Pro-Services in Australia

by Bill Lavender

Part 3

EMERALD, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA — Somewhere between St. George and Emerald, a Jones Air Service pilot flew me in the company’s Cessna 210 to meet with host number three in this three-part series of my journey through eastern Australia. Within minutes of landing, a Piper PA-32-300 landed and from a distance looked like any other general aviation aircraft. Such was not the case. I had overheard Hedley Watt and Peter Jones discuss the buffle seed plane. Of course, I had never heard of such in my 30 years of aviation, but then, I was a Yankee from the States.

Hedley Watt, owner and chief pilot for Aero Professional Services, began ag spraying a couple of decades ago with a Fletcher in his homeland of New Zealand. Later, he worked for Emerald Aerial Treatment in Emerald, QLD Australia and Central Highlands Air Transport. During this time, he flew night freight. In May of 1997, Hedley bought Emerald Aerial Treatment and changed the name to Aero Professional Services. The company operates a fleet of ag-aircraft that includes three turbo Thrush, Two Air Tractor AT-301s and the infamous buffle plane for a total of six aircraft. Each of the Thrush are powered by different types of powerplants; a TPE-331-10 in a dual cockpit Thrush, a PT6A-34, also in a dual cockpit Thrush and a PT6A-15 Thrush. The AT-301s are powered by a TPE-331-2 conversions by Eastern Australia Airlines utilizing a 400-gallon hopper from an AT-402.

But, I digress. When I climbed on board the PA-32 to fly to Emerald, Hedley began apologizing for the interior condition of the aircraft. I told him never mind, I was used to all kinds of configurations of aircraft. However, this was a new one for me. All the seats, except the pilot and copilot’s, were removed. The interior’s carpet, headliner, side panels and anything else that would come out was stripped. In the floor of the aircraft, behind the pilot’s seat, was a hole about a foot wide and two feet long with an inverted scoop mounted on the outside. This is where the buffle seed “manager” opens up bags of seed and dumps them out the aircraft.

With the guidance of GPS, the buffle seed pilot spreads his load of seed over pastureland at the rate of one pound per acre. Buffle seed is applied by air to improve pastureland for grazing cattle. The buffle seed is light and burry, preventing it from flowing properly from a typical ag plane configuration. Besides, the Piper PA-32 works just fine and is much more cost effective. Also with the Piper, the Australian dingo can be controlled with the use of poisoned meat for bait. This can be an especially challenging “application” for the pilot and “meat manager”. It seems the dingo likes the meat best the more rotten it is. Imagine the smell in the aircraft!

Hedley Watt runs a diversified ag-flying operation. Aero Professional Services primarily treats cotton with its aircraft. However, the company has branched into other types of applications besides dingo baiting and buffle seed spreading, incorporating various application technologies to best suit the job at hand.

Hedley has been experimenting with the Spectrum Electrostatic System for two seasons. He has one customer that particularly likes the ES system. This customer has 19,000 acres of grain in eight fields! Of course not all of Hedley’s customers have such good flying, with the average farm in Emerald being about 500 acres with the average field being about 125 acres.
With the ES system, Hedley’s aircraft apply defoliants, broadleaf herbicides, and Roundup at one gallon per acre (10 liters/hectare). The TPE331-10 Thrush is used for the ES system.

The JARBA boom (see AAU November 2004 edition) is another form of advanced aerial spraying technology used by Hedley. Cotton is sprayed at three gallons per acre total volume (30 liters/ha) with the JARBA boom. “I like the ability to control droplet size while on the fly. The boom is good to use in sensitive areas where I can dial-up a big droplet or cutoff a section with only the flick of a switch. The boom has a good flow rate range. Also, the Farmscan Airlink controller allows variable rate applications and works well with wet applications with the JARBA boom, as well as dry applications.”

A private company provides Vigor imagery data and prescriptions from satellites that are incorporated into the JARBA spraying system with the FarmScan Airlink. The JARBA boom is outfitted to the AT-301, the TPE333-10 Thrush and the -34, but these aircraft can easily be retrofitted to either a Micronair rotary atomizer or CP nozzle boom system.
Other forms of Hedley’s diversification plan include strip seeding with Stylo seeds and Graslan herbicide applications. These applications require specialized equipment that adds tach time to the aircraft in the off-season.

Stylo seeding makes up about 200 hours of flying in a given year. An average day can mean ten tons being applied with ten loads. Typically, it takes about an hour to fly-on a load of Stylo seed. Load time is not a critical element in the process, since the aircraft needs refueling during this time and the pilot can take a short break before leaving again for another long hour.
Stylo seeding is applied in 150-foot wide strips, often over 10,000-acre pasture blocks, for cattle fodder. The seed is applied in alternating strips. It quickly responds to rainfall, germinating much faster than typical grass seed or cover crop grains. The Stylo allows for a quick grazing crop while pasture grasses become established.

Graslan, a clay-based pellet, is used to control woody brush re-growth. It helps keep cleared land from reverting back to a woody undergrowth state. An application rate of Graslan at 10 pounds per acre (10 kilograms/ha) is good for about seven to eight years. Aero Professional Services is the only Graslan contractor in all of Australia. The product is used only in the state of Queensland.

However, at Professional Aero Services, cotton is king. It is the primary crop sprayed by the company, even with its multiple diversifications. Cotton is flood irrigated throughout the Emerald farming area. In some fields, a perforated trickle tape, buried under the row one meter apart, irrigates cotton. This is an expensive way to irrigate, but it also one of the most efficient ways, preserving precious water resources in an area that has been drought-stricken for the last four years or more.

When I left Aero Professional Services airstrip, Hedley was planning on adding a hangar, rebuilding the office space and adding wireless computer communications to the shop, enabling the shop at one end of the airstrip to be able to communicate with the office on the other end. I’ve since had an email from Hedley saying all is going to plan. I do not doubt it at all. Hedley Watt runs a tip-top operation using diversification and advanced ag-aviation technology to keep his business profitable and successful.