Walter engine proves itself to Detraz F/S

by Bill Lavender

ABBEVILLE, LA Ñ Jim Jeffries called, "Hey Bill, I know of an interesting ag operator in south Louisiana that you should make plans to visit." Jim, with his propeller balancing business Jeffries Airworks, has the opportunity to stop at numerous ag operations throughout the country. I like to think of him as my "bird dog", pointing out to me a likely story. It seemed this suggestion from Jim to visit Detraz Flying Service was going to be one of those good ones, especially when he told me about Big Mike's boiled crawfish!

As many know, I'm a sucker (no pun intended) for fresh crawfish. Detraz Flying Service, owned and operated by Mike Detraz, Jr., has its airstrip adjacent to his father's place where about a million pounds of crawfish are brokered every season. With my other pending duties in southern Louisiana, an overnight stay in Abbeville was inevitable, crawfish and all!

Mike Detraz, Jr. started his flying service straight out of ag school in 1992. He attended Harold Aviation in Bainbridge, Georgia at 17 years old and barely out of high school. For three years, he was recognized by the LAAA as the youngest ag operator in the state.

It was a tough way to get into the ag flying business, starting young and green. But, Mike had grown up on the farm and worked for an ag operator in the summers of his high school years, so he wasn't completely green. However, Detraz Flying Service has paid a heavy price for starting out with these challenging conditions

Mike's first year in business he bought an A-Model Ag Cat powered by an R-1340. He had lined up 2,100 acres of rice that would need a minimum of five applications during the season. Before the season was out, he crashed the Ag Cat, luckily with no injuries, other than to his pride. By Mike's own admission, pure inexperience was the reason for the crash.

In his second year, Mike added another A-Model R-1340 Ag Cat for a total of two, to accommodate his growing business. He hired a friend to fly it. The second Ag Cat started the season with a zero-time engine, ending abruptly with an engine failure with only 10 hours on the engine. Subsequently, Detraz Flying Service lost its second airplane in its second year in business.

By his fourth year, Mike's business had grown to operating three A-Model Ag Cats. Rice acreage was increasing, along with more sugar cane acreage needing his services. In the fifth year, Detraz Flying Service made the step from piston to turbine. Mike replaced two of the R-1340 powered Ag Cats with a Mills conversion PT6A-20 Ag Cat.

Liking the power and reliability of the turbine engine, Mike expanded his fleet to include a newly converted Tiger Pac Ag Cat powered with a Walter M601E engine. It was the year 2000. However, disaster struck in 2001 when Mike's pilot, flying the Mills Conversion, was killed when he flew into a tower, destroying the third Detraz Flying Service's Ag Cat within eight years of operation.

The first Tiger Pac Ag Cat had served Mike so well, that he replaced the Mills Conversion with another Walter powered Tiger Pac Ag Cat. The turbine powered Ag Cats can work from the 1800-foot sod strip without any problems, loaded, all day long. The Tiger Pac is capable of ferrying at a respectable airspeed of 130 mph. Turns are easy, ideal for working rice and sugar cane.

By now, Detraz Flying Service's accounts have grown from 2,100 acres of rice in 1992, to more than 13,000 acres with an additional 20,000 acres of sugar cane on the books in 2002. The Tiger Pac Ag Cats fly eleven months of the year, a combined total of 1,400 hours. The season begins with working rice in early March through July. By then, the sugar cane applications have started, with the season winding down spreading rye grass seed on 5,000 acres. However, the black cat was not through with the Tiger Pac Ag Cats of Detraz Flying Service. In the spring of this year, pilot Tommy Watson was landing on a narrow canal levee, when the left brake locked. Trying to keep the aircraft tracking straight was impossible without locking the right brake, preventing him from going into the canal. As if landing in slow motion, Tommy called-in to the base explaining his dilemma as the Walter powered Tiger Pac Ag Cat slowly went up on its nose.

Although the levee was relatively soft, causing minimum damage to the airframe of the Ag Cat, the Walter engine was running and the prop turning upon impact, a force strong enough to bend the propeller blades beyond repair and tear the bottom cowling completely off the aircraft. But, what about the Walter engine?

Jimmy LeBlanc, Mike's hired mechanic, dismantled the aircraft and it was trucked back to Darryl Riddell's in West Helena, Arkansas for repairs. Unlike what was expected, when Mike got the bill for the repairs, the engine portion was only $1,700! It seems, as in similar instances before with other Walter engines, the engine is very tolerable of a nose strike. Of course, there are limits, but in Mike's incident, the Walter engine supported the impact of the nose-over with minimal damage.

Most would agree, it is time for the black cat to jump off of the Detraz Flying Service's Ag Cats and find a home somewhere else. An education is expensive, whether it is bought from a school, or learned in the classroom of hard knocks. Even so, who can say Detraz Flying Service would not have had the same problems under any other circumstances, a string of bad luck that could happen to any ag operator, young or old.

However, Mike's luck has not all been bad. Lady luck stopped by when Mike married his wife, Angie, and again a few years later with the birth of their daughter, Jennah. According to Mike, these two ladies are more important than any Ag Cat he has ever owned!