southwings

there is an organization that someone from KFTC told me about, southwings . they have pilots that volunteer time and resources to fly groups and individuals over areas of... concern?
one of them being mountain top removal.
this is great, since coal companies can be very hostile about "their" land. and how else could i capture something of such magnitude on film, but from the air?
so i emailed them last week and anxiously awaited the operations assistants return from vacation/response. heres what i got...

"Thanks for your inquiry. SouthWings is a nonprofit organization supporting conservation efforts across the Southeast through providing access to the aerial perspective for educational purposes. Typically, flight requests must originate with a nonprofit organization. Our pilots are volunteers, and as such we have limited resources available. All requests we receive are reviewed by our flight review committee in order to determine which requests we are able to meet given available volunteer pilot resources. Expected outcome from the flight is the committee’s criteria. Given that our resources are limited, we are not often able to provide flights for documentaries.

Many regional airports have small planes for hire, so this may be an option to consider. Albatross Air out of Beckley, WV can provide you with a plane and pilot for about $130/hour. If you call around to regional airports near the sites you want to visit, there are often similar services available. We have coordinates on file for mine sites near Hazard, KY; Charleston, WV; and a few other areas in Appalachia. While it is unlikely that we could provide you with a flight, we would be happy to share coordinates of mine sites with you. KFTC may be able to help in that regard as well."

so. a little discouraging. so im going to mail the previously mentioned email out to a few groups, hope for some encouragement, and rack my brain for a proposal for southwings, that they cant refuse.