. Wallin is one of 78 volunteer pilots stationed across the Southeastern US.
The SouthWings Rookie of the Year Award recognizes a volunteer pilot who has really hit the ground running in their first year of service as a SouthWings volunteer.
Wallin is certainly no rookie to flying. He earned his pilot certificate and 1995, but over the next 21 years, he would be busy with his medical practice. Recently, though, he has been able to devote much more time to flying, and he has accumulated over 1200 flying hours in the past 9 years.
Wallin is actually not technically a rookie to SouthWings anymore, but SouthWings has wanted to honor him with this award since shortly after he started volunteering with them. SouthWings’ distributes volunteer pilot awards at their semi-annual Fly-In, but the 2024 gathering had to be postponed due to impacts from Hurricane Helene.
Wallin joined SouthWings in the fall of 2022, and very soon after he started helping out with environmental monitoring flights. In his first year, he completed 26 flights, and in the years since has conducted a total of 70 flights, racking up 83+ flight hours with passengers. He has worked with SouthWings’ partners on a wide range of issues from wildlife and habitat conservation to sea level rise to monitoring all forms of water pollution. He has flown grassroots organizations, federal agency staff, journalists, filmmakers, university researchers and more.
Wallin frequently supports Sound Rivers, and other Waterkeeper organizations across the state. The aerial perspective is unmatched when trying to understand the connectedness of the landscape and impacts to our waterways. The aerial imagery gained on flights with Wallin help document pollution concerns, provide transparency to various industrial and development projects, and inspire advocates and decision makers.
“Rolf has been an absolute joy to work with. He is reliably available and excited to get us into the sky, very communicative, safe, and incredibly flexible. Rolf has picked me up at numerous airports to fly monitoring routes across the Neuse watershed, has expertly navigated complex shared airspace and complicated flight routes to ensure that we can get our eyes on our waterways. We are so lucky to have Rolf in our world!” said Sound Rivers’ Neuse Riverkeeper, Samantha Krop.
Wallin is one of the few pilots to complete Aviation Ambassador programs in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland--flying to and visiting all of each state’s public airports. He also volunteers with several other volunteer pilot organizations, regularly flying animal rescues with Pilots N Paws, and has flown animal transports for the NC Zoo to Disney World, Discovery Cove, Memphis Zoo and Toledo Zoo. He is also a pilot with Patient Air Lift Services (PALS) and STEM Flights.
Rolf and his wife Teri are passionate about nature and the environment. They live on 9 acres in Fayetteville and in addition to a conservation easement on some of the property, they have made multiple improvements to encourage habitats for multiple animals and birds. Several walking trails zigzag through the property so one can enjoy nature’s beauty and excitement.
“We are so grateful for all the support Rolf has offered SouthWings partners. These flights can make a huge difference to their work, and it is a resource many of our partners would not have access to otherwise,” said SouthWings Eastern Program Director, Laura Early. “His passion and enthusiasm for flying and creating a meaningful aviation experience is unmatched!”
SouthWings is a non-profit conservation organization that provides a network of volunteer pilots to advocate for the restoration and protection of ecosystems across the Southeast through flight. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, SouthWings operates in 16 states in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations to enhance the work of the conservation and environmental justice movements through aerial perspectives.
SouthWings partners with conservation groups, community groups, media, and decision-makers to provide a unique perspective to better understand and solve pressing environmental issues in the Southeast. All flights are free of charge to the flight partner thanks to the generosity of the volunteer pilots, granting foundations, and individual donors.
To learn more about SouthWings, visit www.southwings.org.
